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.