Siomay (also somai) () is an Indonesian steamed fish

dumpling Dumplings are a broad class of dishes that consist of pieces of cooked dough (made from a variety of starchy sources), often wrapped around a filling. The dough can be based on bread, wheat or other flours, or potatoes, and it may be filled wi ...

with vegetables served in

peanut sauce Peanut sauce, satay sauce (saté sauce), ''bumbu kacang'', ''sambal kacang'', or ''pecel'' is an Indonesian cuisine, Indonesian sauce made from ground roasted or fried peanuts, widely used in Indonesian cuisine and many other dishes throughout t ...

. It is derived from the Chinese

shumai ''Shumai'' ( zh, s=烧卖, t=燒賣, p=shāomài, cy=sīu-máai, poj=sio-māi) is a type of traditional Chinese dumpling made of ground pork. In Cantonese cuisine, it is usually served as a dim sum snack. In addition to accompanying the Chin ...

. It is considered a light meal, similar to the Chinese

dim sum Dim sum () is a large range of small Chinese dishes that are traditionally enjoyed in restaurants for brunch. Most modern dim sum dishes are commonly associated with Cantonese cuisine, although dim sum dishes also exist in other Chinese cu ...

. It is traditionally made from pork but is frequently substituted with ''tenggiri'' (

Spanish mackerel Scomberomorini is a tribe of ray-finned, saltwater, bony fishes that is commonly known as Spanish mackerels, seerfishes, or seer fish. This tribe is a subset of the mackerel family (Scombridae), which it shares with four sister tribes, the tu ...

), as many Indonesians observe the ''

halal ''Halal'' (; ) is an Arabic word that translates to in English. Although the term ''halal'' is often associated with Islamic dietary laws, particularly meat that is slaughtered according to Islamic guidelines, it also governs ethical practices ...

'' dietary law. Sometimes other types of seafood such as

tuna A tuna (: tunas or tuna) is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae ( mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bul ...

mackerel Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly from the family Scombridae. They are found in both temperate and tropical seas, mostly living along the coast or offshore in the oceanic environment. ...

, and

prawn Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton An exoskeleton () . is a skeleton that is on the exterior of an animal in the form of hardened integument, which both supports the body's shape and protects the intern ...

or poultry such as

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

also can be used to make siomay. Other complements to siomay include steamed

cabbage Cabbage, comprising several cultivars of '' Brassica oleracea'', is a leafy green, red (purple), or white (pale green) biennial plant grown as an annual vegetable crop for its dense-leaved heads. It is descended from the wild cabbage ( ''B.& ...

potatoes The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

bitter gourd ''Momordica charantia'' (commonly called bitter melon, cerassee, goya, bitter apple, bitter gourd, bitter squash, balsam-pear, karela, karavila and many more names listed below) is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, w ...

boiled egg Boiled eggs are typically from a chicken, and are cooked with their shells unbroken, usually by immersion in boiling water. Hard-boiled or hard-cooked eggs are cooked so that the egg white and egg yolk both solidify, while soft-boiled eggs may l ...

, and

tofu or bean curd is a food prepared by Coagulation (milk), coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness: ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', and ''extra (or super) firm''. It originated in Chin ...

. Siomay is often cut into bite-size pieces and topped with

, sweet soy sauce, chili sauce, and a dash of lime juice.

Origin and varieties

Siomay is ubiquitous in Indonesian cities; it is one of the most popular snacks or light meals in Indonesia. It can be found in street-side food stalls, travelling carts, bicycle vendors, and restaurants, and is considered a popular school meal for Indonesian students. Just like '' bakso,

lumpia ''Lumpia'' are various types of spring rolls commonly found in Indonesian cuisine, Indonesian and Filipino cuisine, Filipino cuisines. Lumpia are made of thin paper-like or crêpe-like pastry skin called "lumpia wrapper" enveloping savory or ...

'', and ''

pempek ''Pempek'', ''mpek-mpek'' and also known as colloquially as ''empek-empek'' is a savoury Indonesian cuisine, Indonesian fishcake delicacy, made of Fish as food, fish and tapioca, from Palembang, South Sumatera, Indonesia. Pempek is served with a ...

'', siomay was influenced by Chinese Indonesian cuisine. However, Chinese Indonesian siomay is rarely served with peanut sauce; it is instead served with a sweet-sour and spicy chili sauce in its place, or with no sauce at all, resembling authentic Chinese ''shumai''. Siomay has long been incorporated into

Indonesian cuisine Indonesian cuisine is a collection of various regional culinary traditions by various ethnic groups that formed in the archipelagic nation of Indonesia. There are a wide variety of recipes and cuisines in part because Indonesia is composed ...

, the most famous iteration of the dish being

Bandung Bandung is the capital city of the West Java province of Indonesia. Located on the island of Java, the city is the List of Indonesian cities by population, fourth-most populous city and fourth largest city in Indonesia after Jakarta, Surabay ...

-style siomay (''siomay Bandung''). It has been adapted into local

Sundanese cuisine Sundanese cuisine (; ) is the cuisine of the Sundanese people of West Java, Western Java, and Banten, Indonesia. It is one of the most popular foods in Indonesia. Sundanese food is characterised by its freshness; the famous lalab eaten with sa ...

, where most siomay sellers today are Sundanese. It has similarly been adapted into the '' batagor'', short for ''bakso tahu goreng'', another variety of the dish also from Bandung; it is similar to siomay, except that it is fried instead of steamed.Nasution, Pepy (31 December 2010)
"Batagor , Indonesia Eats , Authentic Online Indonesian Food Recipes"
. ''indonesiaeats.com''. Retrieved 22 December 2017. File:Panci siomay.jpg, Varieties of steamed siomay: tofu, potato, cabbage, bitter gourd, and egg File:Siomay.jpeg, Sliced siomay poured with

File:Gerobak siomay.jpeg, Siomay and batagor cart Siomay Bandung.jpg, Siomay mixed with '' batagor'' as served in a foodstall near

train station

References

External links

Siomay Bandung recipe

Siomai recipe
Sundanese cuisine Indonesian Chinese cuisine Steamed foods Street food in Indonesia {{Indonesia-cuisine-stub

Origin and varieties

See also

References

External links