Cilok
Indonesian tapioca balls snack from West Java
Cilok (Aksara Sunda: ᮎᮤᮜᮧᮊ᮪) is an Indonesian ball-shaped dumpling made from aci (tapioca starch), a Sundanese snack originated from Indonesia. In Sundanese, cilok is an abbreviation of aci dicolok or "poked tapioca", since the tapioca balls are poked with lidi skewers made from the midrib of the coconut palm frond.
The size of cilok balls may vary, but it is similar to another Indonesian favourite bakso meatballs, or usually smaller. Cilok balls are boiled until cooked or deep fried in ample of cooking oil, and might be served with peanut sauce, kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), sambal, bottled chili sauce, or served in soup. The texture of cilok is quite chewy, and its shape and texture are quite similar to Japanese dango, although almost all of cilok variants are savoury compared to sweet dango.
Cilok is a popular street snack, usually sold by travelling vendors using carts or bicycles frequenting residential areas, marketplace, busy street-side, or stationed in front of schools. The chewy tapioca balls with savoury peanut sauce are popular snack among Indonesians.
01Types and variants
Basic or common cilok are usually tapioca balls skewered and served in peanut sauce. However, there are a number of variants of additions, fillings and sauces that depend on the creativity of the cooks. An example is cilok filled with quail eggs and served in ebi dried shrimp sauce. The many different varieties of cilok are usually named after the various additional ingredients and seasonings served with them. Types and variants among others are:
- Cilok biasa
- Common simple cilok sold by street vendors. Usually plain tapioca balls (without fillings) skewered and served in peanut sauce, sweet soy sauce, and sambal chili sauce, placed inside a plastic pouch.
- Cilok daging
- Meat cilok with the addition of minced beef into tapioca dough, almost similar to beef bakso meatball.
- Cilok kuah
- Refer to cilok served in broth soup in similar fashion as bakso meatballs.
- Cilok goang
- Similar to cilok kuah; served in broth soup, but cilok goang is far more hot and spicy due to generous addition of sambal goang chili sauce.
- Cilok goreng
- Deep-fried skewered cilok served with powder seasoning or hot peanut sauce.
- Cilok isi ayam
- Cilok filled with seasoned chicken meat.
- Cimol
- Derived from Sundanese abbreviation aci di-gemol (round-shaped aci), with gemol being a Sundanese word meaning "make into a rounded shape". The preparation method for cimol involves deep frying the tapioca balls and then sprinkled with chili powder.
- Cilor
- Also derived from Sundanese abbreviation aci telor (aci with fried egg), which is skewered aci balls deep fried with egg batter coatings. Usually cilor are seasoned with powdered flavorings, sambal chili sauce or sweet soy sauce.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Cilok”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Cilok kukus.jpg by Wiwik P, CC BY-SA 4.0
Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.
