Chocolate mosque sets new replica record

Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post, Semarang

A chocolate replica of a mosque, measuring five meters tall, 3.02 meters wide, and 4.07 meters long has broken the Indonesian Record Museum (Muri) record for replicas.

Manager of Muri Paulus Pangka handed over the award to General Manager of Hotel Ciputra Semarang Sylvain Croise on Saturday.

According to Executive Chef Sonny D. Wibisono, it took 15 employees to make the replica from 600 kilograms of chocolate and 90 kilograms of glucose.

The replica cost Rp 20 million (US$2,353) to make.

"We have worked in shifts for 14 days. On the last day (Friday), we even worked 24-hours straight," said Sonny.

The previous award for the biggest mosque replica was won by the Sari Pan Pacific Hotel in Jakarta for a replica that was 4.9 meters tall (2.5 meters tall for the dome and 2.4 meters tall for the tower), 1.65 meters wide, 2.5 meters long, and consisted of 17.2 kilograms of chocolate.

Croise said that the replica was intended to be a unique decoration for the commercial hotel, in order to greet the holy month of Ramadhan and Idul Fitri.

He said that it would set this years festivities apart from those of previous years at the Hotel, which is located in the heart of Semarang city.

The replica is now being displayed in the lobby of Santika Hotel, and every guest and spectator is actually allowed to eat a portion of the giant chocolate replica.

"I hope that next year, we can make a bigger replica than this one," he said.

Established on Jan. 27, 1990 by businessman Jaya Suprana, Muri has noted a slew of other records, such as the tallest and the smallest person in Indonesia, a bicycle with the most riders, the smallest statue, and a 3-and-a-half-year-old child who could operate the Windows program.