It is a popular Southeast Asian dish originating from Sundanese cuisine, consisting of vegetables in tamarind soup.

[2] The sweet and sour flavour of this dish is considered refreshing and very compatible with fried or grilled dishes, including salted fish, ikan goreng, ayam goreng and lalapan, a kind of vegetable salad usually served raw but can also be cooked, and is usually eaten with steamed rice and sambal terasi chili paste.

The origin of the dish can be traced to the Sundanese people of West Java, Banten, and the Jakarta region.

Common ingredients are peanuts, young jackfruit, young leaves and unpeeled seeds of melinjo, bilimbi, chayote, and long beans; These are all cooked in tamarind-based soups and sometimes enriched with beef stock.

The Karo version of sayur asem is made using torch ginger buds and, more importantly, the sour-tasting seed pods.