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Gluten-Free Tuesday: Palm Sugar
The universe of palm sugar is not well understood by many in the culinary world -- that it can be made from the sap of at least four types of palms, that the method of collecting (and the point in the stage of the flower at which it's collected -- some references incorrectly describe the liquid boiled down to make palm sugar as the tree's sap) varies by palm, that the flavor of the sugar is affected by the type of palm, terroir, and processing (processing is also what most determines the texture). Most Southeast Asian countries that are big palm sugar producers (Indo, Thailand, Malaysia) produce sugars from several types of palm. As an aside, what many Filipinos refer to as local 'palm sugar' isn't; it's made from cane.
Get Over It: There's a Penis Restaurant in China
Thank you. Breaking news: in Asia (and probably elsewhere) they eat nether parts. So .
Sago Palm: The Tree of Life is Full of Carbs and Fat
Thanks for the pub Robyn! The fried worms were pretty tasty - honest. Bet if you closed your eyes and I put one in your mouth you'd be all, like, 'mmmmmmm....salty fat' ;-)
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Great to see Malaysian food gettting the spotlight.
But - the palm sugar you've got pictured is Vietnamese. Malaysians on the peninsula use gula Malaca or coconut palm sugar, which is darker and softer. Malaysians in Sarawak and Sabah more often use gula apong, which is made from the nipa palm. And a very small number of peninsular Malaysians use gula anau, which is made from the aren palm.
(Alluding to R Danhi's comment, gula jawa is a simply a generic Indonesian name for palm sugar -- 'javanese sugar' -- and may or may not be coconut sugar.)
A better substitute for palm sugar than brown sugar would be a mixture of brown sugar and maple sugar, or muscovado sugar. Brown sugar lacks palm sugar's richness and complexity. (You can mail order gula Malaca in the US).
Belacan isn't the most pungent ingredient in Malaysian cookery -- there's also budu (similar to Thai blpaa raa), which is a super fermented fish sauce used by Malays. It's manufactured on the peninsula's east coast). It's probably not available in the U.S. but bplaa raa is (sold in jars as guramy fish in Thai stores) and is a good substitute.
Regarding kecap manis - R Danhi mentions black soy, which is used more often in *Chinese* Malaysian cookery. But Malays rely more often on kecap manis, most prominently as a sambal with nothing more than chopped bird chilies, shallots, and perhaps chopped cilantro added.