Bandung Griddle Classic · Coconut Rice Pancake
Surabi
Photo: D.W. Fisher-Freberg / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Dutch colonizers nicknamed it 'Javaans pannenkoek' — Javanese pancake — for its resemblance to their own, but Bandung's version turned drier and firmer than the coconut-milk-rich original from Solo, and now comes topped with everything from chocolate to strawberry ice cream.
A rice-flour batter is cooked in small clay or cast-iron pans over charcoal until the edges crisp and blister, then topped with grated coconut, chocolate, cheese, or a sweet coconut-sugar sauce. Bandung's street griddle stalls cook each one to order in individual pans stacked over the coals.
Why it's made this way: Serabi began as an offering food in Javanese folk rituals centuries ago and spread through Java and Bali via Majapahit-era migration, with Bandung eventually developing its own drier, topping-heavy style distinct from Central Java's.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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