Finding authentic Betawi food should not be an issue due to how popular it is, yet such is not the case. It is widely assumed that the Betawi people — an ethnic group native to Jakarta — and their culture and authentic cuisine can be easily found in Condet, East Jakarta, but after The Jakarta Post recently explored the area, it found few Betawi influences and many fast food joints.

There, one store — the only of its kind — has a sign that reads Betawi asli (authentic Betawi). The store, Dodol Betawi Ibu HJ Mamas, is one of the few shops in Condet that proudly markets itself as an authentic Betawi sweets seller.

The store mainly sells traditional sweets and delicacies such as dodol (a fudge-like confection made from glutinous rice, palm sugar and coconut milk), tapai (fermented rice cake), kue talam (sticky rice cake) and kue geplak (grinded rice cake). 

“The Betawi people have a strong familial tradition that extends to food. We pass down our recipes to our children, who pass them on to their children and it continues on over the generations,” Ragoan, 49, the daughter of owner Mamas, told the Post on Monday. 

Ragoan, however, lamented that many older people had passed away without passing down their knowledge on any traditional recipes. Recipes, she said, were often only served to those within their community.

Herem Yati, 58, an elderly resident of East Jakarta, fits this description, as she cooks and sells authentic Betawi food in her residential area of Kampung Gedong with no intention of marketing to outsiders.

“I’m mostly cooking for fun. Sure, I also sell Betawi food, but it’s mostly ordered by people in the community and I cook it for them,” Herem said on Monday.

With a lack of money to open a restaurant, Herem is content cooking rare variations of pecak (stir-fried dish with traditional pecak sauce) using catfish, oncom (fermented soybeans) and fish for a few customers.

Proper cooking methods are important in Betawi cuisine. As Herem noted, even stir-frying ingredients differently can have a massive impact on the taste of the dish. 

This uniqueness makes Betawi cuisine a very important part of the city’s history and culture, especially as the variations of its dishes are endless. 

Betawi culture was honored by the city when it named Kampung Betawi (Betawi Village) in Setu Babakan, South Jakarta, a public Betawi cultural site.

In Kampung Betawi, food vendors sell popular Betawi dishes such as kerak telor (omelet made from glutinous rice and egg, usually served with fried shallots and coconut flakes), soto betawi (Betawi beef soup) and es selendang mayang (sliced mung bean cake with coconut milk and sweet condiments).

Despite this space for promoting Betawi culture, traditional vendors are at risk of falling by the wayside due to the changing times. Food writer Kevindra Soemantri, 27, said real Betawi food was rarely found today.

“You can say […] some Betawi food is very hard to find, you can blame it on a shift in taste of the people avoiding certain Betawi cuisine or the lack of quality and standards held by Betawi cooks,” Kevindra said.

He added that Betawi culture and cuisine were among the most colorful and unique due to Indian, Chinese and Dutch historical influences.

There is a lack of documentation on Betawi recipes, which has allowed some dishes such as sayur besan aka “in-law vegetables” (vegetables in coconut milk soup) to be slowly forgotten.

Many non-Betawi people with no knowledge of history and the proper recipes sell only the popular Betawi dishes while disregarding the rest.

“Non-Betawi people just want to earn money and sell the most popular dishes, hence why Betawi cuisine has not evolved,” Kevindra said. (tru)

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