Summary:

Category: Local  Food Store /Restaurant

• Business Name: Pempek Beringin, a chain of unique local food stores.
• Reviewed  store address: Jalan Radial No 2890
• Review date: September 16, 2017
• Location: Palembang City, Province of South Sumatra, Indonesia
• Quality /price: good
• Approximate purchase /person: USD 6 and higher

Recommendation: place to buy for local traditional food of South Sumatra, preferable as take-away gift (see tips at end of article). Has seating as a restaurant, albeit limited.

Recommended transportation to get here: rental car

 Description and Location

Beringin (the store name) is a food store chain specializing in South Sumatra unique food. It has several stores in the city. This review is on the store located at Jalan Radial.  It is a local food store that includes a restaurant. The space /seat capacity as a restaurant is quite limited. Nevertheless, restaurant service is available. It is inclined more as a take-away local food store instead of being a restaurant.

All Beringin stores /restaurants are located in the city of Palembang. They do not have stores in other areas. Detailed information about Beringin Pempek is as follows:

• Reviewed store street address: Jalan Radial No 2890 Palembang
• Google coordinates: -2.982210, 104.748977
• Contact number: mobile +62 822 8238 8000
• Recommended transportation to get there: rental car, click here for someone who can help.
• website (online store, see description): pempek-beringin.com
• Location of other stores (according to Pempek Beringin website):
  • Jalan Radial No 2890 Palembang
  • Jalan Rawajali No 14 Palembang
  • Bandara SMB II Lantai II Ruang Tunggu Domestik
  • Jalan Lingkaran 1 No 20/B 9 Ilir Palembang
  • Jalan Lingkaran 1 No 785 Palembang
  • Jalan Kapt. Anwar Sastro No 1128 Rt 002 Rw 007
  • Ruko Ptc, JL. R Sukamto Palembang
  • Arena Snack Corner Carrefour Palembang Squere Mall Lantai 2 Palembang
  • Lobby Hotel Amaris, Jalan Demang Lebar Daun No. 1836 Kelurahan Ilir Timur 1 Palembang
  • Lobby Hotel Aryaduta, Komplek Palembang Square Mall Palembang

 

This store provides wide variety of local South Sumatra food, and some souvenirs. It’s most prominent Food is pempek.

According to Wikipedia, pempek history is as follows:

Pempek is the best-known of Palembang’s dishes.^[2] Its origin is undoubtedly Palembang. However, the history behind the creation of this savoury dish is unclear. According to local tradition, around the 16th century there was an old Chinese immigrant who lived near the Musi river. He noticed an abundance of fish caught by the local fishermen. In the Sumatran tropical climate, before the invention of refrigerationtechnology, most of these unsold leftover fish decayed and were wasted. The indigenous people, however had limited knowledge and techniques for processing fish. During that period, most of the indigenous people simply grilled, fried or boiled their fish instead of adding other ingredients to make new dishes. The old Chinese man mixed in some tapioca and other spices, which he then sold around the village on his cart. The people referred to this old man as ‘pek-apek, where apek is a Chinese slang word to call an old man. The food is known today as empek-empek or pempek.

The pempek history is also posted on the wall of Pempek Beringin store wall

 

What’s available

Pempek is the most prominent food sold by Pempek Beringin. There are variations of pempek s well, such as Lenjer, Kapal Selam (literally means: submarine). Most of the variations are available at Pempek Beringin. Pempek is served with rich sweet and sour sauce called kuah cuko (which means vinegar sauce). Be warned though, as this sauce is spicy hot. A lot of drinking water should be prepared during consumption.

And there are crackers made of tapioca and shrimp that are really tasty and crispy. A unique cracker is called kemplang, a cracker roasted, that also comes with hot chili sauce.

Pempek Beringin also provides various local cakes, such as maksuba and other varieties. Many of the cakes are moist variety of cakes. The store also sells souvenirs placed on a small container near the entry door. The souvenirs were limited though, but it presented a way for a quick grab should time is limited to get souvenirs somewhere else. For a more extensive experience for clothing souvenir from South Sumatra, visitors may want to visit Fikri Koleksi store. Click here to see the review.

 

Website(s)

Pempek Beringin has several websites, with pempek-beringin.com seems to be the most dependable This site has the most distinct sales instruction for buying pempek remotely. For the purchase, Pempek are sold in packages, ranging from USD 7 to  USD 42.

 

Our experience:

We visited the store on Saturday afternoon, which was busy hours for a food store. Parking was packed, and the store was quite crowded. Even though it was already afternoon, Pempek Beringin still had a full supply of variety of cakes, pempek, crackers, and other products. We did not dine in. Instead, we made purchases to take with us.

Conclusion:

While taste of the pempek may not be the most delicious compared to other renowned pempek brands, the other products tasted quite satisfactorily. Overall, this place can serve as a single quick grab of food for gift or consumption. Since the seating is limited (and will be very crowded on weekends), children or visitors with numerous companies may be less comfortable to eat in house. It is recommended to make purchase and eat at your own place.