sun pan

When I was growing up in Lampung, one of the things that I loved the most was the number of food sellers passing by on our street every day. There was also a variety of food sold depending on the time of day.

In the morning, you can order mie bakso or miso as what we call in Lampung. It was basically a bowl of beef ball soup, accompanied with yellow egg noodle or bihun (rice vermicelli) and a sprinkle of fried shallot. I didn't know what they put in the soup, but I would think it would contain beef bones, offal, plus fats. There were rumours that some other sellers would put other things beside those items to get more customers. But then, it is another story for another post.

You could order your miso based on your preference, types of noodle, and condiments. Mine always consisted of meat balls, egg noodle & rice vermicelli, lots of sweet soya sauce, a bit of chili sauce, and no tomato ketchup.

The miso seller's name was Bejo. He was definitely the darling of our street because of his miso. There was once a time when he was gone from our street because local police prohibited him to do his business from the sidewalk. We missed him a lot, and rejoiced when he finally was able to deliver his miso as usual several months later.

Another food that you could order in the morning was Soto Ayam. This one was the Javanese version with chicken, small beansprout, rice vermicelli, perkedel (potato cutlet), and also fried tempeh. You could also order to have rice added into your soto. As the same case with Bejo's miso, you would need to wait around 30 minutes to have the food delivered as you weren't the only hungry people on the street.

More food types could be found in the afternoon such as fried beancurd. You could order a few beancurd and then they would slather sweet soya sauce or chili sauce on top of your beancurd.

Another food would be the otak-otak or otah for those living in Singapore or Malaysia. It was essentially fish paste wrapped in banana leaf which would then be steamed before it was then grilled. You would eat otak-otak with peanut sauce.

Indonesian version of otak-otak was quite different with the version found in Singapore & Malaysia. While our version was white, quite sweet, and firmer in texture, otah was a bit orange-ish and spicier. Otah never looked appealing for me, that's why I never ate it here.

Other than otak-otak, our favourite seller also sell ketan (sticky rice with shredded coconut) that you would eat with sambal chili. You would need to use your hand to eat it, because afterwards nothing beat the joy of licking every leftover coconut or sticky rice from your fingers.

Actually, there was another guy who sold otak-otak, but we never bought from him because of his aggressive style. When he came to our store, he would drop his otak-otak basket and then tell us that his otak-otak were still hot and asked whether we wanted them. All of this in a tone and style that you would see & hear whenever a guy wanted to have a fight with you. You're supposed to sell otak-otak and not challenge your customer to a fight, dude!

Another seller who was totally different than the agressive guy was the Pecel lady. Pecel is almost similar with Gado Gado, except for the fact that Pecel has more types of vegetable in it and that Pecel uses rempeyek (peanut crackers) rather than the normal crackers or Emping used in Gado Gado.

The lady also had a unique style in the way she carried her items. She would put all the vegetables and peanut sauce on a wide bamboo basket which was then carried on top of her head! On her back, she would carry the rempeyek can just like what you saw in young ladies selling jamu gendong.

We would then choose the vegetables that we wanted, which she'd put on a banana leaf and pour peanut sauce on top of it. If you like it, you could also put rempeyek on top of the veggie before she poured the sauce. That's my preference, really. I could probably finish the whole can of rempeyek soaked in peanut sauce. Getting sore throat afterward is just the problem for another day.

The last food and my most favourite from them all was sun pan. It was a traditional Chinese snack made of steamed sago flour with minced pork & bean, or bamboo shoots. It might be similar with the Teochew version of choi pan, but sun pan's skin was smoother and more transparent. Not to mention much better :)

In my whole life, there's only one sun pan seller ever. The same guy keeps going around selling sun pan from when I was small until now. Some of my childhood friends also swear that they only know him when it comes to sun pan.

Recently, I asked my Mom to bring some sun pan for me when I came to Jakarta. She called me that she couldn't find the seller. Then, several minutes later, she texted me saying that I was damn lucky because after she hung up on me, she saw the sun pan guy on the sidewalk!

What's more amazing was that this guy told my Mom that he didn't work for his old boss anymore. However, he now works for a new boss and this boss also produces sun pan! It's like the guy is born to sell sun pan for life. If that's not dedication or destiny, then I don't know what else it is.

Sadly after all these years, I still don't know his name. I just call him "Bang". So, abang Sun Pan, wherever you are, this post is for you. To honor your dedication, and to thank you for the unlimited joy that you've brought me whenever you called to announce that you've arrived...

"Suuun Paaan"