Enthusiasts flock to Betawi food festival
Enthusiasts flock to Betawi food festival
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
"Wow, these look really lekker," a middle-aged woman uttered
enthusiastically, while looking at nasi ulam and the side dishes
served on a long table at the Heritage Food in Heritage City 2004
on Sunday. Lekker is the Dutch word for tasty or delicious.
On another table were some rarely seen fruits like breadfruit
and gembili (a variety of potato), all served for free. Steven,
34, recalled how he used to eat gohok (sour grapelike fruit)
taken from the trees around his elementary school in Central
Jakarta.
"It has been ages ... now it is not easy to find the fruit
around here," he said.
Dadi, a member of the event committee, said they found the
fruit around Condet in East Jakarta, where some old Betawi
(native Jakartan) families still live.
Thousands of Jakartans flocked to the National Archive
building on Jl. Gadjah Mada in Central Jakarta, to experience
Betawi culinary festival organized by the museum enthusiast club
Sahabat Museum and food club Jalansutra.
Visitors could taste at least 12 dishes like soto tangkar and
nasi kebuli, two traditional beverages and various snacks like
kue ku and dodol Betawi (taffy).
There was also a display on how to prepare sweet, sticky
taffy, by Nasir from Bogor, which involved many ingredients and a
lot of muscle power.
"It is basically made of sticky rice, coconut milk and palm
sugar. To have the best taste, I have to stir the dough for at
least seven hours without stopping," he said, while continually
stirring the dough in a large kettle over smoldering charcoal.
By noon, some 1,500 tickets had been sold for the event, which
ended at about 9:30 p.m. Each visitor paid 30,000 (US$3.30) to
enter the compound and get a complimentary roti buaya (crocodile-
shaped bread).
"The number reached was way beyond our target of 1,500 total
for the whole day. As of 4 p.m., we estimated 3,000 visitors had
come," said Lisa Virgiano, one of the organizers.
She acknowledged that the "happy news" carried with it some
consequences: There was a shortage of food and water for about an
hour.
Many beverages like selendang mayang and bir plethok had been
sold out by lunch. Even bottled water was sold out, and some
visitors had to go out of the compound to get water.
To have a taste of the food, visitors had to buy coupons that
could be refunded later.
A portion of lontong cap gomeh (white rice wrapped in leaf
eaten with gravy of coconut milk) priced at Rp 17,000, while
gurame kuah pecak (fried fish in thick coconut milk with peanuts,
chili peppers and cashew nuts) was tagged at Rp 20,000.
To have nasi ulam, visitors had to pay Rp 5,000, but if they
wanted side dishes like dendeng (thinly sliced fried meat) or
salted squid, they had to pay more.
feel free to cut:
Another committee member, Harry, said that the entrance fee
was fair because the visitors got to see some interesting
attractions.
In addition there were discussions about food featuring
renowned food enthusiast Bondan Winarno, and there was a cooking
demo as well as art performances.
Despite the scorching heat, visitors --mostly younger middle
class families-- braved the open air, watching an Indian tabla
(percussion performance) put on by the Nehru Cultural Center and
a Chinese dragon dance and a lion dance.