The Most popular and The Cheapest Food

The Most popular and The Cheapest Food

Introduction Cilok is becoming more and more popular throughout Indonesia.

 It is The Most popular and The Cheapest Food. it is prepared of starch or cassava flour which is easily produced in this country. Starch belongs to carbohydrates. It is a component of diet along with protein, fat, minerals and vitamins. Starch is energy source for human body metabolism.

Starch is nutrition to generate human activity. Without carbohydrate in a diet man will feel lame and less energy in performing his activities. Lately, the recipe of preparing cilok is improved with enriching it with fish meal to add the important component of protein making it more delicious and healthier.

 That is why, the food which is initially popular in the low income community, now it is also becoming the choice of supplement food of better income community as workers of prestigious corporations and students of health and of medicine faculties of university. Pupil of Elementary School are buying cilok.

Below is not cilok but another starch but fried.

 New Coming and Popular Food In the neighbor countries of Indonesia as Singapore, Malaysia and even Australia ?. There is easily to find Indonesia restaurant serving famous and delicious beef prepared with tick spices called rendang. People like rendang because it is prepared of meet (protein) with palatable taste and highly nutrition characteristic. People is better informed that protein is important for body development.

 But other story of cilok which is prepared of carbohydrate, and the carbohydrate is of cassava starch. Cassava starch flour is inferior to wheat or rice flours. Wheat flour is imported, Indonesian land and climate are not suitable for wheat cultivation. Wheat flour is expensive in this country, it is considered as the first quality flour. Next quality or the second best quality is rice (paddy) flour. Rice is the staple food for Indonesia.

Farmers grow rice plant at least twice a year. Indonesia produces much rice, but sometimes Indonesian government has to import rice in case the harvest partly failed to get the production target. And the third is starch (cassava) flour. Starch is the cheapest among the rice and wheat flours. People will feel less pride when consume cassava tuber and so the food made of the starch.

Ok,  it is adapted for new developing and not so rich countries where carbohydrate is the most consumed food The Most popular and The Cheapest Food 

 However, why cilok that is derivative of cassava is becoming popular. At least there are 3 reasons :

1. Sweet. Starch or carbohydrates has characteristic of sweet in taste when it is chewed in the mouth after mixed with digestive saliva enzyme.

 2. Much Cheaper. Cassava is easily cultivated plant, so the starch is much produced in this country. Starch is easily found in the traditional market with cheap in price, and affordable by most Indonesian people which are low income. Pupil of elementary and secondary schools, and less-paid workers communities are the first communities made cilok is existed and now is becoming established as menu of most Indonesian.

3. Nutrient Enriched Cilok. Cooker is creatively formulating new components enriching its nutrition as adding the fish meal into cilok formulation. This protein component contained in cilok causing many people of different levels of economic are fond of cilok. Cilok is known to be a popular food only recently.

The name is akroname of West Javanese (Sundanese) words “aci dicolok” means noodle of starch stuck with pointed little bamboo stick. The stick is the same function as fork. Dough of cilok made of starch flour, salt, fish meal (if any), and water and is formed a round like ball, smaller than golf ball. The raw ball is steamed in steamer pan.


Ripe cilok is served with sauces prepared of spices, tomato, sugar, salt. This sauces is showered on the ripe cilok. Cassava starch is high energy source nutrition. Cassava is grouped as tuber plant of higher carbohydrate quality compared to taros or sweet potato.

However it is lower than the quality of potato. Farmers have recognized there are some species of cassava tuber that bitter in taste, containing of high percentage of cyanide acid (HCN). HCN is poisonous for human and mammal animal (forest fig and rat).

These animals have also recognized the species of cassava plant causing death if it is consumed. No animal will eat this bitter cassava tuber. The bitter cassava species contain more percentage of starch that it is better for being planted and its tuber is processed for producing starch. The HCN contents was expelled ( drained off) during processing of the starch. That is why the starch produced is not taste bitter any more and it is safe to consume..

 Enriched cilok contains more nutrients. it is more than just a carbohydrates. More over cilok is with sauces of nutritious quality as tomato, pepper, salt, sugar, and other spices, and protein containing sources as ketchup (made of soybean), and fish meal. With addition of fish meal to cilok recipe, it means cilok nutrition contents is enriched with protein.

 That is why, higher income employees and youngers communities are eager to consume cilok. The comsumers of cilok are now not only those of the lower income or the have not community, but the better earning and the elite students of medicine are queeing to buy cilok

Figure 1. Student of College of Nutrition of Malang (East Java) is campaigning nutritious

Cilok in the commemoration of National Nutrition Days on 25 January 2015. Student are buying cilok in front of their campus. Cilok Consumers. Cilok sellers (which is also the cooker) selling in elementary school of rural area are prepared the sauces as simple as possible, because the buyer is elementary and yunior secondary are student of less money provided by their parent in a very limited sum.

While cilok seller selling in area of high income employee as in business office, in university, in public service offices, and hotels they will prepare sauces cilok in a very high quality. And the price is higher then that made by seller who sell cilok in the former community.

 Cassave is now in its place in the menu of Indonesian food as it was ever exist in time when Indonesian in the era before the finding of oil wells drilled and Indonesia belongs to Organization of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC). When Indonesian net oil exporting,

 Indonesian was experiencing welfare, they had breakfast with bread and chees, and milk, and the were forgetting food made of cassava. And after Indonesia was struck with economic turmoil and the country is no more net exporting oil countries.

Cilok is growing  the Most popular and The Cheapest Food.

This  derivative Cassava foods as enriched cilok offers price of affordable to all level of economic strata. and it is prospective to be popular in developing countries.


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