Salt

With thousands of miles of coastline, sea salt is of course the most common in Indonesia, though I have also tried Javanese volcanic salt with its sulphurous edge. It is the unspoken foundation that lifts every dish, both savoury and sweet. Buy a good-quality salt and don’t just add at the end of cooking. Adding judiciously at each stage allows the seasoning to penetrate and the layers of flavour to develop, rather than just giving a salty top note.