VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Banyuwangi, East Java has a variety of delicious local culinary delights. One of them is Nasi Tempong or also known as Sego Tempong. The Nasi Tempong menu consists of rice, boiled vegetables and various side dishes. Boiled vegetables include spinach, kenikir, genjer, cabbage, long beans, mustard greens, lettuce, cassava leaves and basil leaves. The choice of side dishes can be chicken, empal fried meat dish, offal, fried tempeh, fried tofu, various seafood and eggs. Rice with a variety of boiled vegetables and side dishes is enjoyed with raw chili sauce.

The specialty of this local culinary dish is its unique chili sauce, because it is specially formulated and uses special ingredients, namely Ranti tomatoes. Ranti tomatoes are a type of tomato that has a bumpy surface with more seeds than normal tomatoes. When these tomatoes are used, the tomato seeds are usually cleaned, only the skin and flesh are used.

The skin and flesh of the Ranti tomatoes are then mashed with cayenne pepper, salt, sugar and shrimp paste. Then add lime juice. This raw chili sauce tastes very spicy. The spicy taste is immediately felt when the chili sauce hits the tongue. The fresh taste of Ranti chilies and tomatoes is also felt. Because it is so spicy, people who enjoy this chili sauce with rice, vegetables and side dishes feel like they have been slapped. For this reason, the name of this local culinary dish is Nasi Tempong. In the language of the Osing tribe, a native tribe of Banyuwangi, tempong means slap.

Initially, Sego Tempong was a provision brought by the people of Banyuwangi to the rice fields. Nasi Tempong is also often served as a culinary dish at recitation and thanksgiving events. Finding this food is not difficult, because almost all food stalls in Banyuwangi provide Sego Tempong. This culinary delight is sold from morning to evening. The price is around Rp. 10,000 per portion. However, if there are other additional side dishes such as tofu, tempeh, fried catfish, chicken, duck, squid, fish and others, there will be additional prices starting from IDR 5,000 to IDR 45,000.