A Palembang breakfast of thick pempek-style fishcake, shaped into logs and sliced into rounds, served swimming in a turmeric-coconut chili gravy. The cake is the same fish-and-sago paste as pempek lenjer; the sauce, called kuah, is a golden coconut-milk gravy spiced with chili, candlenut, and aromatics and finished with ground dried shrimp. Topped with fried shallots, it is soft, mild, and warming — eaten in the morning across the city.
Laksan is one of Palembang's pempek-family dishes, the cluster of fish-paste foods built on the deboned fish and sago of South Sumatra. Its name and its coconut-gravy format echo the wider laksa family of Southeast Asian noodle-and-spice dishes, here reworked into a Palembang form with a sliced fishcake in place of noodles. It is a documented breakfast staple of the city, sold by morning vendors; like its pempek cousins it is a folk dish with no single inventor or founding date on record.
The fishcake slices are soft and lightly springy, milder and less chewy than fried pempek because they're never deep-fried. The gravy carries the dish: rich and golden, sweet and round from coconut milk, gently spiced and warm rather than fiery, with a savory hum of dried shrimp underneath. It coats every slice. Fried shallots scatter toasty crunch over the top, and a little extra sambal can be stirred in for heat. It is gentle, comforting morning food.
Laksan splits into the cake and the kuah. For the cake, sago or tapioca starch gelatinizes around the fish protein and sets into the springy pempek-style texture; here the paste is shaped into logs and poached or steamed rather than fried, then sliced — keeping it soft and pale. For the gravy, a spice paste of chili, candlenut, shallot, garlic, turmeric, and galangal is sauteed in oil until the raw edge cooks off and the aromatics bloom, then loosened with coconut milk and simmered. The candlenut and the starch from the dish thicken the gravy and the turmeric sets its color; dried-shrimp powder and palm sugar balance it savory-sweet. Keeping the coconut milk at a gentle simmer stops it splitting.
Variations
Laksan is closely related to celimpungan, a Palembang dish of the same coconut gravy served with small rounded fish dumplings instead of sliced logs. The gravy's heat and the proportion of dried shrimp vary from cook to cook, and some make it richer or thinner depending on the morning. It sits within the city's pempek family alongside tekwan, model, and burgo, each pairing the same fish paste with a different broth or sauce.
On the Palate
Where Laksan sits in the Indonesian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
8 steps · 45 min active + 25 min waiting
- 110 min
Make the fish paste: blend deboned mackerel smooth with ice water and salt, then work in sago or tapioca starch to a soft, pliable dough.
- 215 min
Shape the paste into logs and poach in gently simmering water until they float and feel set; lift out, cool, and slice into rounds.
Watch outPoach the fish logs until they float and feel set, not fried — floating is the sign the starch has gelatinized around the fish into that springy, pale texture.
- 38 min
Make the spice paste: grind chili, candlenut, shallot, garlic, turmeric, and galangal to a smooth paste.
- 46 min
Saute the spice paste in oil with a bruised lemongrass stalk and bay leaf until fragrant and the raw smell is gone.
Watch outSaute the spice paste until fragrant and the raw edge cooks off before the coconut milk goes in — rushed paste leaves the gravy tasting raw and sharp.
- 53 min
Pour in the coconut milk and a little water; add ground dried shrimp, palm sugar, and salt.
- 68 min
Simmer the gravy gently, stirring, until it thickens and the coconut milk is glossy and well-flavored.
- 73 min
Warm the fishcake slices through in the gravy, or arrange them in bowls and ladle the gravy over.
- 82 min
Top with fried shallots and serve hot, with extra sambal on the side.
