Hey, do you know the Sambalman?

For people from Rotterdam, he is a living legend: the Sambalman. The 67-year-old Maurice Declercq, as he is actually called, has been selling his homemade sambal and sauces to Rotterdam’s nightlife crowd for years. What is his secret?

‘You’ll never find out,’ is his answer to AD. But a little research reveals that he was much more forthcoming on the TV show Jan Rijdt Rond. Unlike the sambals from the store, De Sambalman’s contains no preservatives, he explains while scooping out an empty jar of Remia garlic sauce. Right.

But then he produces his real ingredient X from the refrigerator: a large jar of yellowish-brown stuff. Lime extract. ‘This makes Rotterdam’s tastiest sambal. But nobody knows that,’ says Declercq. Except for the 112,000 people who watched the video (see below).

Small peppers

Whatever you do, don’t stop the video there, because the scene that made the Sambalman famous nationwide in 2016 is a real treat. Although… ‘a real treat’ is probably not how the presenter would describe it. Watch, shudder and learn: Madame Jeanettes are not small bell peppers.