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.