Kripik or keripik are Indonesian chips or crisps, bite-size snack crackers that can be savoury or sweet. They are made from various dried fruits, tubers, vegetables, and fish that have undergone a deep frying process in hot vegetable oil. They can be lightly seasoned with salt, or spiced with chili powder and sugar. Together with krupuk, the etymology of the term kripik is believed as an onomatopoeia in Indonesian to describe the crunch sound of this crispy snack. Kripik and krupuk are an integral part of Indonesian cuisine. Kripik commonly are made from dried slices of roots and tubers. The most popular are kripik singkong and kripik pisang ; other types of fruit, yam or tuber crackers are also available.
Kripik and krupuk
Kripik is closely related to krupuk since it is popularly considered as a smaller sized krupuk. In Indonesia, the term krupuk refers to a type of relatively large crackers, while kripik or keripik refers to smaller bite-size crackers; the counterpart of chips in western cuisine. For example, potato chips are called kripik kentang in Indonesia. Usually krupuk are made from a dried paste consisting of a mixture of starch and other ingredients, while kripik are usually made entirely from a thinly sliced, sun-dried, and then deep-fried product without any mixture of starch.
Variants
Almost all type of fruits, nuts, tubers and plant products can be made into kripik. Other types of kripik can be coated with batter and deep fried until crispy and dry. In Indonesia, the latest popular snack is extra hot and spicykripik.
Emping is a type of kripik made from the melinjo nut.
Kripik walang or kripik belalang, made from grasshopper
Product
Kripik are traditionally made by a small-scale home industry. However, just like the potato chip industry in the western counterpart, in Indonesia today it is common to encounter mass-produced packed kripik snacks in warung shops, minimarkets and supermarkets. Some brands have mass-produced certain variants of kripik chips. In Indonesia, kripiks are often sold as oleh-oleh or food gift to be brought home after travel. Certain areas has developed their specialtykripiks which depend on locally available ingredients and recipes. For example, Lampung is well known for its banana kripiks, Malang in East Java for its fruit-based kripiks, including apple and jackfruit kripiks, while Bandung is well known for its tempeh, oncom, tubers and sweet potato-based kripiks. Bukittinggi city in West Sumatra on the other hand, is famous for its Keripik sanjay, a hot and spicy cassava chips coated with balado chili sauce. the latest trend in Indonesia's kripik industry is extra hot kripiks with ample chili powder, which started with Keripik Pedas Maicih in Bandung in 2010. It is a bag of fiery hot cassava chips offered in different levels of spiciness. Subsequently, the popularity of extra hot kripik ' swept across nation.
