I Found The Spiciest Food In Jakarta, Indonesia 🇮🇩! Death By Spice, Will I Survive?

Welcome to Jakarta. Today I'm going to hunt for the spiciest food in Indonesia. And we're starting off here at a strip that has nasi kapau. And I'm excited. Let's go. Oh, this strip looks amazing. This is what I love about Southeast Asia. Endless food. Wow, everything is spicy. Hello, hello. Look, there's bamboo. Here, here. We're gonna keep going. We're gonna keep going. Let's see what we got here. That's lemang? And this is a dessert or a sweet? Padang minas. Everything looks so good. So what are we doing? So we're gonna keep following my boy Ari. Let's go, let's go. Let's go. Everything looks so good. And what language is this? So it's duck with curry. With green chili. And then we will have some... Everything looks fantastic here. So we got squid, chicken, fish, shrimp. And this one all types of curry of kapau. Like from the cow intestine. That's cow intestines right there. Minang food is very specific area. Like if you are in one area, you use a lot of ingredients surrounded in that area. One of the area is the kapau. You know, so all the lakes surrounded that area in Minangkabau. One of the lake is produced this kind of fish. The tiny fish called ikan bilis. Salty dried fish. Super crunchy. From the lake. This one is from the lake. Still a little salty. This looks good though. That's the lungs? It's like dried lungs? And this is eel? So what are we trying? This one? Duck? Bulu tembusu. Super crunchy. I don't know man. This looks amazing. These? The big stingy beans? Spicy. You think it's spicy? You think it's very spicy this one? What is that? Wow. So how do we start this Ari? Yeah, this is nasi kapau. Usually sometimes we eat it like they put all the side dishes already on the side of the rice. But now they present it like this as a side dish. So you can choose. This is the crispy bilis fish from the lake. Crispy balut. The eel from the lake also with the red chili. And this is the veggie. So it's cabbage. You got beef. You got some green leaves. This is from cassava leaves. And then bebek cabai ijo. The duck with the green chili. And then this is also very specific to kapau is we call it gulai tembusu. It's like the intestine of a cow. And they fill it with the mixture of egg. Some musk. So some gravy. Green chilies, sambal ijo. Oh wow. And this is your favorite. The stinky beans. Look at these stinky beans. Yeah they're super super dense. Very similar to like liver and kidney. Yes. And this one is ikan bilis from the lake. It's crispy. Very nice. Not too salty. Yeah you can eat the whole thing. Yeah. That's why I got the small fish. You don't have to take it apart. Eat it all. And we have some bowls. Some bowls. We're gonna eat with hands? This is how we wash our hands? Yes. Sometimes you put a little bit of sauce. Curry sauce. Some veggies. So it's a mix of veggies. This reminds me of like South Thai dishes. How it is in South Thailand. They're actually related because Southern Thailand is not too far from Western Sumatra. Some of the dishes are almost similar. Is that beef? That's beef. Ah you should try the beef rendang. Oh this one looks amazing. This is the one that's like six hours. That's correct. Slow cooking. Okay let's dig in. Hands? Hands of course. All the time. Let's go. Still super hot the rice. So I'm gonna get in here. Break up the stinky bean. Looks like this. The art of cooking with hands is just take enough bite. Not too much. Small bite like this. And then you compress like this with the hand with the fingers. Push it with your thumb. Long finger and thumb inside the mouth. Just in the edge of the lip. Yeah. So we were talking about this earlier. You know some people in India they'll get the whole hand. I learned bottom three fingers and then thumb is what you use. It's like the vessel in like this. Oh man that beef. Beef is outstanding. That's actually the first thing I tried when I landed in Indonesia. Taso brought me a little bit of this. Rendang. Not the spiciest food. So maybe this is not the spiciest food in Indonesia. Small. Not yet. Spicy but it's okay spicy. No I'm getting some spice. Yeah. They use a lot of chili but usually the milder kind of chili. Not the hottest hottest one. So it's typical Sumatra? Yes. I love tomato. Red chili. And right here we have intestines. It's very specific of Kapau village. How was it for me? Organs? Intestines? That's great. Juicy. Someone crave it? It's like bouncy food. We tried another Kapau favorites. Duck? Bebek cabai ijo. With green chili sauce. So break this up. You can see even though bebek sometimes is too tough. This one is not. This is quite soft. Yeah break it up like this. For this one I feel like you just gotta grab it. Oh my gosh. I've never had flavors like this. Somebody said this is the spiciest food. Or Sumatra has the spiciest food. That's wrong because you said the K. And do they eat this like all day long? This food? This could be breakfast. It could be dinner. Yeah just steamed. Very green. It's a nice palate cleanser. It cuts it off. So green though. It's the healthiest thing we got. These are the best. New stinky bean? Like massive beans. It's like a vegan liver. Vegan liver. Vegan liver right here. A lot of food. And what do they speak in this area? In Sumatra they speak a language called Baso Minang. Baso Minang. Baso is Bahasa. Bahasa means language right? Minang is the ethnic, the big ethnic group. Like this one, Belut is in Bahasa Indonesia. The Minang people call it Balui. Balui? Balui. You said Belut? Belut. Okay because in the Philippines they have an egg called Belut. This one is Belut in our national language. But Minang language is Balui. And for the stinky beans, the Minang language is Jariang. And the Indonesian one, Jengkol. Sometimes only one word difference. Like this one, Daging. It's a beef right? Daging is Bahasa, not Indonesian for beef. The Minang people call it Daging. Daging. Wow. So it is spicy. I'm starting to melt. Of course we're outside. You got the cars right there. The heat. The experience. This is really why I love Southeast Asia. This type of experience. Oh man this is amazing. And this is how we end the meal. Cleaning our hands. Give it a good rinse. So it's slowly done. You're telling me every dish. Worth it. Crazy. 700 official languages. Get lost in translation guys. I need to pour this on my head man. I need to like. He's giving us a little bag. Let's go. Still on the hunt for the spiciest food. We might get on a motorcycle at some point. Now. Now? Yes. Let's do it. With go? Grab. Am I ready? Yeah dude I love this. This is my favorite thing to do. I've done it a million times in India. There no helmet. Here they give you a helmet. Let's go. Careful with these fans. Look at these fans. Lamang. So what is this? What is she making here? This one is a specific snack from Minangkabau area called Lamang tapai. There's two components. Lamang is the sticky rice grilled inside the bamboo. Wrapped in banana leaves. And we have also the tapai components. It's a fermented sweet sticky rice. Black sticky rice. So you pair the two. You dip the real sticky rice into the fermented sticky rice. Both are sticky rice but very different texture. Very different taste. My man so how do we do it? This is Lamang tapai. You take a bit piece of Lamang. Just uh. Super sticky. Unwrap the Lamang. So take off the wrapping. Great. So how we eat usually with the tiny plate there. Can you hold it for me? And then. Some of this? Like that. So that's the rice. You will surprise how the Katan. I mean it looks amazing. Looks super sweet. Try it with spoon. No hand. Spoon. Just like quarter or half. Cut a little piece. Slightly alcoholic. It's nice. Fermented and sweet. And also nutty sticky. It's amazing. It's also served in the safe like special occasion. Like the Eid al-Fitr. The Ramadan to celebrate something happen in the village. So Ramadan as well? Ramadan wedding. Yeah I feel like this is the way you break your fast in Ramadan. The sweetness. The sugar. One of my favorite snacks to break. So is there coconut in here as well? A little bit in the real sticky rice. Yeah. I'll have another. It's so good. Sticky rice. I gotta say this is one of my favorite sweets ever man. Sticky coconut rice. And that feels like it almost feels like cranberry. Three and a half. Wow. The only other sticky rice I ever had that's this good is in Thailand. Fantastic dish. My top dessert. So we're using some of the local apps. Like the local Uber. It's in generally Southeast Asia, Thailand, Vietnam. Same here in Indonesia. And we're booking is like I mean it's literally very close. You can see all the bikes. There's so many. Like you book it on the spot in like five minutes. It's there and he sent me a message. What did he say? I'm going there now. Okay I'm coming. You just reply. Okay. I said okay boss. Okay boss. And it's literally like it's very easy you know. Whenever you're in a hotel you install this app. Okay so maybe you're the same driver. No different driver. Less than one dollar. It's almost I think it's like around 50 cents probably if I'm not mistaken. That's incredible. 67 cents for a ride. Yes. It's awesome. And if it takes you like further it's like 130 or something. This is why all the digital nomads live out here. Yes obviously very affordable if you're a foreigner right. But yeah these guys like you'll see now because they go so fast. They don't give a damn you know. I'm ready. They go fast. How far is your driver? Uh he's like uh where is it? Yeah driver is nearby. Mine is uh I think it's closer. Yeah almost here. Is it my guy? Helmet of course. Okay. I don't have a mask though. It's okay. Okay careful. Let's do this. See you there. Okay. Tussle's ready. This is an experience guys. Let's rock and roll. Amazing dude. I used to ride so I'm always good. Once you get on a motorcycle and you remember like a bike super easy of course. I've never used to be on the back but it's all good. That was close. That car was like right up on us. So many people. So many bikes. So much street food. So much beautiful culture. God I love this country. Very tight. Arrived? Perfect. Oppa yeah. Fast no? Thank you. Very good. Fast. The most efficient way and fast way to get around Jakarta for sure. Where's the place we're going? This is the place? Yeah. So there's West Javanese and they have many different types of sambal which is spice. Let's go. Okay so you can have this all the side dishes. Maybe you want to try other fish the freshwater fish. So the fish. Carp. The carp. Maybe that's they have some tofu. They have cucumber. They have some sotai. There's duck egg. Squid. So we're here to try the sambal. The spice. Spiciest right? This is the spiciest? This might be the spiciest food? Maybe. This is what? Stomach. Yeah this is easier. This is gonna be a lot easier to eat this piece. Maybe I think some sotai right? That's liver. Chicken liver. I don't know. I don't want to eat too much. We're here to try spice. Pepes. This one. It's like a steamed protein. Like fish. Pepes. Pepes tofu with a lot of spice. Try the mushroom one. And this is the banana leaf. Pepes mushroom. I think that's good for me. So what is he gonna do with it? He's taking it? Oh so he's gonna heat it up? So he's gonna refry it. This place smells good. Smells like heat. Pedas. Wow that looks fire. Look at this. Fish. You have some different greens. Bean sprouts. That looks amazing. This is carp with the pindang ikan. Pindang ikan. This is the ikan. Ikan means fish. Fresh water. West Japanese and Sundanese they love their fresh water fish. So they're more about the fresh water? Yeah. So we're going to the back? Yeah. Spicy. So it's the tomato paste with chili. So as you said before, many different types of sambal here. This is the second one we're trying. We have the carp. We have the, what is this one? Liver and dessert of chicken. I think it's chicken liver. Chicken liver and dessert. And this is, this is called pepes. A few different styles. Chicken, can be fish, can be mushroom. This one is mushroom I think. Mushroom. White mushroom and also tofu. Mushroom with all the spices and they steam it. This is specialty of West Jaffa and some part of Central and East Jaffa. And then so why do we have all these leaves on the side? Oh the Sundanese they love their fresh veggies. So fresh veggies. Eating rice with chili. It's always paired with fresh veggies like this. Smells great. And then just dip into the chili. This one we call it. Oh wow. Popohan leaf. Popohan. Kind of wild beetle leaf. Wild beetle leaf. It's amazing. And you have the lemon basil as well. And the salad leaf. I've had something like this in Mexico. Especially on this, like on this they crush it. So it's tomato. Bokahete. Bokahete salsa. Salsa, exactly. Sundanese salsa. Spicy Indonesian salsa. So this is West Jaffa. So it's about like, you know, I don't know, an hour west from here. Hour, hour to hours, yeah. Hour to hours. East of here. And so do I grab like this? That's a mushroom. Mushroom, pepes. I love this. Super fresh leaf. Get with the salsa. If you compare West Jaffa sambal and West Sumatra sambal that we had earlier. Kapau. Which one is the hotter one? This one or that one? That one. Still that one. Not too hot. So we haven't find the spiciest in the country yet, yeah? Not yet. To finish all the good food here. Try this with the tomato sambal. Tomato sambal. Going light with the greens. It's beautiful. It's also nice. Nice. This is better. This is better because it's freshly made. They call it sambal dadak. Dadak means sudden. Sambal is sambal. Sudden sambal. You want to just dip this in here? Oh, I love this salsa. Yeah, this is a Sundanese molcajete. Molcajete? Yeah. It's not too spicy but it's the aroma and the freshness. That was too chewy for me. This one? Yeah. Try it with the carp, fried carp. Oh, you know what? The heat just hit me. It's spicy, bro. It's spicy. We are in the hunt for the spiciest food in Indonesia. So carp? Yeah, so it's easy. So what you do is where the spine is, you just go on top. Get that meat. Just like that. And then this, I'll wrap it in leaf. Beautiful. And sambal. And then sambal. The carp fresh is so fresh. It's sweet. So fresh. Contrast. Yeah. Love the beef with it. Yeah. Not too crispy. Not overdone. No, I like the crispiness of the skin. The skin is crispy. Inside is moist and nicely cooked. I mean, the meat's very buttery. Wow. So this is the protein of choice for the Sundanese people. It's fish from the pond, from the river, all the freshwater fish. I'm feeling it. Oh, I need a break. It's hot. I feel it going through my nostril. In my eyes. In Sundanese, the language already changed. It's only two hours from Jakarta. But for pedas, we say in Sundanese, ladak. Ladak. Oh my gosh. I'll have some more of this just alone. Kill that heat. We still have one more spot, right? Yeah, one more spot or two more spots. After, until we find the spiciest food. God, you're gonna kill me today. He really wants to kill me. What's your favorite? Mushroom or fish? Fish. Fish? Me too. This one, fish is the best. I love the crispy skins, but also the moist flesh, the moist meat. You're talking about spicy. Yeah, spicy. Hit you later because they use a lot of cengek or caberawit. I mean, you can see it. When you see, when you see seeds, you know it's spice. Yes. Get rid of the seeds and you'll be fine. A lot of capsaicin. This tour, searching for the spiciest. It's tough. If you're not a spicy guy, spicy girl, it's gonna be hard for you. It's like really brutal. My lips are tingling. I know I'll feel it later in the bathroom. I might not be able to sleep tonight. Spiciest food I ever had in my life was in Bhutan. But that was because of emadatsi, which is basically chili, cheese chili. Chili cheese, chili cheese. Bhutan, spicy, bro. Bhutan, I was in the bathroom at three in the morning every night, man. I was dying, dying. And then the next day, I woke up and did it again. You're not doing the spicy tour with me, bro. Are you ready for the spices, though? I think so. That's the question. The next one's the spiciest. Uh-oh. In Bandung, we'll see it when they grind. And we'll see it in Bandung? That's a lot of ice. Like I had so much ice. I hope he goes fast. He doesn't have a lot of time. It's gonna melt. Good. Where's tassels? Because there's like a pole. Oh, there's a pole? Yeah. I thought you were staying, bro. Yeah? No, I'm going. I'm going. I'm going with you. Traffic everywhere, huh? It's only a five-minute drive and we're here. And this is Mia Kaklang Manado. Let's go in. This is the spiciest food we're gonna have the whole trip. It could be. Could be, could be. Makanapadas. What does it mean, Hasan? Gathering. It's like chitchat gathering. Bakumpul, bakarlota, bakunya. Bakunya means eating. Right here is perfect, bro. That's it. Yeah, yeah. Food is good. What we got? Rice, one rice. One rice. I don't, I can't have too much rice. So Ari's telling me that the food here is from the K-Island. It's a north. Sulawesi. That's the name of the island. And it's east of Borneo. Right, correct. And this part is the northernmost province of Sulawesi. Sulawesi Utara, where they house the Minahasan people. Minahasan. Minahasan people, they are well known for their love of chili, seafood, all this kind of cooking that actually mixing chili and from the jungle. So he was saying because the food is very gamey, they need to add some spice to like make it some more flavor. Eat some gamey meats from the jungle. There's a lot of dishes here. Ikan means fish. So you have a lot of fish. A lot of fish. What's makanan? Makanan is the food. Just food, yeah. So fish in north Sulawesi, the uniqueness is they will eat fish from the sea and also from the fresh water. It's amazing. Amazing. And then chicken and pork, but also they have vegetables. And I order stir-fried papaya leaves with the flowers. So it's bitter, but very addictive. Very addictive. And the good thing is this is a proper restaurant. So if you have a bathroom problem, there's a good bathroom here. I have a three-hour drive to this. Eat all the chili you want. We have the proper bathroom. God, you're gonna kill me. All right, so here's our food. This is the papaya leaves and flowers. That looks so beautiful. So vibrant, colorful. This is dabu-dabu sambal. That's like almost like a salsa. So they chop everything. Dabu-dabu sambal. This is like the mackerel in Rijasor. That looks spicy. Spicy mackerel. And this is beef, correct? No, this is ikan cakalan. Ikan cakalan. Cakalan is also a type of mackerel, but it's bigger. So it's shredded. It's shredded, yeah. It's like shredded cakalan fish. It's beautiful. They said this is the spiciest dish in this restaurant, they said. Is this it? No, then we have one soup. Look at this food. This is a Masakar Menado or Minahasan cuisine from the North Sulawesi. And I usually start with this clear soup called kuah asam. Kuah asam. Sour broth. Always use fish or seafood. For this type, it's the kuah asam goropa, the grouper fish. Nice. And then some tomatoes. All herbs here, they call it rampa-rampa campur. It's like lemon basil, pandan leaf. You can see the aroma. You can smell the aroma. Yeah, you smell the lemon. Yeah. All the freshness of the broth and the taste of the broth came from the fresh fish. We have a saying that the fish in this part of Indonesia only die once. The fish in Jakarta die like three or four times. Meaning they have to be put in the ice and blah and blah. The fish there, you catch it in the morning by the fisherman. By the noon, you eat it already. So only die once. Only die once. Three minutes fresh. Yes. Enjoy kuah asam. Kuah asam. Kuah broth and asam is sour broth. I love grouper. Super meaty fish. This is one of my favorite fishes to have in Miami. You got to be careful. There's a few bones. Yeah, only a few. Only a few. Sip the broth. Sip on the broth. Oh, that lime. The freshness, the sweet, sweet from the sugar, from the fresh of the grouper. Bones. Oh man. The meat. It's not bones. I hate bones. No, that's why I barely eat fish. Too many bones. Some chili in there. So every dish in this cuisine is spicy. This is just like mildly spicy. And after this, we will test whether this is the spiciest food in Indonesia or not. Because it's like this one. Yeah. Trio of sambal. All the fish dishes are with sambal. So let's dig in. Let's dig in. Yeah. So spiciest dish is right here. Spicy fish, shredded. Corn fritters. Stir-fried papaya leaves and flower. That looks amazing. That's amazing. And we have the... Yeah, I get some for you. You can see all the flowers. That looks beautiful. These are the types of salads I like. There's a lot of top ginger. Also the shredded fish. And then you can use all the chili. So I just grab one of these chilies. Then I'm gonna go with this one. It looks spicy. Yeah, try it. Which one is spiciest, do you think? But I gotta mix it. Try it one by one. One by one, like tying? Yeah. Move to the first tomato one. Spicy chili paste. Oh, that's like super spicy. That's super spicy. And this one? So this is spicy too? Supposed to be. Oh yeah. You can see all the chili here. Wow, chili throughout the whole thing. Yeah. See right there. Try this one. This one. That red one? Yeah. Thank you, bro. Yeah. So I think we're on the right path to see, to look for the spiciest meals or spiciest food in Indonesia. Try it with this fish. With this guy? Yeah. All right. I'm gonna pour some here. We call this Cakalang Rabe. Cakalang Rabe. Cakalang is the name of the fish. It's like a mackerel. Rabe is like the name of the dish. Cakalang Rabe. We eat with my hand, okay? Oh, you eat with my hand too? Yeah. Bone. For me, it's just the fish and the salsa. So fish and salsa? Fish and salsa. Okay. Let's get in there. Oh, the fish is amazing. Nice and fresh. I like how it's shredded. You can feel chilies throughout the whole thing. No bones? No bones. You gotta mix it with some of that rice. It's gonna be a tough one. Salsa is very refreshing. Green tomatoes, shallot, chili, and some, maybe some salt and pepper. And the taste of green tomato is very nice. Does everybody eat like this on a daily basis? There, yeah. There, yeah? Yeah. They just like the sweat? Yes. Dabu-dabu, the sliced salsa, it's like every day they need to make a dabu-dabu. In the Minasan also. Here, also in the mainland, in the homeland. See, I didn't think that was too spicy. I think this one was spicier. Yeah, I think so. This right here? I'm gonna mix it right there. Mackerel, break it up. Get some of the greens. Nice freshness. This is the best part about eating like this with your hands. Just mix everything together. Make a nice little mountain. And then, I mean, it's spicy. I don't know what the spicy is because earlier today I had some spicy food while I was melting. Also, we're under air conditioning. That helps. Yeah, you have to try this one. The last one, yeah. This is like Spanish mackerel, Ikan Tudeh. Ikan Tudeh? The name of the restaurant. This is the name of the restaurant. This is Ikan Tudeh. Ikan Tudeh. This restaurant, Ikan Tudeh. And they cook it with Rica Rica. Goreng, fried, and then Rica Rica Sambal. Pedas, yeah? I'm boiling, guys. You need this. It's like lemonade. So this guy next? Yeah, Ikan Tudeh Rica. Look at that. Look at that chili paste on top. I can see even from the oil, you can already... Let's break it up like this. Taste the spiciness. Yeah, I don't know how they eat like this every day. Straight up, this is insane. I'll tell you, after 11 days in Indonesia, I'm gonna have a stomach of steel. No, it's good. Not so spicy. Spiciest thing is this paste. Yeah. No spice, we don't eat it, right? No spice, no life. No, that's Mark's slogan, by the way. My pet might eat my cream. That's a tie. My pet, no spicy, my king. No eat. That's a t-shirt. Yeah, yeah, it's a t-shirt. My pet, my king. My king. No spicy, no eat. I'm gonna stop eating spice, so I'm gonna try this corn fritter. It's like a corn pakora. You had it already? This is how I cool down if I eat in a sambudu. No spice in here. Nice and doughy. All the oil. Light, light in oil, full of corn. The batter, dude, is amazing. You have a lot of fritters in Indonesia. I didn't know there were so many. We love our gorengan. Gorengan? That's fritters. Hot sauce? David's been here? Corn fritters. Corn fritters? We had to, right? It's like not hot at all when compared to this. This is a fritter, it's perfect. Yeah, this fritter is perfect. It's like eating with bar food.