Spending a day with a Minang restaurant manager in Jakarta<\/p>\n
Fifteen years ago, Ibnu Rusdi, 40, forsook the classroom for a
\ndifferent life. The former high school mathematics teacher now
\nmanages one of the capital's Minang restaurants, Natrabu, on the
\nfrenzied Jl. Agus Salim in Central Jakarta. Born in the West
\nSumatra town of Bukittinggi, Rusdi lives in Cilandak, South
\nJakarta, with his wife, Yanti, and their four children. In
\nconversation with The Jakarta Post contributor William Furney.<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): \"Since this is the holy fasting month of
\nRamadhan, we all get up at 2 a.m. I feel tired. After praying,
\nYanti and our maid cook for the family and we eat at 3 a.m. It's
\njust the usual stuff of rice, vegetables and tempeh. I'm not that
\nhungry but I'll force myself to eat. After all, it'll be a long
\ntime before I have anything else. Then there are more prayers
\nbefore we go back to bed at 4:30 a.m.<\/p>\n
My day starts properly at 7 a.m. It's out of bed and straight
\nto work, which usually takes about two hours because of the
\ntraffic jams.<\/p>\n
The first thing I do when I get to work is deal with
\nadministrative issues. If it's not the fasting month, the
\nrestaurant opens at 9 a.m., but during Ramadhan it's not open
\nuntil 6 p.m. But we do takeouts from 4 p.m. onward, though not
\nwith rice. We're afraid if the food were sold with rice, people
\nwould be tempted to eat it outside. So we don't allow that and
\njust sell meat, fish and so on.<\/p>\n
I have no trouble fasting. It helps me be a better person
\nbecause I get to know what the poor people are feeling. I can
\nunderstand how they live with their difficulties. Often the poor
\ndon't have enough to eat and will go for a day or two without any
\nfood. During the fasting month, we experience something of what
\ntheir lives are like.<\/p>\n
We have fewer customers these days, down from the 200 or so
\nper day during normal months. But it's still busy, as people like
\nto come here to break the fast.<\/p>\n
Right now, we've got 60 employees, 30 of whom are waiters.
\nEveryone is Muslim. That's a necessity in a Minang restaurant.
\nMinang is different from Padang, although they're in the same
\narea of West Sumatra. A Minang restaurant is very traditional, is
\nowned by a Muslim and must have a musholla (prayer room) on the
\npremises so our guests can pray if they want to. Padang
\nrestaurants, on the other hand, can be owned by Sundanese or
\nChinese, different from the people of West Sumatra. Most Padang
\nrestaurants don't have a musholla. But the food that's served in
\nboth is more or less the same; it's the ideology that's
\ndissimilar.<\/p>\n
Since Natrabu opened in 1967, the most popular dishes have
\nbeen rendang (spicy beef) and sayur daun singkong (a cassava
\nleaves dish), fried cow's lungs, chicken curry, ikan emas (fish)
\nand chicken hearts and necks. These dishes taste great and
\nthey're not as spicy as other kinds of Indonesian food.<\/p>\n
We're known in Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore and get many
\nguests from those countries. They love our food. Both Mahathir
\nMohamad (Malaysia's prime minister) and Anwar Ibrahim (Malaysia's
\njailed former deputy prime minister) have eaten here. And many
\nIndonesian ministers frequently come here.<\/p>\n
But we have lots of guests from all sorts of other countries:
\nthe U.S., Britain and other Western countries, and Australia. And
\nalso the Japanese. Every August 17 (Independence Day), we cook
\nfor members of the Indonesian Military and various ministers.<\/p>\n
We break the fast here after the tarawih (evening Ramadhan
\nprayer), usually with some sweet tea first.<\/p>\n
I don't regret leaving teaching behind as my life is much
\nbetter, and I earn a lot more. I was a high school mathematics
\nteacher for four years and it was tough going. My background is
\nalso in accounting, and that's helpful in this job, which I like.
\nWe work on a profit-sharing system. Our employees are paid every
\n100 days and if they run out of money, they can get a sub. It
\nworks quite well and everyone's happy. The basic salary for a
\nwaiter is about Rp 900,000 every 100 days. Others can earn up to
\nRp 10 million. It's the same with other restaurants of this type,
\nworking on results and a percentage basis. The owner gets 50
\npercent. If a waiter sees a member of staff taking a tip for
\nhimself, he'll say, \"Hey, that's not your money, it's ours.\"
\nEverything is shared.<\/p>\n
I leave the restaurant at 8 p.m., when it's full of customers,
\nand get home about an hour later. After a quick chat with Yanti,
\nit's off to bed as another long day draws to a close.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/spending-a-day-with-a-minang-restaurant-manager-in-jakarta-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}