Xmas goodies from near and far

Xmas goodies from near and far

Suryatini N. Ganie, Contributor, Jakarta

All over the country, from northern Sumatra to easternmost
regions like Papua, Christians will celebrate Christmas according
to regional customs.

The Manadonese of North Sulawesi, for instance, are accustomed
to celebrating Christmas with the food they love most -- hot,
spicy and prepared with the products of their region.

For visiting guests, a buffet of food will always be set on
Christmas Day. Rica-rica, the popular dish made from pork or
chicken, and babi garo rica will take pride of place. There are
also fish and vegetable dishes prepared in a real home cooked way
-- meaning lots of it!

Many Manadonese regard customs of their region as most
important although they have lived in other islands for quite
sometime.

Although a particular dish or snack is consumed daily, they
will present the same food -- like the panada, a satisfying fried
bread dough snack with a filling of the fresh tuna caught
abundantly in Sulawesi waters -- at Christmas and other important
events.

"Eat some well-made panadas," advised Dee, who married my
cousin, "and you will feel satisfied and happy!"

For Toraja's Christians, like Markus and Stin Ato from
Rantepao, a Christmas menu is not complete if Stin does not
prepare a dish made of the inner stem of a young banana tree of
the kepok or pisang batu variety.

Every year she used to ask me for one or two of the young
banana trees abundant in my garden. "It will soon be Christmas
again," she said with a smile.

To prepare the dish properly, she has to exfoliate the stem to
get to the innermost tender circle, and after some preparatory
soaking, the stem will be finely cut and prepared in a typical
Torajan way.

Torajans also celebrate Christmas by staging religious plays,
and while watching, traditional goodies will be part of snacks
for the guests.

Although Stin now lives with her family in a Sundanese
village, she still prefers the inner stem of the banana tree for
a main dish in an authentic Toraja Christmas menu.

For Santa Panggabean, a native of Tarutung in North Sumatra,
Christmas food is Tapanuli food -- and the typical fare is pork
made into rendang and freshwater fish with a lot of spices and
cooked nearly six hours over a slow fire called arsik.

Snacks will include kembang goyang -- literally meaning
swinging flower -- made of a batter of sweetened rice flour and a
special flower-shaped tool that will be first dipped into the
batter and then fried in hot oil so the batter loosens and is
fried! It's good!

"We go to the church on Christmas Eve," Santa says, "and then
after coming home, dinner is enjoyed by all!"

Javanese Christians, mostly Roman Catholics, go to early pray
in the church on Christmas Day and enjoy breakfast afterwards.

Siti, who is from a small village near the Borobudur temple,
has traditional popular fare like sambal goreng telur (spicy
fried egg) and bestik lulur (fillet steak). As French beans grow
well in the mountainous region, the beans are made into stews.

The Central Java region of Magelang, seat of a large seminary,
is also known for its sweets which are equally served during Idul
Fitri or Christmas Day. These include a type of dodol (toffee
made from glutinous rice) called jenang locally and krasikan, a
sweet made of coarsely ground rice meal.

Though simple delicacies, they express a deep feeling of love
and respect for their hometown at Christmas Day though new cakes
-- like kue keju Surabaya (Surabaya cheese cake) or kue wortel
(carrot cake) -- are also gaining popularity.

In Jakarta, some of the old recipes are still prepared by
Christians of mixed Dutch and local descent, such as aayur
cundidu, for example, or pudding maizena cokelat (chocolate corn
pudding) for dessert.

The recipes have been passed down from mother to daughter (or
son nowadays). The now busy suburb of Depok was the nucleus of
the Eurasian community before World War II.

Nastar, a pineapple marmalade filled cookie -- a typical
"Depok" cookie back then -- is till popular and is now served in
posh five-star establishments.

To tell you the truth, the best nastar I ever tasted is still
that made by auntie Lili, a grand lady of mixed Chinese-Javanese
ancestry.

When living in Bandung, auntie Lili began to make the soft,
fragrant and addictive nastar (the word coming from the Dutch
"ananas taart", or pineapple tart), sending the cookies until
today on Idul Fitri to her Muslim "children" and on Christmas Day
to her Christian ones. We all look forward to auntie Lili's box
of nastar on those special days!