Palembang food is one of the most distinctive cuisines in Sumatra, built around freshwater fish from the Musi, river palm sugar, and a national obsession with the local fish-cake-and-vinegar combination called pempek. The riverbank around Benteng Kuto Besak in the early evening is the city's open-air food court; there is also a serious concentration of dedicated pempek restaurants on Jalan Sudirman and Jalan Merdeka.