'Nasi jenggo' a favorite of all generations

Tri Vivi Suryani, Contributor, Denpasar

Every night, dozens of young people flock to a modest food stall in front of the Kumbasari market, in downtown Denpasar.

The stall offers but one dish,nasi jenggo, or rice mixed with spicy meat, chili sauce, fried noodles, vegetables and dried sweet tempeh wrapped in a banana leaf. This special delicacy is the favorite meal of many youngsters in Denpasar, especially students who have to survive on a meager monthly allowance.

The price is so cheap. Each package of nasi jenggo costs between Rp 1,500 (17 US cents) and Rp 2,000.

"I eat two packages of nasi jenggo every night and that's enough for dinner," said Ningsih, a local university student, who only spends Rp 10,000 on her daily meals.

For low-income students and workers, nasi jenggo is a kind of salvation. But nasi jenggo fans now include those who don't have to worry about money.

Komang Arsih, who has been selling nasi jenggo for more than seven years, shared her experience:

"At first, I sold nasi jenggo to market vendors and those shopping at the market. But, now, a lot of affluent people, including local celebrities, come here to eat my nasi jenggo," Arsih said proudly.

She said she could sell around 500 packages of nasi jenggo per day.

"On Saturday night, I prepare around 1,000 packages, they are sold-out within hours," Arsih commented.

When you visit Denpasar at night, you will see hundreds of women lined up selling nasi jenggo, along the city's main streets.

They set up a wooden table on the corner of the street, or in front of a shop, with a plastic or bamboo mat to sit on, and a kerosene lamp for lighting.

"I can't believe how (well) they manage their businesses. nasi jenggo is so inexpensive, yet delicious. I like it so much," said Daisy, a nasi jenggo connoisseur, from Perth, Australia.

Daisy claims that her Bali visits are not complete without a walk around town to find the best nasi jenggo.

Those who have never tasted nasi jenggo, may be surprised by its popularity. But its older fans are not merely in it for the flavor, their fondness for Nasi Jenggo goes way back, and is tied with memories of 70's-cool.

Nyoman Denni, a bank employee, said that he did not eat on the street-side to satisfy his basic needs, rather the habit was a fixture of his social life. Denni has been eating the meal since he was a teenager in the early 70's.

"Eating nasi jenggo was a means to socializing with our peers, akin to what we call clubbing today," he recalled, saying that every night they visited their favorite nasi jenggo stall in the neighborhood.

"What was most important was not the taste of the meal but the ritual of gathering together," he remembered.

According to Nyoman Gerebeg, 49, a Denpasar resident, nasi jenggo was introduced in the l970s. The word jenggo was an adaption of the title of popular wild-west movie Django starring Franco Nero.

"At that time, he was our hero and role-model. We wanted to be like him," he said. The teenagers felt cool, they belonged to a group and called themselves Django. So people named nasi jenggo after the people that ate it.

Today, nasi jenggo stalls also sell various local beverages like wedang jahe (ginger drink), coffee, tea and even soft drinks and beer.

"Nasi jenggo is cheap, but vendors often force us to buy a bottle of beer. We have to spend extra money," said Wayan, a student at state-run Udayana university in Bali.

Sundari, a nasi jenggo vendor from Malang, East Java, said she was grateful that her business had been running smoothly, despite the economic downturn following the Bali bombing in October 2002. "We have a secure market among the locals," she said.

Sundari recognizes that competition among food vendors is keen, as Bali is well-known for the diversity of its food.

But, she explained that as long as people loved nasi jenggo, and the quality of its ingredients was maintained, business would boom.

For most Balinese people, eating nasi jenggo is like enjoying a home-cooked meal. Even President Megawati Soekarnoputri has been known to ask her staff to buy her nasi jenggo, during her visits to the island.