Central Java's 'Wajik Week' industry treats tested by time
Central Java's 'Wajik Week' industry treats tested by time
By Tarko Sudiarno and Nugroho CH
MAGELANG, Central Java (JP): Despite the presence of Western
snack food, cakes made from glutinous rice, coconut milk and palm
sugar, locally known as wajik, are one traditional snack still
popular among the Javanese.
One home industry, specializing in this traditional snack for
over 60 years, is Wajik Week, located in Salaman, Magelang in
Central Java.
Though the product's packaging may change with the times, the
wajik snack itself is still prepared from an original recipe and
traditional processing techniques.
The success of Wajik Week can be attributed to Untung
Sugianto, who has willingly given up his journalistic profession
to concentrate on the business he inherited from his grandmother,
Ong King Liem.
When establishing this wajik-making business in 1939,
grandmother Ong may not have imagined that it would survive until
today. Ong, who lived in Salaman, about 8 km away from the world-
famous Borobudur Temple, simply wanted to make her treats popular
in the area. As her house was located at the side of the road
connecting Purworejo and Magelang, many people from outside the
town bought her wajik. In Muntilan and Magelang, there were
already quite a lot of people making and selling wajik.
Besides wajik, grandmother Ong also made other snacks like
onde-onde, round fried cakes made from rice flour, filled with
sweetened ground mung beans and covered with sesame seeds;
juadah, a delicacy made from rice; tempe kripik, crispy chips
made from tempe; and peyek, crisp, thin chips made from flour and
peanuts, shrimp or small fish.
From all of these snacks the most popular has been her wajik.
After grandmother Ong died, her fourth child, Ong Gweek Nio,
took over the business. In her hands, the marketing of these
snacks was no longer confined to the Salaman and Muntilan areas.
They were also sold in Magelang, Purworejo and other surrounding
areas. In 1972, however, Ong Gweek Nio died of cancer.
The business, which by then had already begun to flourish, was
then operated by Gweek Nio's younger sister, Ong Hwa Nio. Under
Hwa Nio, unfortunately, this business did not develop as expected
and one of the products, onde-onde, was no longer produced
because few people were now interested in buying it.
However, under Hwa Nio there were improvements in the
production process with the use of a hand-operated coconut
grating machine. In 1979, Ong Hwa Nio died and control of the
family business fell into the hands of Ong Joe Tjoan, Hwa Nio's
elder brother.
Unfortunately, Joe Tjoan did not have a knack for business and
as a result there were signs of declining trade. Joe Tjoan
managed the business for only 10 months before contracting a
fatal illness.
Upon Joe Tjoan's death, the Ong's family business was like a
captainless ship. Luckily, Untung Sugianto, then still a student
at the University of Diponegoro School of Social and Political
Sciences and a journalist for the Suara Merdeka daily in
Semarang, Central Java, decided to abandon his journalistic
career and take the business's helm.
"I had no other choice. I was called upon to take charge as
nobody in the family cared about it," Untung said.
Progress
It has been under Untung's control, luckily, that the family
business has made a lot of progress.
Untung revamped the management and working system, as well as
modernizing equipment and improving the packaging. What he has
kept unchanged is the recipe and the quality of the products. To
achieve the latter, one of the keys is the use of high quality
raw materials.
Aside from the raw materials, another key to ensuring quality
of the products is the processing technique, which nobody else
but Untung Sugianto has any knowledge about.
In keeping up with the times, processing of the wajik no
longer uses firewood, being replaced by LPG, liquefied petroleum
gas.
"Although we now use LPG, we continue to use a small flame
when making our wajik. The wok we use is made of copper, just as
it has always been. The wok is very large in size and must be
specially ordered from a wok-maker in Cepogo, Boyolali, as nobody
sells it in the market here. You must use a copper wok to make
wajik, otherwise it will smell rancid," Untung said.
For packaging, Untung has decided to discontinue using banana
leaves and print paper. Instead, he has introduced special
cardboard packaging. The packaging is illustrated with a picture
of the mythical garuda bird, an inscription guaranteeing that the
meal is acceptable for Moslems, and his own photograph of a wajik
placed on a piece of banana leaf. In addition, the expiration
date is also printed on the cardboard.
As wajik is only fresh for a relatively brief period, Untung
can no longer rely on public transportation for the distribution
of his products. For this purpose he set up his own
transportation fleet, which is now an important division of the
company, ensuring that no stale wajik from his business will
enter the marketplace.
"The main asset in business is honesty. People trust us
because of this honesty. If there is no such trust, it is really
dangerous. That's why I put the expiration date of the wajik on
the packaging, to prevent our buyers from getting disappointed,"
Untung explained.
Each day, Untung makes around 400 kg of wajik, requiring 200
kg of glutinous rice. The production level may rise by 300
percent during holidays and the New Year.
In view of his expanding wajik business, Untung began to think
about patenting his wajik to prevent the emergence of a
counterfeit product. In 1986 he obtained a patent for his wajik
under the trademark of Week, taken from the middle name of the
pioneer of this business, Ong Gweek Nio.
Untung's intuition was right. Another wajik product, under the
trademark of Kweek, commenced distribution in Semarang a short
time later. As this product used a logog very similar to his,
Untung reported the matter to police. The case was later heard in
court.
"If it had not been wajik, I would not have been bothered. But
it was the same product. I had to take the matter up to the
court. Unfortunately, before the court passed its final ruling,
the owner of Kweek wajik died from heart failure," he said.