If you find yourself in Batak Karo highlands of North Sumatra, invite yourself to lunch at a crowded eatery. Have a seat and order a pagit-pagit. Sweating though you may be, act cool. Don’t look surprised when they serve it—at least until you smell it. If you squirm, relax, it gets better from here. Taste the broth: it comes from the thoroughly-spiced, hours-long boiling of cud, a cow’s cellulose-rich meal found in the first of its four stomachs. (Think of what a cow standing in the shade is munching.)
Should you get past the broth, dig in, the rest is goodness. Beneath cassava, citrus and rimbang leaves and ginger slivers are buried said cow’s (or pork) meat and intestines, perhaps even trotters and tripe. Eat before it cools, with heaps of rice, and wash it down with tuak, or coffee—unless you’re keen to meditate on the aftertaste.
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Jika Anda berada di dataran tinggi Batak Karo di Sumatera Utara, pastikan Anda makan siang di rumah makan yang terlihat ramai. Duduk dan pesan pagit-pagit. Jangan takut dan terkejut saat melihat hidangan ini, nikmati dulu aromanya. Cicipi kuahnya yang dibuat dari banyak rempah serta rumput yang sudah dimamah biak sapi, diambil dari salah satu perut mereka.
Setelah mencicipi lezatnya kuah pagit-pagit, lanjutkan makan karena di balik daun singkong, jeruk, rimbang, dan potongan jahe, Anda akan menemukan daging serta jeroan sapi (atau babi). Segera habiskan hidangan tersebut sebelum dingin, ditemani sepiring nasi hangat, dan tutup dengan tuak atau kopi.