'Bika Ambon', the hotcake of Medan

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

A woman hurriedly gets off a tourist bus to enter a store, Ratna. Once inside, she orders three pans of yellowish cake.

"Please wrap them neatly because I want to take them to Malaysia," she says. Within three minutes, the cakes are all wrapped and ready.

That is an everyday sight in Jl. Mojopahit in Medan, a popular street for those wanting to buy the city's well-known cake, bika Ambon.

"If we don't take bika Ambon back home, it's like we've not been to Medan," Andrian Parlindungan, a lecturer of YARSI University in Jakarta said while spotted shopping for bika Ambon.

But why is the cake called bika Ambon? Ambon is a city in the eastern part of the country, far away from Medan in North Sumatra. How come it's not called bika Medan instead?

Kaeng, owner of the Bika Ambon Mojopahit brand, recalled that the cake was there in the 1950s. Then, it was for private consumption. "The cake was already there from my childhood," the 65-year-old man said.

He said the cake was first sold by the Aluan family, and then the business was handed down to his child, Ati. At first, Ati sold bika Ambon in Petisah market in Medan before moving to her house in Jl. Mojopahit in 1985 after her stall in the market was closed down.

Soon, another store, Ratna, opened up in the same street, followed a few years later by Bika Ambon Mojopahit, Achai, Majestik and many more. "So, bika Ambon started gaining popularity in Jl. Mojopahit sometime in the 1990s," Kaeng said.

But there's different story. According to Femina magazine, rumor has it that years ago, an Ambonese trader stopped over in Medan on his way back to his homeland in Ambon from Malaysia. With him, he carried the cake. Once he found out the cake was loved by everyone in Medan, he decided to stay in the city and forget his plan to return to Ambon. That's why the cake is called bika Ambon. In a subsequent development, the cake was sold by those of Chinese descent in Medan.

Ratna, 54, said that when she started selling the cakes in 1979 in her kiosk in Petisah market, she did not believe many were interested in her bika Ambon, especially during religious holidays like Idul Fitri and Christmas.

"At that time, a pan of bika Ambon was sold at Rp 5,000 to Rp 7,500 each," Ratna said.

Now, the not-so-wide road is always packed with fancy cars while their owners are busy buying the cakes either for their own consumption, or as gifts.

Just like Ati, Ratna was forced to leave the market, moving to her house in Jl. Mojopahit in 1987, where she ran the store with her son, Budi.

Now, the street is crowded with bika Ambon vendors. So far, there are about 36 stores selling the cake in the street alone.

Ratna made bika Ambon based on her old recipe.

In the recipe, bika Ambon is made from coconut milk, sugar, cassava flour, egg yolk, sap, pandanus and citrus leaves.

To make it, coconut milk, pandanus and citrus leaves are boiled. The mixture is then allowed to cool off. After that, cassava flour, sugar, and egg yolks are added before the mixture is kneaded. The last step is to pour the fermented sap into the dough. The dough is then left for 11 hours to rise before it can be placed in an oven.

The recipe, according to Ratna, is an ordinary one, but the quality of the raw materials determines the taste.

As a result, a pan of bika Ambon is sold at diffrent prices, from Rp 18,000 to Rp 35,000.

Ratna sells her bika Ambon at Rp 30,000 to Rp 35,000 per pan. Although her price is the highest in the area, she gets plenty of orders. During the recent Chinese New Year, for instance, she received an order for 100 pans of bika Ambon to be sent to Hong Kong.

She said that the cakes were mostly given as gifts for families and business relations, including visiting senior officials. Famous names who have tasted the cakes' unique taste include, according to Ratna, President Megawati Soekarnoputri and her husband Taufik Kiemas, Indra Safera and Paramitha Rusadi.

Orders for the cake, which might also be made through the Internet (indomall.com/bikaambonmedan), come from as far afield as China, Hong Kong, Korea and Malaysia.

"If it is well wrapped, bika Ambon can last long and doesn't easily get stale, so the taste will stay the same," Ratna said.

The businesswoman, however, was reluctant to reveal the amount of money she spent each day to produce about 50 pans to 60 pans of cake on regular days, or up to 150 pans during religious holidays.

According to Efranus Chai of Bika Ambon Mega, he needed around Rp 300,000 a day to prepare the cakes. By selling about 28 pans a day, he could reap a profit of Rp 150,000.