Burgo — Jambi, Indonesia

Burgo is a rice-flour pancake, thin and pliable like a crepe, that is folded into quarters and served submerged in a warm, pale coconut-milk broth. The batter is made from rice flour loosened with tapioca or sago starch, which gives the cooked sheet its slight elasticity and prevents it from tearing when folded. On its own the pancake is nearly flavourless; it takes on character entirely from the broth poured over it at the table. The dish is reported from Jambi and the wider south-Sumatran lowlands, an area where rice-noodle and rice-sheet breakfasts built around a savoury broth are common. Burgo is most often eaten in the morning, from street carts and small breakfast stalls, and it is usually the fish rather than the rice sheet that gives the bowl its name recognition among regulars. It sits alongside lakso, a related rice-noodle dish from the same area, though the two are kept apart by cooks and eaten as separate orders. To prepare it, the rice-flour batter is poured thin over a hot pan or steamed in a wide tray, then lifted off in a whole sheet and folded, first in half and then again, into a soft rectangle. The broth is built separately: fish, commonly mackerel or a firm river fish, is simmered with shallot, garlic, candlenut and lemongrass until the flesh can be flaked, then coconut milk is stirred in and the mixture is seasoned with salt and a little sugar. The folded pancake is placed in a bowl, the hot broth and flaked fish are ladled over it, and the bowl is finished with a generous scatter of fried shallots and sometimes chopped celery leaf. What sets this bowl apart from its noodle-based relative is the broth's colour and the texture of the starch itself: burgo's coconut broth stays pale rather than turning yellow with turmeric, and the folded pancake gives a softer bite than the springier rice noodles used elsewhere. Because the pancake absorbs liquid quickly, it is assembled to order rather than left standing, and portions are usually modest, meant to be finished before the broth cools.