Get to Know Sashimi in the Batak Ethnic Style and its Recipe

When I was little, my parents invited me to join the family gathering. There we serve Batak culinary specialties, including chicken napinadar, goldfish arsik, and Naniura. "Haa, Naniura?" that's the sentence I said. As a child of Batak descent, I don't know about this culinary. Therefore, I tried to eat Naniura because I was curious about the taste hehehe... "HUEK, what kind of food is this? It's seems immature".

Dekke Naniura 

Na niura is one of Batak ethnic culinary delights. This special culinary is often dubbed as typical Indonesian sashimi, because this dish is in the form of raw fish, just like culinary origin from Japan. The difference is that sashimi is eaten plain without seasoning, while naniura is prepared with Batak spices. The fresh fish that are usually used to make na niura are carp, cork, and tilapia. The way to process it is quite simple, although care must be taken so that the 'ripening' process does not fail and rot. The fish is cleaned of its spines and mucus first. Then the fish is cooked by soaking it in kaffir lime juice so that the fishy taste and smell are gone. This fresh fish is then covered with Batak spices and tamarind. The seasoning is also added with andaliman, oranges, red chilies, shallots, garlic, candlenuts, coriander, peanuts, turmeric, coriander flowers or kecombrang stems which are finely ground first. Then leave it or a few hours (about 3-5 hours) and after cooking the results of the fermentation process, you can eat it. 

Maybe for some people, Dekke naniura feels a bit strange on the tongue. Especially for those who are tasting culinary similar to processed sashimi from Japan for the first time. The taste of the marinated fish is certainly different from conventionally cooked. Of course there is a separate sensation in eating it. Even though it feels soft, the fiber still feels as if it's raw. But therein lies its uniqueness. Coupled with the seasoning that combines sour-spicy makes the taste even more exciting on the tongue. Indeed, Naniura is not as popular as the Arsik menu, which is in all restaurants, especially Batak dishes.