In Palembang there are also delicious traditional foods. Apart from Pempek, there are some delicious traditional foods. One of the delicious foods is Gulo Puan. Gulo Puan is a historical food because it is a food of the aristocrats inherited from the kings of the Sultanate of Palembang Darrussalam. Over time, this food has become a characteristic of the people of Palembang. About the main ingredient of Gulo Puan or milk sugar is fresh milk from buffalo typical of the Pampangan region, Ogan Komering Ilir (OKI), South Sumatra. The distance is about 85 km from the city of Palembang or about 50 km from the city of Kayu Agung which is the capital of OKI district.
Puan means milk in the regional language of South Sumatra, Gulo Puan means milk sugar, according to its basic ingredients. Cooked like a caramel cake. The difference is caramel cake with white sugar. The texture of this cake is overtime, gritty, with a brownish color. Even though it is OKI’s special food, it is not easy to find this food, only certain times, such as during Friday prayers at the Great Mosque of Palembang and sold at street vendors at a price that is quite deep, which is around Rp. 100 thousand for each kilogram.
Gulo Puan’s taste is sweet and savory, a combination of caramel and cheese. Not only can it accompany tea or coffee, but also eat it with plain bread, Gulo Puan is still delicious to enjoy. This complicated and long way of making it resulted in the savory and legit cake only being enjoyed by nobles. Until now, these cakes are still difficult to find, unlike pempek that can be found in every location and on various occasions.
Not only Gulo Puan, this swamp buffalo milk can also be processed into ghee, sagon puan, and tape puan. You could say it’s expensive, because the raw materials and processing time are quite long. How to make ghee is not too difficult. It is enough to precipitate the milk until the curd layers separate. Ghee oil is a white precipitate with a buttery-like aroma and taste. When viewed from the protein content, it turns out that this swamp buffalo has higher protein than cow’s milk. This content makes swamp buffalo milk processed into ghee and puan gulo oil.
Admittedly not everyone can make this cake. But if you want to try it doesn’t hurt. How to make it is five liters of swamp buffalo milk and 1 kilogram of brown sugar mixed and cooked over low heat, then stirring constantly for about five hours. If the milk thickens until it dries and forms a brownish gendang, this is a sign that this puan gulo is ready to be printed according to taste.
The taste of this food is very tasty and tasty when using Buffalo Rawa milk. If you replace it with regular buffalo milk, goat’s milk, or cow’s milk, of course it’s not just a different taste, this too will affect its legit and delicious taste.
If you look at the main ingredient used is the Swamp Buffalo (Bubalus Bubalis Carabauesis) Pampangan. The population of Rawa Pampangan buffalo is currently decreasing because the grazing area is decreasing due to forest fires that occurred in 2014-2015. Therefore, Gulo Puan making cannot be done every day. The reduction in the number of Swamp Buffalo greatly affects the existence of Gulo Puan.
One of the villages that made Gulo Puan is Bangsal Village. It’s not just Gulo Puan food that’s hard to find. The area of ​​manufacture is far from reach and needs struggle. With roads that are not smooth, winding, rocky, slippery, and still red dirt, it takes 3-4 hours by motorized vehicle from the city to Bangsal village.So, are you interested in trying to eat this legendary Indonesian traditional food from South Sumatra?
