Shallot ( Allium ascolonicum )

Shallots grown in Southeast Asia have a purplish skin which encloses a delicately flavoured interior. They grow in clusters, similar to the much larger brown-skinned European shallot.

Their aromatic flavour makes them an important addition to many seasoning pastes. Rempah in Malaysia and bumbu in Indonesia, for example, use shallots along with other herbs, roots or rhizomes and dried spices.
Shallots are preferred to onions not only for their better flavour but because they contain less moisture.
Spice pastes can thus be fried rather than stewed in oil at the beginning of cooking, a subtle, but important detail.

Shallots are also treated as a seasoning in pickles and salads throughout the region, their mild flavour making them perfectly palatable and easily digestible while sill raw.

Slices of deep-fried shallots are one of the most widely used garnishes in Malay and Indonesian cooking, and are sold pre-cooked in plastic bags in markets.

Botanical Family : Lillaceae
Thai name : Horm lek, horm daeng
Malaysian name : Bawang merah
Indonesian name : Bawang merah
Tagalog name : Sibuyas tagalog

source : Hutton, Wendy; (1997); Tropical Herbs & Spices of Indonesia; Periplus Editions

Salam Leaf ( Syzygium Polyantha )

This large, dark green leaf is a very popular herb in Indonesia, and although the tree
( a member of the cassia family ), will grow in other parts of Southeast Asia, only
Indonesian cooks seem to use it.

Sprigs of fresh or even slightly dry salam leaves, usually measuring 8 - 10 cm (3 - 4 inches) in lenght, are slod in most markets. It is also possible to buy packets of the dried leaf, which still releases its aroma when cooked. The young leaves at the tips of the stem are lighter in colour than the mature leaves.

Salam leaf is not used raw, but is added - usually whole - to various curry-like dishes, stews and some sauces. It is difficult to describe the flavour, and even more difficult to recommended a subtitute for this herbs.
A number of books translate daun salam as bay leaf, to which it
beas no resemblance whatsoever in flavour. Rather than using bay leaf as a substitute if salam leaf is unavailable, omit the herb altogether.

Botanical Family : Myrtaceae
Malaysian name : Daun Salam
Indonesian name : Daun Salam

source : Hutton, Wendy; (1997); Tropical Herbs & Spices of Indonesia; Periplus Editions

Asam Gelugor ( Garcinia Atroviridis )

This fruit, which is native to Peninsular Malaysia, is a member of the Garcinia Family,
a family which also includes the highly prized fruit, the mangosteen.
The small round fruits of asam gelugor, which does not have a common English name, are very sour
and therefore not eaten fresh. Instead, they are thinly sliced and droed until
shrivelled and brownish black.

Asam gelugor, also known as asam keping (literally "sour slices"), is used
primarily in fish curries in Malaysia and Singapore. Its acidity and flavour
are subtlely different to the sour fruitiness of the more commonly used
souring agent, tamarind, but this can be substituted.

Another member of the sama family, a tree known as goraka in Souteast India
and Sri Lanka, produces a fruit used in similar ways to asam gelugor.
In Thailand, yet another Garcinia, G. schomburgkiana, shares the same sourness
as asam gelugor and is used fresh in some salads, and also in fish curries.
It is known in Thai as madan.

Botanical Family : Guttiferae
Thai name : Som khaek, sommawon
Malaysian name : Asam gelugor
Indonesian name : Asam gelugor

source : Hutton, Wendy; (1997); Tropical Herbs & Spices of Indonesia; Periplus Editions