Dange Fever

With all that rice on Sulawesi you had to know that some of it would end up in sweet treats.

As we drove north from Makassar to Toraja we came, about two hours into the ride, across a strip of roadway lined with probably fifty or so stalls selling exactly the same thing: dange, a cake made from red rice and gula aren, or sugar made with sap from the cut flower stalk of the aren palm.

The dange are cooked in clay molds laid over a wood fire, their surfaces exposed to the heat and smoke.

When the cakes are done the vendor uses a knife to unmold them onto fresh banana leaves, where they're left steam and soak in a bit of scent from the banana leaf.

We ate them hot, one after the other. Dange are absolutely appealing in both texture -- crusty outside, tender within, pleasantly chewy -- and flavor. They're nutty from the rice, sweet but not tooth-achingly so, there's a hint of bitterness and lots of caramelization from the cooked gula, and it's all overlayed with an intriguing smokiness.

All this, from two ingredients: rice and sugar.

Talk about ingenuity.

Dange sellers, south Sulawesi. If you're driving north from Makassar you can't miss 'em.

Comments

[Eurasian Sensation]

I'm still trying to decide whether "dange fever" is a clever pun or an excruciatingly bad pun. Brought a smile to my face nonetheless!

I do love the way that Southeast Asians can make a million different varieties of cake from little more than rice, sugar and coconuts.

[My Taste Heaven]

Hmm, the dange looks yummy! To me, the look is like chocolate cake :)

[Nate]

I wonder if you can find these here in Sarawak.

[burhan]

Just got back from Sulawesi! We stopped once for some dange...Wish we stopped more. It's good stuff. I was curious how it seemed there was some kind of "dange district" on the stretch of highway going out of Makassar. Here's a short video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4pDNVP4zKY

[Selamat Datang di Makassar]

Hahaha...accidently came across this page and found a very familiar word. I'm from Makassar, Indonesia and dange is easy to get here. Well, yous should make some review about Makassar food. It's one of many reason i love living in Makassar. In fact, i wrote about it in my blog. Please visit me to see more about Makassar.

[Blog Paling Keren]

very funny name for a snack. "Dange"...but looks delicious...

[Penny Smith]

Hi Robyn and David - love your site and was hoping to learn more about the clay pots that the dange are cooked in. I'm a potter currently researching the use of traditional clay cooking pots from around the world. Hoping to plan a trip to Makassar (where one of your readers says dange is well known) and am hoping to find out where the pots are made. Can you advice? I would be most grateful for any info!

Cheers
Penny ( brunyfirepower)

[Robyn]

Hi Penny -- I wouldn't be surprised if they were made somewhere on Sulawesi. There is a similarly shaped sweet on Java (I think we have it somewhere in a post from Jakarta) but the molds are metal. Sorry not to be of more help but I can tell you that if you arrive to Makassar I'm sure you can find someone to point you in the right direction. Quite often these sorts of things are sold at the morning markets (which wasn't going when we were there as it was during Ramadan).
Good luck!
Robyn