'Bakpia Patuk': A delicacy from Yogyakarta

'Bakpia Patuk': A delicacy from Yogyakarta

By Idayanie and R. Fadjri

YOGYAKARTA (JP): During the holiday season, local tourists are
not only found on Jl. Malioboro, the city's famous boulevard. The
surrounding area is packed with cars from Jakarta, Bandung,
Semarang, Surabaya and other provinces as well. Among the places
frequently visited is Kampong Patuk, one kilometer west of the
boulevard.

Here in Kampong Patuk, domestic tourists will shop for a
typical Yogyakartan tidbit, bakpia.

Bakpia is a round-shaped sweet measuring two centimeters wide.
It is a very sweet and delicious snack that can be stored for
about five days. For this reason, it is a hot item.

Along Jl. K.S. Tubun, which runs through the center of Kampong
Patuk, rows of shops offer bakpia under their makers' special
trade names, most of which are synonymous with their house
numbers. There are shops calling themselves Bakpia Patuk 75, 67,
45, 38, 25, and so forth. All of them sell hot bakpia straight
from the oven.

One can immediately sense a competitive atmosphere as they
walk along this road because aggressive shop assistants and
parking attendants posing as middlemen encourage visitors to buy
bakpia.

"Genuine bakpia is sold over there. Let me take you there,"
said one parking attendant, pointing toward an alley leading
further into the village. It is not surprising that Kampong Patuk
is better-known as Kampong Bakpia. Many of the area's residents
are in the bakpia business.

If we had followed the parking attendant's suggestion, he
would have led us into a maze of kampong alleys where we would be
shown a thriving cottage industry operating from nearly every
home where small, round bakpia are made. The bakpia industry is
in the hands of small traders who employ seven to 10 workers to
give them a hand in the business. There are at least 50 bakpia
traders in the business. They produce and sell the sweets.

Bakpia was originally a Chinese tidbit introduced by Chinese
traders in Yogyakarta. It is a sweet pie containing green beans,
sugar and salt, and is wrapped in dough.

Lim Bok Sing was the first bakpia trader, who opened the
business in 1948 in what is now called Kampong Patuk. In the
beginning, Lim Bok Sing made the bakpia based on orders only. He
only had three assistants then. For the next 37 years, the
business was just so-so. Things changed, however, in the hands of
the second generation.

Yeni, a daughter of Lim Bok Sing, made professional changes in
her parents' shop.

"Doing business the way my parents used to is out of the
question. We can't go on in that way," she said.

Yeni packed the bakpia in a better way. She also chose a wider
marketing strategy. Instead of waiting for orders to come her
way, she distributed her products in shops and food outlets
frequented by tourists. Yeni's strategy was a hit. It improved
her parents' business enormously. In five years, she managed to
make a thriving business of it. Since 1989, domestic tourists
have learned of Bakpia Patuk 75, Yeni's trademark. The number is
derived from her home address, Jl. K.S. Tubun 75.

Other bakpia outlets, which later grew into branches run by
her family, were opened. Former employees also went into the
bakpia business. One of them is Sonder. After learning the art of
making bakpia, Sonder opened his own business at home, which was
a stone's throw away from his former employer's place. Sonder
even started a bakpia making course for the residents of Patuk.

Lim Bok Sing, the bakpia pioneer, would never have imagined
that his bakpia industry would develop in this way. The family
business has now been taken over by a member of the third
generation, Hidayat, a grandchild of Lim Bok Sing.

Hidayat opened a branch in Jakarta under the same name, Bakpia
Patuk 75. He said that he can sell about 100 kilograms or the
equivalent of about 10,000 bakpia every day. He was supported by
15 assistants.

During school holidays, Hidayat's production increases
threefold, when he uses 200 kilograms of flour daily to produce
30,000 bakpia with the help of 60 workers.

The bakpia business is not only run by Hidayat, who ranks
among the big bakpia businessmen. Smaller traders like Latief,
whose trademark is Bakpia Patuk 27, also count among the bakpia
producers. On most days, Latief sells his goods in the markets or
in hotels operating in the Malioboro district.

"Usually I can sell about 80 boxes," he said. A box contains
25 pieces of bakpia. On holidays or during international
conferences in Yogya, he could sell a thousand boxes per day. On
quiet days, when there are almost no buyers, bakpia traders sell
their goods at between Rp 2,500 and Rp 3,000 per box. When there
are no takers at all, prices sink even lower. The price of bakpia
goes up again during holidays, when it fetches Rp 4,000 per box.

The bakpia business, which could improve the economics of
local people, has attracted the government's attention. Bakpia
producers from Kampong Patuk receive training in production and
marketing from the Department of Industry at Yogyakarta's
provincial office. PT Indosat once provided soft loans amounting
to between Rp 500,000 and Rp 2 million to 40 bakpia traders.