Mie Titi

Mie Gomak is a Batak dish from North Sumatra, and it begins with a confession: Batak people didn't always eat wheat. The original *gomak* was made from rice flour, hand-pressed into thick pale strands, and boiled in a turmeric-laced broth. Wheat noodles came much later, brought by Chinese traders and Dutch missionaries, and the Batak adapted the dish without changing its soul. The name is onomatopoeic: "gomak-gomak" is the sound of noodles being shaken in the sieve, just like mie kocok in West Sumatra. The broth is the soul of the dish — a thin, bright yellow curry of turmeric, andaliman (Batak pepper, citrusy and slightly numbing), garlic, and candlenut. It's poured over noodles that are then served either dry (gomak) or in a thin soup (soup gomak). Andaliman is what makes this dish singular. The pepper is endemic to North Sumatra's highlands, and its flavor — lemony, peppery, almost electric — has no substitute. Toba Samosir, around Lake Toba, is the heartland; the dish is served at every warung from sunrise to late evening.