Goat testicles earn national recognition

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.