Tapai

Tapai

Packaged tapai made from cassava in Indonesia
Alternative names	Peuyeum
Type	Alcoholic paste
Place of origin	Nusantara
Region or state	Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia
Creator	Minangkabau ethnic
Main ingredients	Usually cassava, white rice, or glutinous rice

Tapai (ta-pie) or tape (ta-peh), sometimes referred to as peuyeum (from Sundanese language), is a traditional fermented food found throughout much of East- and Southeast Asia. It is an alcoholic paste and has a sweet or sour taste and can be used directly as a food or in traditional recipes. Tapai can be made from a variety of carbohydrate sources, but typically from cassava, white rice, or glutinous rice. Fermentation is performed by a variety of moulds including Aspergillus oryzae, Rhizopus oryzae, Amylomyces rouxii or Mucor species, and yeasts including Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Saccharomycopsis fibuliger, Endomycopsis burtonii and others, along with bacteria.Tapai is also used to make alcoholic beverages.

Tapai is made by inoculating a carbohydrate source with the required microorganisms in a starter culture. This culture has different names in different regions, shown in the table below. The culture can be naturally captured from the wild, by mixing rice flour with ground spices (include garlic, pepper, chili, cinnamon), cane sugar or coconut water, slices of ginger or ginger extract, and water to make a dough. The dough is pressed into round cakes, about 3 cm across and 1 cm thick, and left to incubate on trays with banana leaves under and over them for two to three days. They are then dried and stored, ready for their next use.