-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Making oncom is almost magical. It starts with a pile of soy pulp, which is wrapped in banana leaves and sprinkled with the spores of a fungus called Neurospora intermedia .
The bundle is left to ferment in a warm, humid place for about a day and a half. As the mold digests the proteins and starch within the fibrous pulp, it also breaks down the cellulose, turning what remains into a dish beloved by many across western Indonesia. "It's pretty astonishing," said chef-turned-bioengineer Vayu Hill-Maini.
"In just 36 hours, this fungal growth is really kind of transforming what otherwise is pretty inedible." He hopes others see it that way, too. In a recently published paper in Nature Microbiology , the Stanford University assistant professor made a convincing argument that fungal fermentation of food waste and agricultural byproducts could be the next culinary frontier.
For Hill-Maini, this is about more than making trendy dishes. It's about improving food sustainability and reducing hunger worldwide. The process he is so excited about has been doing exactly that for centuries in parts of Indonesia, where oncom, a traditional staple, is an affordable and nutritious alternative to animal protein.
Stir-fried; used as a stuffing, filling, or basis of sauce; and even served as a fried snack, oncom is traditionally made by c.