What Makes a Food an Indonesian Food?
Is it rendang? Is it sate? Is it nasi goreng? What is it? Let's explore and talk about something more than those meals!
post-Idul Fitri lunch in Jonggat, Central Lombok.
I grew up in a family of Muslims, with East Javanese as the dominants, followed by a few other families from West Sumatra and Manado. However, we only see each other every 5 years or so because we’re located in different island. During Idul Fitri, the Islamic celebration, I celebrated it with my mother’s side of the family who are East Javanese. My mother came from this small town called Madiun, a town known for its Pecel Madiun - a meal of steamed bean sprouts, long beans, krai, spinach, cassava greens, kenikir (cosmos leaves), kembang turi, served over warm rice or lontong topped with Lamtoro beans and drenched in bumbu pecel (lime-leaf infused peanut sauce). During Idul-Fitri, Pecel is served specially with Lodeh soup poured over it.
Why Lodeh?
Because we used to eat pecel everyday and I grew up eating only pecel for breakfast. Sometimes, we’d have Pecel three times a day. So adding Lodeh over it makes it special. Anyway, Lodeh is known as sacred meal as the seven vegetables in it become manifestation for prayers.
However, I did not realize until I was teenager that having Pecel and Lodeh during Idul Fitri was not something common for others. Many other families in Java would serve Lontong Sayur complete with Ketupat, rice cake in diamond shape wrapped in Janur leaf, and Rendang for Idul Fitri. Then, they would devour Rendang for a month until it’s gone. I kind of felt left out because I wanted to know how it feels like to make Ketupat with my aunts and cooking Rendang for 12 hours with them.
Chopping shallots and cooking for 12 hours, packed in a little kitchen?
Nah.
That would not happen in my mother’s family.
Only when I was older that I realize how even in a little island of Java there are many faces of Javanese - and Javanese is not the only ethnic group in the island. There are Madura, Osing, Sunda, Betawi, and Baduy. In this ethnic groups, there are also many faces of them. Madura Negeri (the one who live in the island of Madura) and Madura Swasta (who live outside Madura island, usually they migrated to Banyuwangi, Jember, and Probolinggo in East Java) have different food. Ask Madura Negeri about Soto Rujak from Banyuwangi and they’d be shocked.
This is only a part of Indonesia. It is only Java - the hub and the island with two busiest ports in the archipelago (Tanjung Perak in Surabaya and Tanjung Priok in Jakarta), meanwhile there are over 17.508 listed islands and 633 recognized ethnic groups.
What about them? What about the other islands? How do the food look like there? How do the sambal look like there? Are they all mashed? Are they all chopped? Is there any fermented sambal? Do they have the concept of sambal?
What food represents Indonesia the most?
What foods are under-represented in Indonesia?
How do each village and ethnic group food taste like?
What are their signature ingredients?
There are thousands of questions when it comes to Indonesian food. Mostly when people say Indonesian food; what comes to mind are food from the dominants ethnic groups; Minang and Jawa. Minang with Rendang and Jawa with Sate.
Nasi Yasa / Nasi Dirah / Kuning Laban - devoured on Banyu Pinaruh day, a purification day takes place after Saraswati Day in Hindu Bali.
It is unavoidable to talk about Minang and Jawa. The history of what now the modern Indonesia leads back to two kingdoms often written in the history; Sriwijaya of Sumatra (later on migrated to Agam, West Sumatra and became Minang ethnic group) and Majapahit of Jawa. It leads back to spice trade, where ports in Sumatra and Java were importants as hubs. It leads back, too, to the history of Indonesia’s independence - the two leaders; Soekarno from Java and Hatta from Minang.
However, most history is written by those who have power - like business, a customer makes an order and the seller serves the order.
History repeats itself.
But, what if we don’t have to repeat it?
What if we write down the voices of those who do not have the power?
In this case, what if we write down the food, the recipes, the rituals, and how the food emerged day-to-day amongst the under-represented ethnic groups?
However, not just writing down the recipes. But also to give the people who cook and eat the food the credit. To simply archive and write, without giving the microphones to the people who actually cook and eat this, would be a shameless and unfair effort.
Here are the list of sources for Indonesian food to explore! From research, archiving, to digital journaling, these sources here are worth to spend your time!
a collection of recipes from all over the archipelago of Indonesia; from Jajanan (desserts and snacks), sambal, to meals - archived under the main islands.
an android app for you to scroll (and drool) over the sweet desserts from all around Indonesia! In this app, you can even find Jajan Pasar that are influenced by Peranakan (Strait Chinese) and now have become the common snacks in Indonesia.
For you who want to find modern desserts, various of Kue and Jajan - this website is heaven! From Kembang Goyang, Roti Pandan, to Bika Ambon, Bogasari offers over 300 recipes to explore.
Long before the idea of Indonesia, the archipelago was once a hub for merchants from China, Persia, India, T’ai, and Champ. Spreader all over the archipelago too, the islands were once colonized by Portuguese, Spanish, British, and Dutch. These influence Indonesian food; the ingredients, how they serve it, and how the meaning represented in the food. Written by Fadly Rahman, this book serves a glimpse of history of what now considered as Indonesian food
It’s not complete yet to talk about literary sources of Indonesian food without this book. Referred to as “the-bible-of-Indonesian-culinary” by Kompas, this book was written by the order of Sukarno. He wants to archive over 1.000 recipes from the further west of Indonesia to the further east. Written for seven years, you’ll find 7 basic bumbu (bumbu dasar), nutrients intake, and Indonesia “table-manner” (very interesting as table is considered as something new in Indonesia).
What can I say about him? One word is not enough. He bakes. He cooks. He travels. He sees. He listens. He feels. He eats. Most importantly, he tastes. William Wongso started to work in culinary scene as a baker. After spending a handful of times learning and traveling in Europe and Asia, Wongso realized that as an Indonesian, he needs to learn about the food of his home. What William Wongso has always been doing is to go to the market and eat the local food. He has published many books, including Flavors of Indonesia . A must-read!
I started following Ade maybe 5 years ago on twitter. She’s a witty writer and of course, a hungry eater! You could tell how she devours each dish with passion in every word she writes. She travels throughout Indonesia and in her spare time, she bikes and finds some hidden gem whether it’s in Jakarta, Medan, or Ambon. You could find her daily rants on instagram or her website
Reporting from Mollo, Timor island, Dicky Senda tweeted a lot about his village; from the the people, the surrounding nature, to the food! He’s very innovative - combining knowledge from outside Mollo or even outside Indonesia while using local ingredients. I always silently envying his lunch. Babi kecap, Sambal Lu’at, Sorgum, Pumpkin Crackers, and four more side dishes of Mollo in his enamel plate! Seriously? Dicky Senda’s lunch-game is strong!
Politics. Art. Culture. Bakudapan sums these three issues of life in one plate. Through food, Bakudapan has done research and archiving as the instrument to talk about broader fundamental issues. They release journals that you can access through pdf and prints. Feel free to hit them to get your hands on their journals!
Put simply, Indonesian food comes in many representations. There is no fixed point to say that to call a meal an Indonesian food it has to be spicy or come with sambal nor to call a meal with rice must be Indonesian. Ask your neighbours, text your friends from other cities or islands, call your mother, go to pasar, or travel and taste - if you have the resources!
If you have any links, people, organizations, and books about Indonesian culinary, feel free to drop and share them here in the comments!Monggo sakeca’aken!
Prinka Saraswati from #dapursaraswati