Pallubasa — South Sulawesi, Indonesia

Pallubasa is a thick soup built around beef, buffalo meat and offal such as tripe or lung, simmered until tender in a broth that owes its body to toasted grated coconut ground into the liquid. The result is a darker, creamier bowl than most Indonesian meat soups, with a nutty depth running through every spoonful. It is reported from Makassar, in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, where family-run stalls often specialize in little else, cooking the broth in large pots from early morning and serving it well into the night. Diners sit at long communal tables, and the dish has become one of the city's recognizable street foods. To prepare it, beef and offal are simmered for hours with shallot, garlic, galangal, turmeric and lemongrass until the meat gives easily. Grated coconut is toasted dry in a pan until deep brown, then ground to a paste and stirred into the broth along with coconut milk, thickening it and rounding out the spices. Within the family of Makassar meat soups that also includes coto Makassar, pallubasa is set apart by its coconut-thickened broth and by being eaten with plain rice rather than pressed rice cakes. A raw egg is sometimes cracked into the hot bowl at the table, and lime juice or chili sambal are added to taste.