'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.