Finally I could eat surabi. Yupiii! . I went to Bandung many times but never had chance to try even in small piece. Poor me! So, just went through Setiabudi street then you could find some places, side by side, selling surabi. The places was full of people all the time. You had to be patient in ordering. Psst... I had an experience. When I ordered it, the waiter gave me number as I was in queue. Before me, there was a guy who ordered 10 pieces of it. But when the surabi was ready, the waiter called my number first, then called number after me, meanwhile the number of the guy before me was still not called. I heard the guy was angry and complained the waiter as he did not get what he ordered soon. The waiter could not explain,maybe he was scared to death, xixixi...just gave unsatisfied reason that the ordered was still in proccess, I thought it was easy to explain. The number is not number in sequence. It was just a name in order the waiter could easy to find who order it by calling the number.
Surabi itself was known as sundanese small thick pancake, made of rice and corn flower. I found there was two kind of style. Traditional and modern style. What I ordered was Surabi manis kinca kelapa. It was original surabi which was poured by liquid red palm sugar. Then, the modern style, combined with western taste, was Surabi sosis mayo, it was mixed by sausage and mayonnaise.
See comment of http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/indonesia/west_java_bandung/bandung_food_advisor/info-273-bandung_specialties_surabi.php about surabi.
“This culinary delight is then topped with either salty condiments such as cheese, egg, and sausage or sweet ingredients such as banana, chocolate and nangka (jackfruit). Surabi is cooked in a specific clay oven where every little pancake is placed in a steaming hot gap until cooked. The toppings are cooked on top of the pancake so they blend in with the mixture and the chocolate or cheese mel ts. The taste is somewhat similar to pancakes but it's these toppings that make the difference. Originally, surabi was flavoured with oncom (fermented beans) which makes it a spicy bite with the oncom almost resembling mince meat. Surabi has evolved and popular demand has created many new varieties. To make things interesting, creative toppings are added. Indonesian taste buds somehow categorize cheese under the ‘sweet' category and therefore cheese is often coupled with chocolate and coconut milk. To the Western palette it maybe a little strange, but Indonesians love it”
So, what are you waiting for guys, let’s come! Rush, rush….
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