rice bread — South Kalimantan, Indonesia

Rice bread here is a small steamed cake made from fermented rice flour batter, poured into little cups and cooked until it puffs and cracks open at the top, giving a light, spongy crumb with a faint sourness from the fermentation. It belongs to the wide family of steamed rice cakes found across the Indonesian archipelago, known collectively as kue or wadai depending on the region. The cake is reported from South Kalimantan, among the Banjar communities of Borneo, where steamed rice cakes of many shapes are a fixture of the region's rich snack culture, sold at markets and served at gatherings alongside sweet syrups or grated coconut. To prepare it, rice flour is mixed with coconut milk, sugar and a little yeast or a fermented starter and left to rest for two to three hours until the batter turns bubbly and slightly sour. The batter is poured into small greased cups or moulds set inside a steamer and cooked over strong, steady heat without lifting the lid, which lets the cakes rise sharply and split open on top, a sign that the fermentation and heat were both right. What distinguishes this version is the reliance on natural fermentation rather than baking powder alone to achieve the rise, giving the cake its characteristic light tang alongside the sweetness of coconut milk and sugar.