TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Dozens of small food stalls made of wood and metal sheeting roof stand in rows along the coast of Natsepa Beach. The food stalls are exactly alike, including the red banners printed with the name of the stall owners who all are women. These are the food stands that sell the famous Natsepa fruit rujak (fruit salad with spicy sweet-spicy sauce).
Differently from condition is Java island, where rujak vendors are easy to be found among the street food vendors, it is only sold in certain places in Ambon. According to Lili Maatita, a rujak vendor who has been running her business for 20 years, fruit rujak can only be found in three places in the city: Natsepa beach, Amsterdam Fort and Horseshoe Beach.
The ingredients of this fruit-salad like dish is not much different from its kind found in other places. But compared to regular rujak, Natsepa fruit rujak comes with massive-scale spicy peanut sauce.
“We use lots of peanuts,” said Mama Lili -- as Lili usually called.
Mama Lili put two hands full of peanuts into the stone mortar. The peanuts were then pestled together with a big chunk of palm sugar. Mama Lili said that the sugar have to be the ones from Makassar since Ambon’s sugar melts too soon. She then added salt, chili, and terasi (a kind of paste made of dried seafood) originating from Namlea, one of terasi producers in Ambon.
Then, she put one ingredient that distinguish Natsepa spicy fruit salad with the others. She shredded nutmeg into the mortar and pestled it together with other ingredients. The vendors would usually also add lobi-lobi and tomi-tomi fruits into the salad but Mama Lili was out of those fruits. She gave added slices of star fruits instead.
“We can also use tamarind, just use the whole fruit and don’t mix it with water,” Mama Lili explained.
Not mixing the sauce with water is another key that makes Ambon fruit salad dofferent from the others. Therefore, the sauce is thick and preserved for longer. Many people like to buy only the sauce to bring home or as a gift.
The paste has real special flavor, especially for the fans of peanuts. It is sweet with coarse-grained peanuts. You don’t have to worry about having stain on your clothes since its is so thick that it would not drop by accident. The rujak was served on a plastic plate while the paste was put on top of the fruit slices. It is usually eaten with coconut ice.
The stalls open starting from 10:00 to 22:00 local time.
“It is getting crowded usually around 1 o’clock until afternoon on after-work hour,” said Mama Lili.
KARTIKA CANDRA
