Tapai is a traditional fermented preparation of rice or other starchy foods, and is found throughout much of Southeast Asia, especially in Austronesian cultures, and parts of East Asia. It refers to both the alcoholic paste and the alcoholic beverage derived from it. It has a sweet or sour taste
and can be eaten as is, as ingredients for traditional recipes, or fermented further to make rice wine. Tapai is traditionally made with white rice or glutinous rice, but can also be made from a variety of carbohydrate sources, including cassava and potatoes. 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.
Packaged tapai paste made from cassava in Indonesia
Tapuy, a traditional Ifugao rice wine prepared with tapay in the Cordillera highlands of Luzon, Philippines
Dried alcoholic fermented cassava or peuyeum at Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Tapai ketan, fermented glutinous rice wrapped in leaf, Kuningan, West Java.
Fermentation in food processing
In food processing, fermentation is the conversion of carbohydrates to alcohol or organic acids using microorganisms—yeasts or bacteria—under anaerobic (oxygen-free) conditions. Fermentation usually implies that the action of microorganisms is desired. The science of fermentation is known as zymology or zymurgy.
Grapes being trodden to extract the juice and made into wine in storage jars. Tomb of Nakht, 18th dynasty, Thebes, Ancient Egypt.
Sourdough starter.
Conical loaves of bread left as grave goods, exactly as laid out in the Great Tomb at Gebelein, Egypt, 2435-2305 BC
Beer and bread, two major uses of fermentation in food