Breaking the fast on the street

Breaking the fast on the street

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

There is nothing more pleasurable than breaking the fast at
home surrounded by family. Everyone rushes to the table when the
adzan (call to prayer) is heard in the gathering dusk. Water or
hot sweet tea is passed around, then tajil (snacks to break the
fast) are enjoyed.

After the snacks, people either pray or immediately sit down
to a big meal of delicious food specially prepared for Ramadhan.
Either way, it is fun to be together with the people you love
during the holy month.

That is why Indra, 29, always tries to break the fast at home
with his wife and son, even though it takes over an hour to get
from his office in West Jakarta to his house in Tangerang.

"By the time I get home it's already time to break the fast.
So I usually buy water and sweets at the office before I leave
for home," he said.

Though it is sometimes a battle to make it home to be with his
family, Indra is luckier than thousands of others who are forced
by circumstance to break the fast on the street.

A lot of it is to do with the cost of modern living. Some
people work night shift or take a class after work, while others
get caught in traffic jams or, simply live too far away from
their offices.

They go to the food courts at local malls or restaurants,
while the more affluent gather at hotels that offer sumptuous
buffets at prices up to Rp 100,000.

But thousands of others choose to break the fast at the
sidewalk stalls found across the city. Some must break their fast
during the journey home, either with meals they prepared
themselves or with snacks purchased from the hawkers who swarm
the streets as dusk approaches.

"Well, of course it's cheaper than eating at the mall. Imagine
how much I'd have to spend if I had to break the fast at the mall
every day," said Reni as she broke the fast in the Blok M area.

The employee of a company in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, also
said that sidewalk stalls offered a wide variety of food to
choose from.

Drive around Bendungan Hilir, Cikini or Blok M and you will be
amazed by the number of vendors, selling everything from fried
chicken and satay to nasi padang and seafood.

Some vendors have a stall or a cart, others simply lay out
their food on a table, usually snacks like kolak (fruit stewed in
a coconut milk and palm sugar) and cendol (a sweet drink), which
are sold in plastic bags.

Many vendors open in the morning, while others do not open
until it is almost time to break the fast and the number of
customers peaks.

Parlini, a vendor in the Bendungan Hilir market, opens her
stall at 4 p.m. during Ramadhan, while the rest of the year he
opens for business at lunchtime.

"It's usually crowded at the time of breaking the fast to
around 7 p.m. I usually go home about 8 p.m. because there are no
more customers," she explained, while preparing food for a
customer.

For some people, however, it is not merely the low prices that
draw them to a sidewalk stall to break their fast.

"I just like the atmosphere. It's crowded and hectic with
everyone wanting to break the fast ... it's lively," said Evita,
a postgraduate student who was breaking the fast at a stall in
Fatmawati, South Jakarta.

At Bendungan Hilir, for example, there is a small trickle of
customers at about 4 p.m. and everything is relatively quiet.

But about 5 p.m., people start to arrive in droves. Most of
them have just finished work, and come either alone or with a
group of colleagues.

"I usually break the fast at home, but we had a lot of work to
do at the office. So we decided to break the fast together here,"
said Winjun, who works at the nearby Supreme Audit Body.

At about 5:30 p.m., Winjun and his friends started to order
some dishes at the seafood stall they were seated at. Soon, large
plates of shrimp, clams, crabs and fish were placed in front of
them.

Half an hour later, the adzan was heard and the market was
galvanized into action. Customers broke the fast and waiters
served the food. And when they could grab a moment, the waiters
took their turn to break the fast, sitting near stoves with stray
cats waiting to pounce on fallen morsels.

But as soon as more customers arrived, the waiters quickly
stood up to serve them before later continuing their own meals.
It was Ramadhan, after all, a once-a-year business opportunity
that must not be passed up.