Traditional markets bloom during Ramadhan

Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

If you get tired with breaking of the menus at hotels, try some of the fare from seasonal markets in Kauman, Yogyakarta.

About 70 vendors line up along the small road, which is three meters wide and 750 meters long, located at the west of the North Square of the Yogyakarta Palace.

They sell various kinds of traditional snacks and dishes to break the fast for as low as Rp 500 (about 6 U.S. cents) to Rp 5,000.

Among them are kolak (fruits stewed with brown palm sugar), fruit cocktails and fried tofu and tempeh, which are widely available in many other parts of the country.

But there are also certain kinds of snacks that are not easily found outside Yogyakarta, such as kicak (sticky rice with sugar and wrapped in banana leaves) and rondo royal (fried fermented cassavas served with milk). Food from many nearby villages are also on offer.

This market, however, only appear during Ramadhan.

"In short, any kind of food is available here," said Wono, a 73-year-old grandmother who has run the business in the alley for 40 years.

The vendors are mostly the residents of Kauman. Before the beginning of the holy month, they usually met to discuss how they should run the seasonal market.

"We only sell the food during the fasting month. At other times, the alley is deserted. Only pedestrians who want to go to work pass this alley," she said, adding that cars were not allowed to use the small road.

The old lady looks fragile, with her curved backbone and her swaying arms and feet, but she serves many buyers who crowd around her table, where she put her food, with high spirit.

She had prepared the food from 7 a.m. and finished at about noon. She started to sell the snacks from 2 p.m. until around 7 p.m., when people get ready for the tarawih (Ramadhan's evening prayer).

Another vendor, Endang, 32, said that she runs the business at Kauman to preserve the family tradition.

"Ever since I was born, the seasonal market has been there," said Endang, who sells various kinds of dishes as well as vegetables and fruits.

For her menu, she usually buys five kilograms of lele (catfish), 2.5 kilograms of chicken legs, 2.5 kilogram of chicken breasts and 3 kilograms of shrimps for the food every day.

"The daily turnover is between Rp 300,000 and Rp 500,000. The profit is about Rp 150,000 or Rp 200,000 (if all of the food is sold). But it is not certain, if it rains, I can only sell half of the food or a little bit more than that," she said.

She said that in the beginning, Rp 1 million was prepared as the capital. But later on, more money was injected as there was a need to sell more kinds of food.

"We usually collected the money among our family and relatives," she said.

The traditional food at Kauman, which is prepared using original recipes, always lures many visitors. The vendors set their tables to occupy half of the road and hundreds of visitors from various parts of the town crowd the area every afternoon.

"I don't know why, but the kicak sold on Jl. Solo or in other places doesn't taste as good as the one sold here," said Frida, 27, a regular customer who lives on Jl. Tamansiswa.

According to Hadiwinoto, the half-brother of Yogyakarta's Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, the seasonal market in Kauman relates to the history of the Great Mosque (Masjid Gedhe), built in 1773.

The 2,578 square meter mosque that was designed by Wirjakusuma, is a historical building in Yogyakarta. At the southern end of the mosque, there is a door that connects the mosque compound and the road heading to Kauman and the alley where the seasonal market is held.

Besides Kauman, there are also other places where people open seasonal markets during Ramadhan. Among the popular spots are along Jl. Kaliurang, near the campus of the University of Gadjah Mada, and along Jl. Kusumanegara.

Unlike the one in Kauman, the seasonal markets along Jl. Kaliurang and Jl. Kusumanegara are not set up by tradition. Many of the vendors are students, who sell the food just for fun.

"For me, making a profit is number two. The most important thing is that we have fun here. We can sell the food and hang around," said Novi, a student of a private academy.

Novi and her five friends chipped in Rp 40,000 each as capital to sell kolak and banana ice cream on Jl. Kaliurang. They do not need a table to run the business as they sell them from a blue Toyota Twin Cam Corolla sedan belonging to one of Novi's business partners.

"We do it just to kill time. If we make money, that's good. Otherwise, it's just fine. What's important is the fun," said Yongki, the car owner.

The five of them take turns buying the material at the market. They usually buy a stock that can last three days so that they do not have to go shopping every day.

"We don't sell many. Only between 25 and 40 portions. Before we bring them here, we put them in the refrigerator so that they taste better," said Novi, who was born in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, 20 years ago.

"Do you want to buy it? It's cheap. Only Rp 2,000 each," she said.