[Essay Writing assignment] Culinary in Indonesia "Pempek"

Indonesian eats relatively simple but delicious meals. Indonesian cuisine is one of the most vibrant and colourful cuisines in the world, full of intense flavour. Indonesian foods is essentially peasant cuisine, fresh, simple ingridients combined with a blend of spices, resulting in a delicious, inexpensive meals. Indonesia has so many delicious food and one of them is Pempek.

Pempek is the best-known of Palembang's dishes in the island of Sumatera as a local specialty, pempek can be commonly found on every street in Palembang with a concentration of outlets in downtown Palembang, but we can find Pempek everywhere in Indonesia. However, the taste of pempek in other regions are usually different to pempek from Palembang. Pempek also become a famous nationwide favourite, this delicacy has an explosion of taste which is maybe the reason why people are so addicted to it. 

Pempek is made from a mixture of boneless ground fish meat, most commonly tenggiri, with water, salt and sagu flour. People sometimes add a little bit of cooking oil and or wheat flour to improve texture and not to make the Pempek too chewy and to add MSG to enrich the umami taste. Ikan gabus is also commonly made as Pempek. Numerous Pempek sellers and producers in Palembang use a cheap combination of fish, which has a strong scent. In one plate of Pempek, we will find a plate full of the Pempek dough that have been fried and cut in pieces, yellow noddle and the cuka sauce. In some modification there will be chopped cucumber and soy powder for sprinkles.

There are some variants of Pempek that we can found. The most popular one is Pempek Kapal Selam, Kapal selam which resemble to the shape of the dish. Pempek Kapal Selam is pempek dough with a full egg inside. The other variant are Pempek telur kecil, Pempek lenjer, Pempek keriting, Pempek pistel, Pempek kulit and etc.

Pempek is the most popular culinary in Palembang which easy to made and Pempek is a must to try. You can buy Pempek anywhere even at the street, and the most important Pempek is not expensive with that amazing taste.