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Kecap manis
A thick, sweet soy sauce from Indonesia, made by adding palm sugar to fermented soy sauce. It gives a distinctive sweet-savory flavor to many Indonesian and Malaysian dishes, such as stir-fries and marinades.
Description
Kecap manis holds a central place in Indonesian cooking, used both as a marinade base and as a finishing sauce. Its syrupy texture comes from slowly reducing palm sugar with soy sauce, sometimes spiced with star anise or galangal. It's found in dishes like nasi goreng, satay, and ikan bakar, where it caramelizes slightly during cooking to add a characteristic sweet, smoky note.
