Searching for 'lamang tapai' at Bedug Fair
Searching for 'lamang tapai' at Bedug Fair
Jon Afrizal, The Jakarta Post, Jambi
The Bedug Fair, being held for the third consecutive year, has
become a tradition in Jambi specifically for the fasting month of
Ramadhan.
The fair starts at 2 p.m. and will peak between 4 p.m. and 5
p.m., when people from all walks of life flock to the fair to
kill time until the breaking of the fast.
The fair, named after the bedug, a traditional drum used
typically by mosques, winds up each day when the crowd
automatically disperses around 6 p.m. after the call to maghrib,
the dusk prayer, the moment they break their fast.
Hundreds of food kiosks are positioned along 500 meters of Jl.
Mritu in the city center, with vendors assembled into four rows
facing each other. Most of the food and beverages sold at the
fair are sweet, which is said to suitable for breaking the fast.
The vendors not only hail from Jambi, but also from nearby
cities like Palembang and Padang, and most of them have gathered
here since the birth of the fair.
A pempek (fish and prawn dumplings) seller from Palembang,
Mangcek Herman, 28, said it was his third time to set up his
stall at the fair. Every day, he sells as many as 125 to 150
pieces of pempek, which is eaten with a tangy, sweet-and-sour
condiment, at Rp 500 a piece.
"It costs me Rp 300 to make a piece of pempek," he told The
Jakarta Post.
Besides Herman are Etek Ros, 35, who sells lamang tapai, a
West Sumatran specialty made of glutinous rice mixed with coconut
milk and cooked in a 50-centimeter long bamboo tube, then eaten
with sweet fermented black glutinous rice.
According to Etek Ros, or Aunt Ros in the Minangkabau dialect,
she sells 20 to 30 tubes of lamang daily, each weighing about 7
ounces and sold for Rp 6,000, while she sells tapai at Rp 2,000
for a small package.
Other delicacies like lupis ketan and padamaran, eaten with
melted palm sugar, are available, including side dishes to be
eaten with steamed rice, such as the popular beef rendang and
tempoyak ikan patin, catfish cooked with fermented durian.
Jambi market management head Surihamsyah said the Bedug Fair
was set up especially to accommodate food vendors. However, only
143 vendors occupy the 300 kiosks available for lease at Rp
237,000 during Ramadhan.
Clothes and sundry goods vendors have been provided stalls
along the one-kilometer stretch of Jl. WR Supratman, which can
accommodate 600 vendors.
Even so, only 150 vendors occupy the stalls thus far at a rent
of Rp 155,000 to Rp 255,000 for the month.
The high cost of renting a kiosk at the fair has been a turn-
off for potential vendors, and has thus left the fair looking
empty.
Still, Surihamsyah was optimistic that the fair would
contribute as much as Rp 37.5 billion (US$4 million) to the
regional budget, the same as last year.