Dabu-dabu – the Indonesian "salsa"

I did a little investigating and found several recipes for dabu-dabu. It seems that like any popular dish, there are as many recipes as there are cooks, but the basics remain the same: tomatoes, chilies, lime juice and oil. Common variations include using shallots in place of green onions and the addition of fresh basil. No matter how you make it, be sure to give it a day or more to "ferment" before using. Otherwise it will taste quite "rough".

Ingredients

Preparation Method

• Mix all the ingredients together.
• Store in the refrigerator for at least one day before using.

A large pile of tomatoes on sale in the market.

Thai tomatoes come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Smaller fruits are generally preferred, with perhaps the most common resembling the plum tomatoes favored by Italians as well. These will be added whole to green papaya salad, or sometimes quartered and tossed into fried rice.

A stall in Bangkok’s Pak Klong market selling several types of tomatoes

Tomatoes are rich in vitamins and also a good source of key antioxidants. The University of California at Davis in the United States recently rated the tomato as the single most important fruit or vegetable of western diets, in terms of the vitamins and minerals delivered.

Tomatoes also have a high content of glutamate, a naturally occurring compound that provides the "G" in MSG, a seasoning that has gotten a rather bad name. It is glutamate that makes foods taste good. Other foods high in natural glutamate are cheese, fish and mushrooms.