Pempek

Pempek

Varieties of pempek.
Course	Main course or snack
Place of origin	Indonesia
Region or state	Palembang, South Sumatra
Serving temperature	Hot
Main ingredients	Fish cake from mixture dough of fish and tapioca, egg, noodle, palm sugar, vinegar and tamarind, dried shrimp powder
Variations	Lenggang, Tekwan, Model, or Rujak Mie.

Pempek, mpek-mpek or empek-empek is a savoury fishcake delicacy from Palembang,South Sumatera, Indonesia, made of fish and tapioca. Pempek is served with rich sweet and sour sauce called kuah cuka or kuah cuko (lit. vinegar sauce), or just "cuko". Sometimes local people also add yellow noodles for variations.

Pempek is the best-known of Palembang's dishes. Its origin is undoubtedly Palembang. However, the history behind the creation of this savoury dish is unclear. According to local tradition, around the 16th century there was an old Chinese immigrant who lived near the Musi river. He noticed an abundance of fish caught by the local fishermen. In the Sumatran tropical climate, before the invention of refrigeration technology, most of these unsold leftover fish decayed and were wasted. The indigenous people, however had limited knowledge and techniques for processing fish. During that period, most of the indigenous people simply grilled, fried or boiled their fish instead of adding other ingredients to make new dishes. The old Chinese man mixed in some tapioca and other spices, which he then sold around the village on his cart. The people referred to this old man as 'pek-apek, where apek is a Chinese slang word to call an old man. The food is known today as empek-empek or pempek.

Another theory suggests that pempek was a Palembang adaptation of Southern Chinese ngo hiang or kekkian (fish slice) as a surimi (魚漿, yújiāng) based food. But instead of being served in soup or plainly fried, pempek is notable for its spicy palm sugar-vinegar based sauce.

Pempek dough is made from a mixture of boneless ground fish meat, most commonly tenggiri (wahoo), with water, salt and sago 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 (snakehead) is also commonly made as pempek. Numerous pempek sellers and producers in Palembang use a cheap combination of fish, which has a strong scent. According to tradition, the best tasting pempek are made of belida or belido (Chitala lopis), but due to its rarity and superior taste, pempek made from this fish are usually more expensive. Pempek in Bangka Island are made from mackerel (ikan kembung) and its sauce is red chilli based, while in Jakarta or other cities they could be made from gourami fish. The latest variant is pempek udang, pempek made of minced shrimp originated from Sungsang area in Banyuasin near the Musi river estuary, it is noticeable with its pinkish color.