The ingredients behind every Yunic dish.

Galangal

Galangal looks like ginger and is related to it — but it tastes completely different. More pine, more citrus, more medicinal. It is the foundation of most Indonesian spice pastes, and once you taste it, you understand why. Yuli uses fresh galangal sourced from Balinese markets in almost every dish.

Kecap manis

Indonesia's sweet soy sauce. Thick, dark, slightly caramel. It is used in marinades, in glazes and as a condiment at the table. It appears in Indonesian cooking the way soy sauce appears in Japanese cooking — constantly, and in ways you don't always notice until it isn't there.

Torch ginger

One of the most distinctive flavours in Balinese and Sumatran cooking. The flower bud of a tall plant that grows across the archipelago. It has a floral, slightly sharp flavour that is impossible to replace. Yuli uses it in the ceviche-style fish dish in the Coastal Journey.

Coconut — in every form

Fresh coconut water. Coconut milk. Toasted desiccated coconut. Coconut oil. Each form plays a different role. Coconut milk makes the broth for the prawn dish in the Coastal menu. Toasted coconut appears in the lawar salad. The flavour runs through Indonesian cooking like a thread.

Sambal

Sambal is not one thing. It is a category — chilli-based condiments made in hundreds of variations across Indonesia. Sambal matah is raw, from Bali, made with shallots, lemongrass and bird's eye chilli. Sambal hijau is green. Sambal ijo is from West Sumatra. The Signature menu comes with three different sambals at the table.

Understanding sambal is the beginning of understanding Indonesian food. We always explain which sambal is which and where it comes from. It usually leads to the most interesting conversations of the evening.

Tempeh

Tempeh is not the health food it became in the West. In Indonesia it is simply food — affordable, nutritious, deeply flavoured when prepared correctly. Fermented soybeans pressed into a cake. Yunic's Garden Journey uses smoked tempeh as its main protein, and guests who don't think they like tempeh tend to finish it entirely.

Jamu

Jamu is the traditional Indonesian herbal drink — turmeric, ginger, tamarind, sometimes other roots and spices depending on region and intention. Yuli uses it as the welcome drink at every Yunic evening. It is how Indonesian families begin a meal. It tastes like nothing else.