Reported by Arif Maulana
[unpad.ac.id, 28/9/2020] It has been said that Indonesia has a rich culinary diversity that stretches from Sabang to Merauke. This diversity is only the tip of the iceberg of Indonesian culinary history’s long journey from prehistoric times until now.
According to a professor of History at Unpad’s Faculty of Cultural Science, Fadly Rahman, M.A., Indonesian cuisine is not only about taste. History plays a traceable role. This is based on how Indonesian culinary diversity is not only shaped by local influences but also by foreign influences.
“I see that we can learn about history from food,” said Fadly when interviewed by the Unpad Public Communications Office some time ago.
There are a few factors that influence the taste of Indonesian cuisine. Every region in Indonesia provides its own culinary potential. This gives the cuisine from each region its unique characteristics.
The geographical factor is one of them. Fadly gave the example of Sundanese ancestors eating lalapan, raw vegetables in the form of young leaves, along with rice and sambal being influenced by the environment that is mostly located on wet plateaus.
This region has an abundance of varied plants compared to other regions in Indonesia. Therefore, this diversity gets utilized a lot by people for day to day consumption.
This is different from other regions like East Java and Madura which are relatively dry. During colonial times, these regions got turned into a center of animal husbandry, so the cuisine developed there predictably uses a lot of meat.
“We can make this into a model for observing patterns of culinary development in each region that is adapted to their geographical conditions,” he explained.
Ancient Manuscripts
The historian who studies Indonesian culinary history explains further that cuisine is often brought up in ancient manuscripts from all across Nusantara. In those manuscripts, a few cuisines unique to the Nusantara region have existed since the 10th century AD, such as pecel, sambal, rawon, kerupuk, and dawet.
Until now, those indigenous foods are still consumed by the Indonesian people.
There is a difference between the documentation of food native to Nusantara and food from abroad. He explained that nations with advanced culinary traditions are often defined by the strength of their culture in documenting culinary recipes.
Indonesia is different in that the ancestors did not partake in the tradition of documenting recipes. Ancient manuscripts only contained the names of the food. However, that does not mean the ancestor’s recipes are not well preserved until now.
Fadly said that old culinary recipes survive because of the people’s ability to orally pass them down to newer generations. “Sayings such as ‘not too much salt, or ‘a little sugar’, this is what differentiates our culinary traditions,” he added.
Because of that, documenting recipes from throughout Nusantara can be considered difficult. Aside from the lack of written sources, the process of writing recipes also has to reconstruct various sources from each period.
This is what the recipe writers did during colonial times. They documented the recipes that were being developed among the native people which were published in cookbooks.
Foreign Influence
Not only by geographical and local influences, culinary development throughout Nusantara was also impacted by foreign influences. The emergence of influences from many peoples such as the Chinese, Indians, Arabs, and Europeans also shaped the taste of cuisines into becoming more varied.
Fadly revealed that according to his results of investigating historical sources, the variation of taste in Southeast Asian cuisine, including Nusantara, is rather uniform before the expansion of other nations. In the composition of a dish, saltiness can be acquired from salted fish, while sweetness can be added by using sap or brown sugar.
“The diet is also not too varied,” he added.
The author of “Jejak Rasa Nusantara: Sejarah Makanan Indonesia” then explained that foreign influences created a more diverse culinary flavor.
The colonial era also brought to light many types of food that did not exist before colonial times. This era then established the birth of the concept of Indische food (Indische keuken). The hybridization of various culinary influences during colonial times is then combined to become the concept of Indische food.
“The mix of indigenous aspects, to which Chinese, Arabic, Indian, and European aspects were then combined, was referred to as Indische cooking,” said the professor who was born in Bogor, November 27th, 1981.
Post-Indonesian independence, this concept of “Dutch Indies cooking” changed its name to become “Indonesian cooking”. Although the name changed, the essence or the soul remained the same. This concept then made Indonesian cuisine more than just a biological necessity, but also a national symbol.
Indonesian Cuisine and Cultural Diplomacy
The first president of the Republic of Indonesia, Ir. Soekarno, once said that all forms of colonialism should be destroyed. In reality, there is much gastronomical heritage from the colonial era which transformed into Indonesian cuisine.
One example is the tradition of serving food in a buffet (or prasmanan), another is the use of chairs, tables, and cutlery which were passed down from the colonial era. Fadly said that the Indonesian’s ancestors traditionally never used chairs or tables. They usually enjoyed their meals by sitting on the floor.
“This tradition of prasmanan was, in truth, used by Soekarno at the beginning of Indonesia’s independence as a tool for cultural diplomacy,” said Fadly.
Fadly explained that Soekarno utilized cuisine unique to Nusantara as a symbol of cultural diplomacy. Based on historical records, in the 1950s, Soekarno once told the committee of the Dharma Wanita to serve Nusantara cuisine elegantly.
Indonesian snacks were then promptly served elegantly using a prasmanan model and by applying the concept of table manners. This effort is seen as interesting, considering Soekarno is a figure who opposed all aspects of colonialism, but on one hand adopted Western values passed down through colonialism itself.
From that event, it can be concluded that Indonesia has a lot of culinary wealth that is apt to be used as a tool for diplomacy. It is all about the strategy used so our cuisine can rise in prominence on the international stage,” he explained.
In an effort to preserve Indonesian cuisine, Fadly believed that it should not be called traditional cuisine or old timey cuisine. The name could, in fact, kill the prominence of Indonesian cuisine.
Anything labelled traditional cuisine will be easily suppressed by the modernity of the culinary arts. “In my observation, if the cuisine gets called ‘old’ then eventually it will disappear,” he concluded. (ICP)*
