The annotated budak: Ubin lontong

Lontong is simply compressed boiled rice, the same stuff that is wrapped in palm leaves as ketupat. But lontong sensu stricto is eaten as a cold side dish to accompany curries and stews. Rice is cooked in a small container. As the grains swell up, they are pressed into a solid mass that can be sliced up into bite-sized pieces. In the villages, the container is a rolled-up square of banana leaf that has been softened by heating so that it does not crack. A cylinder is formed, sealed at one end and filled to a third with uncooked rice, before the open end is closed with a pin made from the rib of a palm frond. Water is heated in a pan with a pinch of salt (can anyone explain why this is done?) and the cylinders brought to a boil. The rice is left to simmer for one-and-a-quarter hours and must be kept completely immersed. At the end, the banana leaf containers will look like they are ready to burst. They are left to cool before the leaf is stripped off and the lontong cut and served.

Good lontong should be fragrantly soft yet firm, without the hardness of mass production, and that's how it is at the little shop that greets visitors on the left as one steps off the jetty onto Pulau Ubin proper. Under the shade of a small tamarind tree and the company of countless cats that doze the day away and prowl the shore at low tide, Encik Ali bin Montail and his family have been serving up Malay treats for over three decades. From morning to lunch, they offer mee rebus, mee siam and nasi lemak prepared without haste and free from artefact. But on Sundays, homemade lontong is to be had before 11, dished out with two halves of egg, tofu and curried vegetables and topped by a heap of burning sambal. Pak Ali himself may prepare the beverages while you sit by a table in the shop scattered with mementos to island life, in view of the channelled kelongs and rushing streams of group consciousness.

Source: Sri Owen, Indonesian Food and Cookery, Prospect Books, London, 1990.