The melting pot of Jakarta has something for everyone, including the health-conscious looking for peculiar dishes.

A bowl of snake bile, monkey brain or even house lizard were believed to have healing powers in relation to certain diseases, but the traditional medicines were not supposed to be made into tasty treats that one could easily find in the city.

Today we have the tutut dish, which is a highly sought after snack after it gained popularity as a cure for several diseases common among busy urbanites.

It is hard to miss the street vendors with their banners and bright lights shining on the huge capital letters of tutut or freshwater snails in front of At-Tin Great Mosque in the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) cultural park complex, East Jakarta. Most of the banners have smaller signs stating that the dishes can help to heal liver or gastric problems and improve appetite.

'€œMany customers who suffered from a liver disease told me they came here to eat tutut as suggested by their medical doctors,'€ one of the first sellers in the area, Rilo Awuy, told The Jakarta Post recently.

Although there is no scientific evidence to justify the claim, many researchers have found that freshwater snails contain protein, calcium and zinc that benefit human metabolism.

According to a research from the Indonesia University of Education, tutut should be boiled for at least 20 minutes to kill off parasites. Sumiati, a resident of Cipayung in East Jakarta, said she usually dropped by one of the stalls when she passed the street.

'€œThis is my snack in my hometown in Pandeglang [Banten]. I also like to buy it in Kramat Jati market and boil it with turmeric and garlic. I bite the peak of the shell and suck the meat,'€ she said.

Many tutut sellers in the TMII area started the business around one-and-a-half years ago after learning from the successes of other tutut sellers in Yasmin Park area in Bogor, West Java.

Rilo, who also sold brownies cake and spicy cassava crackers, was among the first sellers in the TMII area. He heads to Jl. TMII in the afternoon and leaves in the evening, using a car to carry two huge vacuum flasks containing hot tutut curry.

Like other sellers along the street, he provides a table and some plastic chairs as well as mats for his customers.

Another vendor, Roy Masri, said he had sold bottled water and beverages such as coffee, milk and tea, but last year, people who dropped by kept asking for tutut, so he started selling it too.

Tutut is poured generously into a small red bowl. There was no spoon as customers were expected to handpick the snails one by one and suck it from the cracked small hole on the top of the shell.

The sellers provide bamboo toothpicks that could be used to shovel the snail'€™s tiny meat from the shells.
The taste of tutut varies from one stall to another. The curry dish at Tutut Padang stall, for example, was spicy and strong, while Tutut Kari stall'€™s dish was mild and savory.

Rilo said he was forced to increase the price from Rp 3,000 (29 US cents) per portion to Rp 5,000 to adjust the fuel price hike, which also affected the price of spices and fresh tutut, which he bought from suppliers from Bogor.

'€œ[Selling '€˜tutut'€™] is a good business. I can bring home Rp 700,000 in profit for selling 20 to 30 kilograms of tutut curry daily,'€ he said.

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