Pempek, Many Variants but One Dough

Pempek : fishcake delicacy

The title actually has been inspired by my husband, exactly by his criticism. Approximately in 2009, when we were in a Pempek restaurant, my husband asked distinctive names of special dishes from Palembang (South Sumatra) called Pempek. Many names it has, such as Submarine pempek, Cylindrical pempek, Curly pempek, Skin pempek, etc.
“So it has plenty variants?”, he asked.
“Yes”, I replied.
What differentiates one variant to other variants?”
Then I explained him that pempek is made from basic dough which consists of minced fish and tapioca. The dough then can be made into various shapes and forms with additional ingredients. For example, Submarine contains chicken egg inside; Skin pempek is primarily made from minced fish skin; Curly pempek is in the form of clumps of worm-like long sticks. Thus, all are from the same dough. My husband then drew a conclusion “So there is no distinctiveness, because the food just has many variants but it is from one dough only.” I argued it of course, but he still defended his conclusion.
The opinion defense I made was just like I am originally from the city where the delicacy originates. No……. I just grew up there, in Palembang, the capital city of South Sumatra. I moved to the city when I was four. Then I went to schools there until I reached 18.   So how long I had lived in the city? 14 years. It is a sufficient time to make my tongue get used to all local foods and have made Pempek (local language) or fishcake delicacy as one of my favourite foods.
Here are the appearances of each variant.

Submarine pempek (picture taken from http://pempekkecik.blogspot.com/)

Cylindrical pempek (picture taken from http://nugraha-corporation.blogspot.com)

Fish Skin pempek (picture taken from http://aneka-resep.info/pempek-kulit/)

 

Curly pempek (picture taken from http://pempek161cabangcitra2ext.blogspot.com/)

 

If you want to know more on the dish, you can visit Wikipedia.org which provides ample information.