Yogyakarta offers visitors wide variety of local treats

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

If you have a hankering for some local snack specialties while you are staying in Yogyakarta, there should be no problem. A wide range of traditional snacks, from fried to boiled or salty to sweet ones, are on offer for you to savor.

The names may sound strange, unfamiliar. But taste is the main thing that makes people seek them out.

Among the popular traditional specialties are geplak (sweet cake made of sugar and grated coconut), kipo (cake made of sticky rice and sweetened grated coconut), yangko (sweet cake made of sticky rice), jadah tempe (two pieces of sticky rice cake sandwiched with a sweet fried soybean cake), and bakpia (baked cake filled with sweet soybean mixture).

The snacks made of cassava alone are quite varied. Among other things, they are locally called gethuk, growol, gatot, thiwul, sawut, bapak pucung, lemet, cethil, cemplon and geblek. Most Cassava-made snacks, especially the boiled ones, are usually served with salted and grated coconut.

Gethuk is made of pounded steamed cassava, while growol is also made of steamed cassava -- only the cassava needs to be soaked in water first for three consecutive days before it is boiled, then repeatedly pressed and served with teakwood leaves. That's why this particular snack produces a specific smell when served.

Gatot is made from steamed dried cassava, or gaplek as it is locally known. Thiwul is also made of steamed gaplek but the gaplek needs to be pounded first before steamed.

Sawut is steamed, roughly grated cassava while bapak pucung, lemet, and cemplon are made of well-grated cassava. Both bapak pucung and lemet are wrapped in banana leaves before being steamed while cemplon is fried in hot cooking oil.

Geblek is made of the sediment of well grated cassava fried in hot cooking oil, while cethil is made of cassava flour, or tapioca as it is popularly known.

Local snack specialties made of ingredients other than cassava include apem and lapis (both are made of rice), klepon (sticky rice balls served with grated coconut), cucur (fried rice cake), and ongol-ongol (sweet cake made of ganyong flour served with grated coconut).

The traditional markets are the best places to find all kinds of the traditional snacks that Yogyakarta offers. But for many people, shopping in such places is inconvenient.

For such people, the city's malls and cake shops, including bakeries and those in some star-rated hotels, are the right places to go.

Stopping at Jl. Mataram, near the back entrance to the provincial administration's office complex in the Kepatihan area, one can find many local snack specialities. Or try a visit to Jl. Pathuk, which is also well known as the bakpia center of the city. Satisfaction is guaranteed.

However, there are some traditional snacks that can only be found in particular places or traditional markets. Kipo, geblek and growol are among the examples.

Kipo (green roasted sticky rice cake) can only be found in a small shop in Kotagede, some five kilometers east of Yogyakarta, while geblek and growol are found in the Kulonprogo region, some 30 kilometers west of here, where they originally come from.

Yogyakartans often refer to a particular snack after the city of its origin, like a Kaliurang sandwich. This snack is named after how it is served, two pieces of boiled sticky rice cakes, locally known as jadah, are served with sweet, fried soybean cake sandwiched in between.

In order to enjoy this snack, one has to go to the Kaliurang tourist resort, some 30 kilometers north of Yogyakarta, if one wants to taste the original recipe. Here, dozens of street vendors and food stalls serve the snack. One of the best known vendors is Warung Jadah Mbah Carik, established by Mbah (grandmother) Carik, who is also said to be the pioneer of the business in this resort area.

Mbah Carik's offspring now run at least four food stalls selling the snack.

According to Beja Wiryanto, one of Mbah Carik's grandchildren, his grandmother started the business in the early 1930s, but it was only in the 1980s that more people joined the business. In 1990, the local government named it as one of the resort area's specialties, serving the snack at official events alongside other traditional snacks.