Sokaraja, famous home of fried sweet cassava loaf

PURWOKERTO, Central Java (JP): Fried sweet loaf of pounded cassava, locally called gethuk, is popular here, especially in the neighborhood of Sokaraja. It is the favorite of visitors who take home the traditional food as a gift.

The gethuk business was started in 1918 by Sanpirngad and was later continued by his son-in-law H. Tohirin, followed by his grandchildren.

Slamet Lukito, 39, said the early days of his grandfather's business were difficult. At that time he sold rice and the traditional food mendoan (medium fried tempeh) and steamed gethuk, which is usually eaten with grated coconut. The gethuk leftovers inspired Sanpirngad to turn it into another form of snack which he could sell again. He mixed the remaining steamed gethuk with some more sugar and fried it.

Locals came to love the delicacy. "It is now known as a snack unique to Banyumas and is popular among local people and outsiders not only from Java but also from outside Java," Slamet said.

"This snack, now sold in our eight shops in Sokaraja, has helped increase the local people's earnings."

He said only simple traditional implements such as rice mortars and pestles, sorok (a utensil to collect fried gethuk from a frying pan), frying pans, large metal vessels for steaming the cassava (locally known as dandang) and large-sized pans. The cassava, the main ingredient of the snack, is readily available, as are the other materials like flour, brown sugar and oil.

"To make this snack, only manual skills will be needed," he noted, adding the process of cooking gethuk was simple.

The first step is to peel the cassava. The steamed cassava is pounded and mixed with sugar. The well-pounded cassava will be mixed with flour and a bamboo piece will be run over the mixture until it becomes about 2 cm thick. Then it will be cut into pieces to be fried.

"I have 12 employees helping me who earn between Rp 1 million and 2 million net a month," said Slamet.

This fried gethuk is sold at Rp 8,000 a kilo.

He admitted that sometimes he was shorthanded, especially during the rice harvest season, as a number of his employees helped their parents in the rice fields.

Another child of H. Tohirin, Warsuti, 35, had a similar story to tell. She said she did not need an initial capital outlay to run the business because it had been passed down to her by her parents.

She estimated earnings of Rp 5 million monthly from the four shops she runs with 16 employees.

In the meantime, Yasrori, 60, a buyer from the nearby town of Purbalingga, told The Jakarta Post that he came to Sokaraja about 10 times only to buy the gethuk. He said that the whole family liked the delicious snack, especially because it was all-natural and free of chemical additives.

"Besides, the popularity of this snack will be good for the local cassava growers because the demand for cassava will go up." He said his trip this time was to buy fried gethuk for his relatives in Yogyakarta and in Surakarta, which he would visit for the graduation day of one of his children. (Sugito)