Yes, I got featured on Philippine TV. It’s GMA 7’s I-Juander, an award-winning cultural magazine TV show.

As a vlogger, one of the things that excite me is receiving an invite or an offer to review products. The message from GMA’s I-Juander researcher last January 12, 2022, was the first I received for a feature in a TV show. For a Philippine TV channel!

I was very excited and we began with exchanges on how and where to shoot scenes for the feature on the spiciest food in Jakarta. I cannot contain my excitement but I had to hold off posting anything about it because you’ll never know until the last minute, right? So, I only posted about it when the I-Juander Facebook page started releasing the teasers.

My Mission

My mission was to search for the spiciest food here in Jakarta. We focused on their use of chili pepper and sambal. Sambal is a staple in Indonesia’s dinner table made mostly of chili or what they call cabe. And this is something Indonesians could barely do without wherever they are. The search for the spiciest food sent me to two traditional markets, three restaurants, and several landmarks of Jakarta.

I was also with Guti, our family’s Indonesian helper who had been very enthusiastic about filming and going around. And she was very helpful especially in talking to people we needed to interact with, in the markets and restaurants.

I knew that not all the video clips I was going to send will be included since they will only get those that fit in the segment’s narrative but it didn’t stop me from trying to give it with all our efforts.

Here’s the video of our segment uploaded to GMA’s YouTube channel:

Death Noodles in Jakarta

What I Have Learned

I definitely appreciated how this effort made me go out of my comfort zone. I usually only film for my vlogs in my house or in restaurants I am comfortable in. But this mission made me try to talk to the locals in the market and go to restaurants I would not even think about going to. And I liked it. I loved the experience plus I felt like it was a “job” that I had to do well. I had a purpose.

Indonesia’s food culture is very rich. Well-exposed travelers know this and have a great appreciation for what the country has to offer especially with their regional cuisines. While we only focused on chili for this feature, I got to appreciate this “cabe” element in their cuisine more. This is what makes their food culture unique and that’s why some of their dishes stand out.

Sambal

There are a lot of kinds of sambal just like there are so many kinds of Kimchi. I wrote in one of my social media posts that sambal is to Indonesia as Kimchi is to Korea. These two, unknown to most, have a lot of varieties. My feature in i-Juander made me discover this about sambal. I even went to one of the restaurants here in Jakarta popular for its 32 kinds of sambal. But that is not all! There are countless more variations of sambals.

Which brings me to another restaurant making only one kind of sambal – the Sambal Setan. Of course, it is easy to deduce what Sambal Setan is. It is Satan’s Sambal or the Devil’s Sambal. If you have watched the video, you would realize just like I did how deceiving it is. I thought it wasn’t as spicy as I expected until I felt my mouth burning.

Death Noodles

The highlight of the feature was the Death Noodles. I went to this very popular restaurant called “Abang Adek” which has been featured in other videos as well. Death Noodles is believed to be the spiciest noodles. You’ve got to see it and taste it to believe it.

I understand some may be skeptical about how spicy it is because Korean noodles are very popular on social media when it comes to the spiciest there is. But you’ve got to understand how this Death Noodles is prepared and what’s in it. It has fresh chilis on it, freshly grounded to its finest. Level 100 has 100 chilis grounded and mixed with the Indomie noodles. Want to try it yourself? Let me know how you fare.

Guti was able to finish her Indomie Pedas Mampus in our Death Noodles Challenge but I didn’t even though I chose a lower level. I also challenged my husband if he can take it in this video.

Did you enjoy watching the videos above? Can you do it, too?

I am so grateful for the experience and so were my friends and family. I can now say I got featured on Philippine TV! That sounds good, eh?

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credits: photo in Blog cover is a screenshot from I-Juander TV video