Destination for Sea Food Lovers: Let’s Eat Fish

Kompas

The menu of fried kudu-kudu fish and various chili sauces at Apong Restaurant, Makassar, some time ago.

What are the most sought after culinary delights when visiting Makassar, South Sulawesi? Fish. Yes, fresh fish, which in local terms is often called “ikan sekali mati” (one-time dead fish).

It was at noon when Tawakkal Sirat was busy receiving visitors at Paotere Restaurant (RM). On Tuesday (11/1/2022), a group of lecturers from Hasanuddin University (Unhas) were among the guests at his restaurant, which is located in the shopping area of Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan, Makassar, not too far from the university’s complex.

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Even though he has a lot of employees, Tawakkal often serves the guests himself. He also always checks the burning of fish. For him, grilled or fried fresh fish should not be too dry, unless visitors ask it to be so.

"If it's too dry, the taste will be less fresh. Of course it should be well cooked. Here, we only prepare fresh fish, not frozen fish. So it's a shame when it's served, the fish is not fresh anymore," he said.

At the RM Paotere, fish stock is only prepared for one day. In the restaurant, various types of fresh fish are provided such as snapper, grouper, baronang, lamuru, cepa, kudukudu and milkfish, not to mention squid, shrimp, lobster and crab. Generally, various seafood is grilled, fried or made as soup.

This city seems to be a paradise for fish culinary lovers.

No wonder fish and all seafood are the most sought-after culinary delights for seafood lovers when they visit Makassar. This city seems to be a paradise for fish culinary lovers.

Marine products are one of the leading commodities of the coastal and marine area of South Sulawesi, which stretches 1,979.97 kilometers. Based on data from the Statistics Indonesia (BPS) office in South Sulawesi, marine fishery production in 2019 reached 542,078,490 kilograms. The fish was gathered at 14 fish auction places (TPI) in South Sulawesi.

The local residents are so familiar with fishery products that Makassar has named many roads after fish, such as Cakalang, Titang, Sunu, Cepa, Baronang, Lure, Mairo, Balana, Ja'jala, Klampeto, Lamuru, Bete-Bete, Tinumbu and Kandea . Don't forget also the nicknames of the football club that is the pride of Makassar city, PSM, is taken from the name of the fish, Juku Eja or red fish.

Kompas

Students of SMKN 8 Makassar City, South Sulawesi, practice serving food in a culinary instruction kitchen, some time ago. The students who graduate from this school generally work in a number of star hotels and industries in Makassar and abroad, such as Malaysia and England.

In Makassar, it is not difficult to find restaurants that serve fresh fish, from street stalls to five-star restaurants. On almost all strategic roads, there are several fish restaurants.

Characteristic

Food stalls or fish restaurants have indeed become one of the characteristics of Makassar. In fact, grouper or sunu salted fish is a typical souvenir of Makassar.

Fish restaurants are sometimes lined up on one side of the road or opposite each other and they are almost never deserted. At lunch and dinner time, outside the restaurants is always full of smoke. Not only that, lunch or dinner time is often a source of traffic jams on the roads around the restaurants.

Visitors just choose the fish they like along with their ingredients.

Generally, fish restaurants place a grill in the front with cooling boxes filled with fresh fish. Visitors just choose the fish they like along with their ingredients.

At RM Paotere, at least 200 fish are sold every day. This does not include shrimp, squid, lobster or crab. Tawakkal often has to ask for additional fish from the fish supplier if the supply runs out and there are a lot of visitors. Other restaurants can sell up to 500 medium to large fish each. Prices start from tens of thousands of rupiah to hundreds of thousands of rupiah per serving.

KOMPAS/RENY SRI AYU

A seller shows his selling fish at the pier of the Paotere fish market, Makassar, Wednesday (12/1/2022).

Makassar is one of the major cities for meetings, conventions and exhibitions in Indonesia. On the sidelines of meetings or exhibitions involving participants from outside Makassar, a culinary trip is always on the agenda.

“Usually when there is a meeting in Makassar, one of the activities that visitors never miss is eating fish. Usually, we even have a reservation before they come because from the airport, they go directly to a fish restaurant, especially if they arrive in the afternoon," said Amelia (27), an employee of a state-owned bank in Makassar who is often asked to find good restaurants to eat fish.

Eating fresh fish when returning their hometown is a good way to remember the past.

For Makassar people who live in other cities, fish is also one of the culinary treats to cure homesickness. Eating fresh fish when returning their hometown is a good way to remember the past.

“Every time I visit my hometown, I eat as much fish as I like. I enjoy fresh fish in a number of restaurants. When going back home, I bring dried fish sunu," said Yusrianti (45), who has lived with her husband in Bekasi, West Java for 20 years.

The restaurants and culinary delights in Makassar are not only about coto Makassar, konro, sup saudara, palubutung, es pisang ijo or jalangkote. Fish is one of the culinary icons. So, if you go to Makassar, don't miss the invitation to eat fish, which in Makassar is called “ayo makang ikang” or let’s eat fish.

(This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi).