Goat testicles earn national recognition

By Johannes Simbolon

JAKARTA (JP): The traffic, as usual, moved slowly along Jl. Kendal in Central Jakarta because dozens of parked cars crowded the narrow street.

The owners of the cars were enjoying their lunch in the food stalls that line the right side of the street.

Wide banners carry the names of each shop -- Haji Soleh Kumis, Acang Karna Kumis, Enday Kumis, Anduy Kumis, Jaya Kumis, Muksin Kumis. The banners all sport a mustache (kumis).

Every stall offers the same fare, sop kaki kambing (goat leg soup) and sate kambing (goat satay).

"Aside from goat's leg, torpedo is another favorite here," Nurdin, 26, the chief, cook and bottle washer at one food stall said while pointing at a bundle of goat testicles hanging at eye- level in a glass food box.

The testicles are called torpedo to mask what the patrons are ingesting. Neither Nurdin nor any other proprietor knows who introduced the name.

A small testicle, which can fill four skewers, costs Rp 2,500 (US$1.09). Large ones go for Rp 6,000. Tasting like sausage, the testicles are believed to be an aphrodisiac.

"Remember that we usually give the nickname bandot (old goat) to the old men who are interested in young girls," explained Ahmad Zainuri, 43, known as Enday, who owns Enday Kumis shop.

Goat testicle connoisseurs come from every walk of life, including artists and expatriates.

"Women always giggle at first seeing the torpedo, but they enjoy it very much, while the expatriates prefer chasing it with beer," said Nurdin.

The stalls also sell goat penis for Rp 1,500 each, but there is less of a market.

The street stalls on Jl. Kendal have carved a niche in the history of local food. The native Betawi restaurateurs first used the word kumis as the name of a food stall -- now a trademark of the local food industry. They also succeeded in introducing their cuisine through these stalls to compete with the dominate Padang and Javanese foods for the title of national cuisine.

Enday, a Betawi man living in a narrow alley called Gang Mess in Tanah Abang, explained that the Tanah Abang people maintain the goat leg soup business in Jakarta was introduced by Sjafii during colonial times.

According to Ridwan Saidi, in his book Orang Betawi dan Modernisasi (Betawi People and Modernization), Tanah Abang has been the goat trade center of Jakarta since the Dutch-Indes era.

Little is known about Sjafii except that he was born in Tanah Abang and was a traveling salesman. It is doubtful that Sjafii had a mustache or used kumis to name his business. What is clear is that all the Betawi goat soup traders in Tanah Abang -- there are herds of them -- now proudly claim blood connections with him.

Enday said Sjafii's soup recipe is still simple, consisting of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, bay leaf and cloves. Milk and coconut milk, which are now used by all goat soup traders, weren't included in the original recipe. Sjafii's recipe is now called sup bening (clear soup), while the recipe with milk is called sup santan (coconut milk soup).

Sjafii removed the goat hair rather primitively. He burned it off with methylated spirits. Today, the goats are boiled in water for ten minutes, it is then easy get rid of the hair.

Sjafii was considered as a creative trader by his neighbors and relatives. He had many imitators. Instead of traveling, however, they erected kiosks around the Ikada Ground (now Banteng Ground) in the 1950s.

In the 1960s, the traders were moved by the municipality to the Persija playground in Menteng. In 1973, the stadium was renovated forcing the traders to move to Jl. Blora and then to the adjacent Jl. Kendal.

It isn't clear why and when they started naming their shops kumis.

Enday, who has a mustache and was among the first traders on Jl. Kendal, said the kumis label had been used long before he started business.

"Kumis only means that all the workers of the food shops are males, regardless if they have mustache or not. Females started to be recruited only recently to work as cashiers," he said.

Mysterious as the kumis name may be, it has become a selling point. All new goat soup sellers tag kumis onto their names in hope of success. There are now hundreds of food shops carrying the name of Kumis. The traders are no longer exclusively Betawi. Therefore, the kumis stalls can also be spotted in Medan, Surabaya, Bandung, Bogor and Pontianak.

As competition stiffens, "copyright" violations are rampant.

"A new trader once opened a shop in Harmoni, Central Jakarta, under the name of Enday Kumis. I told him 'You may use kumis as you like, but not 'Enday' without permission'. He then changed the name," said Enday.

The goat leg soup business has developed over the decades. Born beside the street, it now caters to the middle and upper classes -- the owners of the cars that clog Jl. Kendal every day. Some of the traders have even expanded to modern outlets.

One of the most successful traders on Jl. Kendal, Haji Soleh, has opened branches in the Pasar Raya food center in Blok M and the Sentul Circuit in the south of Jakarta.

"We were even once offered to open branch in Singapore but my father turned down the offer for various reasons, including the lack of modern management," said Haji Soleh's daughter Herliani, a graduate of the Trisakti Economic College.