Skipjack tuna, split and clamped in bamboo frames, then smoked until firm and dark — eaten fried, shredded into sambal or cooked in rica.
What makes it cakalang fufu
Skipjack tuna, split open.
Clamped in bamboo and smoked slowly.
Cooked again before eating, usually with chilli.
Where it comes from
Skipjack is the great fish of North Sulawesi, landed at Bitung in huge numbers. Fufu is the Minahasan way of keeping it: the fish is split, pinned flat in a frame of split bamboo and smoked over a slow fire until it's firm, reddish-brown and keeps for days.
It turns up everywhere — shredded and fried with chilli as cakalang fufu rica, beside tinutuan at breakfast, and inside panada.
How it varies
Cakalang fufu rica
Shredded and fried in a rica paste — the most common way.