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Indonesian culinary specialties go digital
Choose the biggest: A food seller picks out pempek (fishcakes) for a customer
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Choose the biggest: A food seller picks out pempek (fishcakes) for a customer. (JP)
Getting to know Indonesian delicacies is now only a few clicks away.
Rendang (beef cooked with coconut milk and spices) is recognized worldwide, which Indonesia should be proud of. But there is more to the country’s cuisine than just rendang, with diverse food specialties scattered across the archipelago.
Some of the distinctive regional foods are fairly well-known as they can be found at restaurants in various cities, like those serving Padang food from West Sumatra and soto Madura (beef soup from Madura Island). However, except for by people with wanderlust, many other regional favorites are only enjoyed locally.
Soto alone comes in a number of different regional versions: soto from Bandung, West Java, has a clear broth; that from Madura, East Java, is thicker; Betawi soto from Jakarta uses coconut milk; and in Banjar, Kalimantan, it includes cow’s milk. Sambal (chili relish) as a side dish and appetizer also varies from one region to another, as many travelers may notice.
Recipes for regional dishes are handed down by word of mouth, usually from seniors to their juniors. A number of the recipes have been documented, but the bulk of the culinary treasures remains part of the country’s verbal culture.
This fact aroused the concern of Hokky Situngkir and the members of Sobat Budaya, a community of young culture lovers wishing to document elements of Indonesia’s cultural wealth.
“We only realize that something is part of our culture when other countries claim it to be theirs,” said group leader Siti Wulandari.
Such claims have prompted the community to digitally document the diverse cultural riches of the Indonesian archipelago by, among other things, creating a culinary map.
As they had no way of gathering recipes on their own, Sobat Budaya initiated a crowd sourcing platform, enabling people from all over the world to submit recipes in their possession. From various sources, 1,458 food and beverage recipes from the archipelago can now be accessed at budaya-indonesia.org.
The website is a project from Indonesian Archipelago Initiatives, which was established in 2007 by young people concerned with the disappearance of cultural assets and values in today’s society. Utilizing technology, the group compiled elements of Indonesian cultural heritage from musical instruments to fabric in a digital format in the hope of sustaining the country’s rich and diverse cultures.
As the next step, the group produced a map of the regional recipes to indicate their connections with each other in aspects such as taste and ingredients. “We’re mapping out the similarities as well as differences in the formulas of the archipelago’s cuisine,” said Hokky, the founder of Sobat Budaya.
Hokky also designed a special program for the culinary database. “If somebody wants to find a map for the archipelago’s relish, just type sambal into the search column and various kinds of relish will appear on their interconnected map,” he said. They may be connected by similar ingredients and preparation methods.
Hokky’s electronic engineering background has supported the mapping program. Previously, he mapped out different batik motifs called fractal patterns. Both projects were handled in cooperation with the Bandung Fe Institute and the Research Center for Complexity at Surya University.
The digitalized culinary documentation and mapping will further increase public knowledge of Indonesian recipes by making them accessible on cell phones. “We want to make this map easily accessible everywhere especially for the younger generation,” added Siti.
The community, therefore, sees the creation of this mobile application as a means of facilitating access to Indonesian cuisine via the map. In this way, wherever and whenever people are traveling or dining, they can find information about food specialties.
