Sulawesi has a rich and interesting culture, including its culinary delights. The southern part of the island is especially rich in delicious dishes. Some of them are reflected during major festivities. For example, you can enjoy many Lebaran Foods from Bugis that is quite different from any other places.
The South Sulawesi province alone has several tribes with several different traditions. Unlike in Java which ‘relies’ much on ketupat during Lebaran, Bugis people have some more variations. Here are some of the most prominent Lebaran foods from Bugis, South Sulawesi.
Barongko
This sweet cake is very popular in Makassar. In short, you can say that this is predominantly a banana cake. Bananas are blended together with coconut milk and eggs. The batter is then wrapped in banana leaf and then steamed. The end result is sweet, savory, and aromatic cake. They use only a variant of banana called ‘kepok’ for this cake. It is the best one compared to any other variant of bananas.
Burasa
This is Bugis’ answer to ketupat. Burasa is generally more flavorful than ketupat simply because of its ingredients. Ketupat is a simple rice cake cooked with water. In the case of Burasa, the rice is cooked in coconut milk and sometimes also pandanus leaves. Therefore, burasa is naturally very aromatic and it tastes more savory too. Just like ketupat, burasa also need other side dishes.
Bajabu
In other regions, this savory side dish has many other names such as serundeng and abon. Bajabu generally is fried shredded coconut with tuna. There are other smaller ingredients too such as shallots, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, pepper, galangal, and turmeric. Coconut and tuna are finely shredded before then fried with other ingredients. Bajabu is the usual pair for burasa.
Nasu Likku
To make this dish, you need a certain bird or chicken. They even claim that nasu likku is Bugis’ type of rendang. They both are cooked in an almost similar way; by cooking them into coconut milk until they dry. The difference is in the detail because Nasu Likku uses mostly coconut and galangal. That is why Nasu Lekku is mostly yellowish in color.
Nasu Palekko
This one is almost similar to Nasu Lekku, with a few differences. The cooking process is pretty much the same, but Nasu Palekko uses duck meat instead of chicken. Also, Nasu Palekko is usually very spicy with generous use of chili pepper. This dish is also part of the Lebaran foods along with burasa and bajabu.
Enjoying Bugis or South Sulawesi dishes are never boring. Even though most of them are somewhat similar to the dishes from other places, but Bugis dishes have a nice flair. You can taste it yourself by trying Lebaran foods from Bugis this year.
