Kelah Celok – The Baweanese “National” dish

Celok Tongkol dish

''Kelah Celok'' is an authentic Baweanese dish. ''Kelah'' is the Baweanese word for dish and ''Celok'' means sour. There are two types of Kelah Celok ; fish and vegetable.

Celok Bechok dish

The fish “Kelah Celok’’ is the dish in which big fish such as Tuna, Red Snapper, or Humphead Wrasse (Bechok) is sliced thinly and cook in a boiling pot filled with water, tamarind juice, salt, blended fresh red chili, green chili, garlic, turmeric, onion, shrimp paste (belacan) and few corriander seeds (ketumbar).

Humphead Wrasse (Bechok)

Smaller fish such as Gold banded Scad (Selar Kuning), Herring (Tamban), or Indian Mackerel (Kembong) is the substitute for the big fish. However, in cooking the smaller fish, usually fresh sliced pineapple is added into the boiling pot. During preparation of the cooked dish for dining, few stalk of small fresh chilies (chili padi) are added into the bowl. Lime juice is squeeze on to the dish to make it tastier. The dish is to be served steamy hot with white rice .

Herring (Tamban)

The other type of ‘’Kelah Celok” is prepared using vegetable such as long beans or ladies fingers. When cooking long beans in ‘’Kelah Celok’’, the beans are cut into smaller pieces and added into a boiling pot filled with water, tamarind juice, salt, sugar, blended fresh red chili, onion, shrimp paste and few corriander seeds. Eaten with white rice, this dish goes well with fried fish such as sliced Tuna or Kembong. Sambal belacan with cucumber make the meal appealing.

Celok Bendi dish

Sambal belacan is grilled belacan pounded with fresh red chili and sugar. Usually it is prepared to be eaten with cucumber. Sometimes it is prepared with mashed hardboiled eggs and shreaded green sour mango to add more flavors to the meal. The Baweanese from my Pondok called this side dish as ''Pencek-pencek''.

Celok Otok dish

It has been quite awhile since I last ate rice with ''Kelah Celok Otok'' ('Otok' is the Baweanese word for long beans) with fried tuna fish and ''Pencek-pencek''. I hope my mum will prepare them during my next visit to her home! Endek, Endek, Endek....nyaman Ongku!