pallu butung — Makassar, Indonesia

Pallu butung is a spoonable dessert from the Bugis-Makassar area built around ripe banana cooked whole or in thick slices inside a coconut-milk porridge. The porridge is thin enough to eat with a spoon but thick enough to coat the banana. It is reported from Makassar and the surrounding South Sulawesi region, where it is sold at dessert stalls and markets, usually in the afternoon, and is closely related to other banana-and-coconut sweets from the same coast. Rice flour is slaked in a little water and stirred into simmering coconut milk with sugar, pandan leaf and a pinch of salt until it thickens into a smooth, pourable porridge; peeled banana is added whole or sliced and simmered gently until it softens without falling apart, then the pot is taken off the heat. It is served warm in a bowl or ladled over shaved ice, finished with a stripe of red syrup and sometimes a scoop of soft ice cream, which sweetens and cools the dish without changing the porridge itself; other South Sulawesi versions cook the banana whole rather than sliced.