The Tausug breakfast kebab of Zamboanga and the Sulu archipelago: small skewers of charcoal-grilled beef or chicken submerged in a bowl of thick, spicy-sweet annatto-red sauce and eaten with tamu, rice cakes steamed in woven coconut-leaf pouches. It descends from Malay satay carried north through the Sulu trade zone, cooked and eaten before dawn in dedicated satti houses.
Also known as satti zamboanga, tausug satti, sulu satti.
Reference video
Ingredients
- 600 g beef or chicken, small 2 cm pieces (satti skewers run tiny)
- 2 tbsp soy sauce and 1 tbsp calamansi or lime juice
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 tbsp rice flour, toasted (for the sauce)
- 1 l water (for the sauce)
- 3 red chilies, 3 garlic cloves and 1 stalk lemongrass, ground together (for the sauce)
- 2 tbsp palm sugar (for the sauce)
- 1 tbsp annatto water (for the sauce)
- salt, to taste
- ta'mu (woven rice cakes) or plain puso-style rice cakes
- bamboo skewers
How to make it
- 1
Marinate the meat in soy, calamansi and garlic 2 hours, then thread just 3 small pieces per stick — Zamboanga satti is eaten by the dozen, not the skewer.
- 2
Whisk the toasted rice flour into the water, add the chili-garlic-lemongrass grind, palm sugar, annatto and salt, and simmer 20 minutes, whisking, into a thick, glowing orange-red gravy.
- 3
Grill the little skewers over fierce charcoal 4-6 minutes total; small pieces want a fast blister.
- 4
Ladle the hot sauce into shallow bowls to a depth that will half-drown the meat.
- 5
Stand the skewers in the sauce with cubes of rice cake and serve immediately, breakfast-style.
Pro tip: The sauce is served as the plate itself — thin it past porridge-thick and the skewers fall over; keep it just spoonable so they stand.
Where Satti comes from
That timing is genuinely unusual for a satay descendant and it marks satti as a distinctly Tausug institution rather than a Filipino version of an Indonesian dish.
Annatto gravy before dawn: the Sulu branch of satay
Carried north from Malay satay, Satti keeps the small charcoal-grilled skewers of beef or chicken that Satay is built on but swaps the peanut dip for a bowl: the sticks stand half-drowned in a thick, spicy-sweet gravy coloured with annatto and thickened with toasted rice flour. Sate Padang also uses a rice-flour gravy, yet its meat is simmered before grilling and its sauce is built on turmeric and the cooking broth, served over ketupat. Satay Celup puts skewers into sauce too, but there the peanut pot does the cooking. Satti's own rice cake is tamu, steamed in woven coconut leaf, and it is eaten for breakfast, often before dawn, in the satti houses of Zamboanga and the Sulu archipelago.
Compare: Satay · Sate Padang · Satay Celup
How Satti is cooked
The sauce is the departure. Where satay sauce is peanut-based and served as a dip, satti sauce is a thick annatto-red gravy — chilli, garlic, lemongrass and annatto, thickened with toasted rice flour or cornflour, with ginger, turmeric or a little peanut or coconut in some kitchens — and the skewers are submerged in it rather than dipped.
The skewers themselves are small and lightly seasoned, since they are going into a strongly flavoured bowl. They are grilled fast over charcoal and dropped straight into the sauce, and the residual heat keeps the whole bowl hot while it is eaten.
Ingredients and shopping
Beef or chicken in small cubes, lightly marinated in soy, calamansi and garlic. Bamboo skewers, and small ones — a bowl of satti carries several.
For the sauce: annatto (achuete) for colour, chilli, garlic, lemongrass, palm sugar and toasted rice flour to thicken. Some cooks also add ginger, turmeric, or a little peanut or coconut. Tamu — rice cakes steamed in woven coconut leaf, the local equivalent of ketupat — to serve.
How Satti is served
In a bowl, skewers submerged in the sauce, with tamu rice cakes, for breakfast — often before dawn. Sweet coffee alongside. Satti houses in Zamboanga open very early and close by mid-morning.
Common mistakes
A thin sauce
Satti sauce is a thick gravy the skewers sit in, not a dip. Thicken it properly with starch.
Heavy marinating
The bowl carries the flavour. A strongly marinated meat fights the sauce.
Large cubes
The skewers are small so several fit in one bowl. Large cubes change the format.
Skipping the annatto
It gives the sauce its characteristic red and a mild earthy flavour. Paprika substitutes for colour but not for taste.
Satti: questions and answers
What is satti?
A Tausug breakfast dish of small grilled skewers submerged in a thick, spicy-sweet annatto-red sauce, served with tamu rice cakes.
How is it different from satay?
The sauce is a thick annatto gravy the skewers sit in rather than a peanut dip, and it is eaten at breakfast.
Sources and further reading
- Recipe: Sampling the Tausug's breakfast staple Satti — Philstar.com
- Jimmy's Satti, a must in Zamboanga City — Langyaw (Philippine travel journalism)
- Satti — Ang Sarap
