Rijstafel: finding enough room for all those dishes

Rijstafel: finding enough room for all those dishes

Maria Endah Hulupi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The use of exotic ingredients or the adoption of certain cooking
techniques are just a few of the many foreign influences that
have enriched Indonesian cuisine.

Another such influence is seen in rijstafel where common one-
meal dishes have been transformed, with ceremony and formality,
into a pompous, colonial-style feast.

The word rijstafel is the Dutch term for rice table, but the
hours-long feast is not as straightforward or uncomplicated as
the word might imply. It was created to demonstrate the affluence
of the Dutch and the luxurious lifestyle that they led during the
colonial era.

"It (the feast) was not at all about flavors since the
ambience, the ceremony and the service was more important," noted
historian Ong Hok Ham explained.

The classic style rijstafel ceremony involved the serving of
up to 40 different, almost exclusively Javanese dishes, by 40
jongos (male waiters), bare-footed but dressed in formal white
uniforms with blangkon (traditional Javanese caps) on their heads
and batik cloth around their waists.

There are few records of these lavish feasts but it is
believed that the ceremony was created sometime between the late
1800s and early 1900s and may have been inspired by Javanese
court practices, where servants were trained to loyally serve the
royal family and citizens were obliged to pay upeti (tax in the
form of goods, edibles or harvest, among others). Thus, food was
often plentiful and served in a meticulous manner.

"Perhaps inspired by this practice, the Dutch landlords of
plantations in Central and East Java adopted it in their dining
rooms and this colonial-style feast was created," Ong said.

"Besides, where else but in Javanese plantations could Dutch
landlords hire cheap coolies (unskilled laborers) to be trained
as waiters to serve rijstafel. This is also the reason why
rijstafel dishes were almost exclusively Javanese."

For the ceremony, all of the dishes were freshly prepared, the
dining table was dressed with a clean, crisp cloth and each diner
sat in front of a large plate with a few smaller dishes to its
side.

Each dish was elegantly presented on a silver tray and served
to the landlords by jongos who would scoop rice onto the main
plate and other hot dishes onto the smaller plates.

The first item to be served was steaming hot plain rice,
followed by soup and then came the rest of the dishes, including
sambal goreng (originally a hot spicy dish but the spiciness was
toned down for the Dutch palate) and Dutch/Portuguese influenced
semur (mildly sweet chicken/beef dish).

Also on the menu were chicken, beef and vegetable dishes,
prepared using various spices and traditional cooking techniques.
The feast ended with several Dutch desserts and assorted fruit.

The extensive feast dwarfed the one-dish Javanese meals which
were usually eaten by hand. The Dutch ate with a spoon and fork
and washed down the food with ice-cold beer.

The way in which the feast was conducted was an attempt to
satisfy the occasional cravings of Dutch landlords or officials
for local dishes. "And when they had this craving for local food,
they wanted to try everything at once," explained the senior
historian.

Even though the meals were extensive there were three must-
have items, namely pisang goreng (fried banana), serundeng
(crisp, shredded coconut dish seasoned with various spices and
cooked with either chicken, beef, fish or shrimp) and telor
ceplok (fried egg). These were never absent from an authentic
rijstafel menu.

"Fried banana and serundeng were considered to be authentic
Javanese delicacies, so they represented local flavors, while the
fried egg was well liked by the Dutch and part of their popular
diet."

According to Ong, the inclusion of fried banana in the menu
was said to have created local uneasiness. The prince of
Surakarta once complained about the Dutch's fondness for the
fruit, which because of its abundant supply throughout the year,
was considered inferior to seasonal mango, rambutan, or salak
(snake fruit).

"Besides Indonesians are not used to eating fruit with rice,
for them, it's weird," said Ong. Incidentally, Ong's personal
belief is that at the end of such an extensive meal the diner
ought to feel confused, rather than culinary delight.

During the colonial era, rijstafel was served for one or two
diners or a small group of people for lunch or dinner. Sometimes,
biefstuk (filet mignon) was served after rijstafel and for the
Dutch, the steak was the real main dish, while the rijstafel was
considered a mere appetizer.

From Central Java, the popularity of this lavish feast soon
spread to Jakarta and the feast was also adopted by rich locals
and immigrants for special occasions with the numbers of dishes
cut down to around six or nine courses and largely foreign-
influenced.

At that time, rijstafel was also served in hotels and on
passenger ships linking the Netherlands with Indonesia, before it
started to disappear from the country's culinary scene around the
mid 1940s when the Japanese came to Indonesia.

"During its glory days, Hotel des Indes (which used to stand
on what is currently the Duta Merlin complex in Central Jakarta)
served a formal colonial style rijstafel for its Sunday brunch,"
he recalled.

The old hotel also served to popularize rijstafel in other
countries.

Now, there is probably only one place left in the capital, the
Oasis restaurant, on Jl. Raden Saleh Raya, Central Jakarta, where
the formal rijstafel ceremony is still performed. Rows of
waitresses greet diners amid an old-fashioned, stylish interior.

The restaurant, within a building which was once the residence
of the last Governor General of the Dutch East Indies, serves a
12-dish-rijstafel -- no longer exclusively Javanese but still
including serundeng and deep fried bananas.

All dishes, according to general manager Oom Mucharam Endi,
are prepared based on old recipes and with the use of old cooking
utensils and traditional cooking methods.

The dishes are presented using old porcelain and tableware.
However, each dish is served by a female waitresses wearing the
elegant combination of kebaya (traditional Javanese blouse) with
batik skirt and not by male jongos in white uniforms.

Since rijstafel is all about opulence and ceremony, serving
rice with several traditional dishes without the appropriate
ambience, formal service and scores of serving-staff simply does
not make the grade.

"Now a few hotels, restaurants and passenger ships claim to
serve rijstafel but theirs are not authentic, just a fake version
of the ceremony," the historian said.