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'Durian bakso', 'bakmi ayam' take center stage at South Jakarta food festival
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Visitors pack an area at a recent food festival at Blok M Square, South Jakarta, on Aug. 2. (JP/Nina Loasana)
(JP/Nina Loasana)
F
or most Jakartans, a bowl of bakso (beef ball noodle soup) or bakmi ayam (chicken noodles) is not hard to find. Tucked in virtually all corners of the capital, be it on the sides of streets or in malls, the majority of the capital’s residents find joy in the popular street foods.
The two dishes were the talk of the town at a recent bakso and noodles festival at Blok M Square in South Jakarta, where dozens of vendors offered their own versions of the dishes.
One of the vendors was Sofiyan, who has been selling bakso in his stall in Bandung, West Java, for almost three decades. In order to compete and stand out among the crowd, he created an unusual pairing of bakso and the King of Fruits, durian.
The inventive idea was borne out of his love for durian, as he wanted to combine the fruit, famous for its texture and pungent smell, with his homemade bakso dough. He started selling bakso durian three years ago.
“Customers have been responding well to my creation. They say durian makes the bakso taste more savory,” he said last Saturday.
His creations in the stall also included a tennis-ball-sized meatball filled with either quail eggs or several smaller bakso.
Sofyan expressed joy over the response from customers, saying that he could sell more than 100 bowls every day during the nine-day festival, which ran from July 26 to Aug. 4.
