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!