JP/17/PUASA
JP/17/PUASA
40 years of breaking the fast at Medan's grand mosque Apriadi Gunawan The Jakarta Post/Medan Zamilah was panting as she hurried, bowl in hand, to a side yard at Medan's Al Mahsum Grand Mosque. Still in her nurse's uniform, the woman was making her way to where the bubur sop, or traditional soup-flavored porridge, was being cooked.
The woman wasted no time in finding the man in charge: "Pak, could you give me some bubur sop for the breaking of the fast?"
The man cooking the porridge turned to her and replied, "Certainly, but it's not ready yet. You'll have to wait for a minute."
Zamilah did not mind having to wait among the growing crowd to get a bowl of bubur sop, which the 35-year-old nurse said was one of her favorite foods but one that she could only find during Ramadhan.
"I have never had bubur sop to break the fast. But I have heard a lot of people talk about the bubur sop served by the mosque for breaking the fast," said Zamilah.
After filling her bowl, Zamilah left for home, saying: "Praise God, I have what I want to break my fast."
Hamdan, the mosque's bubur sop cook, said the dish was a mosque specialty for breaking the fast during Ramadhan at Al Mahsum or at home. He said anyone who was fasting could stop by the mosque and get a free bowl of bubur sop.
"This has been a unique breaking of the fast tradition at the grand mosque for 40 years, since 1965. The tradition of this porridge feast is preserved because the people of Medan like it," Hamdan told The Jakarta Post.
The 33-year-old Hamdan said people had been breaking the fast together at the mosque since 1906, when the sultan of Deli, Mahmud Ar Rasyid, began the tradition. But the porridge served at the time was a hot and spicy dish, not the bubur sop.
At the time, the porridge was cooked at the sultan's court before being delivered to the mosque. Because the royal recipe required a lot of spices that are now difficult to find and took a long time to prepare, bubur sop was eventually introduced, Hamdan said.
"We replaced the hot specialty with this new blend. Thank God the tradition has survived and the people still enjoy it," said Hamdan, who has been the grand mosque's Ramadhan chief cook for 16 years.
The cooks have inherited all of the traditions and skills of their predecessors, passed down through the years from the early sultanate period. And the food is not cooked in just any old pot or pan.
"We cook this porridge in copper pots that once belonged to the sultan of Deli," said Hamdan. Each vessel has the capacity to hold about 400 servings.
According to him, the 800 total servings of bubur sop require about eight kilograms of meat, 20 kilograms of rice and 10 kilograms of vegetables including carrots and potatoes.
It takes about three hours to prepare the dish, starting with preparing the spices and cooking the meat. Then the rice is turned into porridge, before the vegetables are stirred in. The spices used in the dish are ginger, pepper, salt, cinnamon, leeks and fried onions.
Asked about where the money comes from for the free porridge, Hamdan said donations covered the costs. He said that from the first day to the 27th day of Ramadhan, it cost at least Rp 40 million to prepare the bubur sop.
Hamdan said the free porridge ended on the 27th day of Ramadhan, because after that mosque personnel would be busy handling the distribution of zakat fitrah, or donations for the poor.