After a trip, when I'm mentally cataloguing sights and sounds and flavors and smells, it's often the most unremarkable things that stand out. Like this bowl of bubur sumsum, a masterpiece of minimalism consisting of just two ingredients (three, if you count water): rice and palm sugar.
We stumbled across bubur sumsum on Sumatra, at Bukittingi's fascinating wet market, when we spied a banana vendor spooning up what looked, from a distance, like vanilla pudding with chocolate sauce. I mimed, asking her where she bought it. She motioned to a tented stall behind her. I walked over and cautiously parted the white cotton panels, peering inside. Women, only women, sat shoulder-to-shoulder on narrow wooden benches lining three of the tent's walls. Between laughter and chit-chat, in this female version of a pondok kopi, heads dipped to sup from bowls of 'pudding' or ketupat (pressed rice cakes) doused with thin yellow curry.
I went inside alone. It didn't seem proper for Dave to follow, even though a few of the older ladies inside indicated otherwise. When the vendor passed me my bowl of bubur sumsum I handed it out through an opening in the wall to Dave, so he could taste and photograph it.
Bubur sumsum is rice cooked and ground fine, to a smooth paste as thick as cream of wheat, and doused with melted palm sugar. It's that simple.
But not so simple, because the rice is fresh and fragrant and chosen with care. It may even have been grown by the family of this lady who serves the bubur.
And palm sugar isn't just any sugar. Indonesians call it gula merah ('gula' means sugar, 'merah' means red). Sumatran palm sugar isn't red, but a deep, almost-black brown, the color of dark-roased coffee beans. Sold in cakes, or half-spheres, or logs, it varies in consistency from crumbly to caramel-like sticky. Sweet and a little sour, bitter like unsweetened chocolate and coffee, and smoky from the fire it's reduced over, Sumatran gula merah is as complexly flavored as a hand-crafted truffle made from the finest chocolate in the world. It's a basic flavoring agent in everything from Indonesian kuih and candies to curries and crackers.
In Malaysia, bubur sumsum is a less miminalist treat. On Jalan Raja Alang, in Kuala Lumpur's mostly Malay Kampung Baru district, we found a few plastic cups of bubur sumsum atop a vendor's display of savory bubur.
This vendor uses beras pulut - rice flour - to make his bubur, and he adds not just melted gula but pandan-scented coconut milk pudding as well.
It's delicious enough, this soupier, less hearty bubur sumsum with its coconuty milkiness, but it's a bit sweet, and the richness of the pudding detracts from the layered flavors of the gula. After a bite or two I've had enough. At the Bukittingi 'pondok bubur' I finished every last drop, and had to restrain myself from licking the bowl clean.
When it comes to the sumsums, less really is more.
Bubur sumsum, mornings in the lowest section of the Wednesday and Saturday extended markets, Bukittingi, Sumatra. In Kuala Lumpur, sold from a number of stalls along Jalan Raja Alang, opposite side of the street from Masjid Jamek Kampung Baru (mosque), from about 10am.







Gorgeous as ever Robyn... So, it's just like a Vietnamese creme caramel then, yeah?
Are you getting my emails about the magazine copmmission? Need an answer asap, or sooner.
Posted by: Graham | 2006.08.21 at 19:08
Thanks, guys. your pictures are always such a delight and you not only remind me of food from the country I was born in but you've introduced my to so much more. Only a couple more months to go before we're there!
Posted by: Cin | 2006.08.21 at 19:56
My late mother used to make the bubur sum sum Sumatra style eventhough we are Malaysia. Sadly I did not learn how to make it from her. Now living in Perth, I'll guess I will have to surf the net to find the recipes. Sometimes simple thing make so much satisfaction.
Posted by: flower | 2006.08.22 at 11:48
Graham - not exactly ... no dairy products involved. If you've had cream of rice it's like that, but thousands of times better. Yes on the email, yes on the mag, hope you got my return mssge.
Cin - relocating or just visiting?
flower - Interesting ... any Indonesian ancestry in your family?
Posted by: Robyn | 2006.08.22 at 14:42
I dont think so. My mom was from Selangor. But her mom was Chinese. But we do have relative that married Indonesian. But I guess that the Sumatra version is more common in Selangor since I have always seen and eaten that version.
Posted by: flower | 2006.08.23 at 09:11
Great pics but is it just my monitor? The pics always seem under-exposed and over-saturated. Please pass on to the cameraman.
Posted by: Clem | 2006.08.24 at 10:54
bubur sumsum is a simple and quick dish to make.
here the recipe from my grandma. this is javanesse version.
for bubur just take 1 cup coconut milk + 5 cup water + 1 cup rice flour + 1 tsp salt + pandan leaves. all mix togeteher and stir until boil.
for the sauce 2 cup water + 1 gula melaka, bring to boil.
Posted by: dyah | 2006.08.24 at 15:45
clem - we shoot with film not digital, specifically Velvia 100 which purposefully gives the rich, saturated colors we think our subjects deserve. Most, if not all food blogs, use digital. It's a very different look (obviously) but we prefer the depth of film.
Dyah, thanks ... will have to try this with some of the gula I brought back from Sumatra.
Posted by: Robyn | 2006.08.25 at 11:09
Oh my... I just found your website and I love it. Thank you for posting such great street foods with high quality photos and stories. Bring back lots of memories for me specially the Bubur Sumsum and Gudeg.
Posted by: Vincent | 2009.02.25 at 02:19