A Stage for Borobudur\'s Local Feasts

KOMPAS/FERGANATA INDRA RIATMOKO

Students read an entry of a wall magazine competition at the Synergy and Harmony Festival on Saturday (2/11/2019) at the Pawon temple complex in Borobudur district, Magelang regency, Central Java. The event was held to welcome the 2019 Borobudur Marathon, which is sponsored by the Bank of Central Java.

The Borobudur Marathon’s 2019 slogan is “Synergy and Harmony manifest at Harmony Market”. A wealth of local dishes is packaged and promoted to boost their popularity. Local culinary businesspeople are given training to prepare them for the future.

Ernalia Masli, 35, awkwardly worked on the electronic data capture (EDC) machine during training for local small and medium enterprise owners given by Central Java’s Bank Jateng in Bumiharjo village, Borobudur district, on Tuesday (22/10/2019). In the three years since she began her business, bank transfers wer nonconventional transactions. "Insya Allah [God willing], I can do this," she said.

Ernalia, who owns Legondo Bu Suad in Borobudur village, Borobudur district, Magelang regency, Central Java, said her customers were concentrated in and around her village. Buyers from out of town are facilitated by bank transfers.

At first, she was nervous when Legondo Bu Suad was chosen as among the 25 culinary business included in Harmony Market. The market is held as part of events ahead of the Borobudur Marathon Powered by Bank Jateng, on 17 November.

In the international running event, the legondo will be served side-by-side with a selection of other local dishes for more than 10,000 domestic and international runners. "Many locals do not even know legondo," Ernalia said.

Legondo is a sweet dish made of banana, glutinous rice, sugar and coconut milk. At first, Ernalia served the meal only to her relatives and neighbors. Three years ago, the Suad family began selling it online and promoting it on social media.

Ernalia and 24 other selected local food and beverage entrepreneurs received training from chefs of four prominent hotels in Magelang since September. They were trained on how to pack their meals properly.

KOMPAS/FERGANATA INDRA RIATMOKO

Traditional food vendors serve visitors at the Synergy and Harmony Festival on Saturday (2/11/2019) at the Pawon temple complex in Borobudur district, Magelang regency, Central Java. In addition to welcoming the 2019 Borobudur Marathon, the festival was organized by the Borobudur Marathon Foundation and the Central Java provincial government in collaboration with Kompas daily to help boost local food and beverage entrepreneur. The festival selected 25 traditional food vendors to receive training in business development to sell their products using non-cash transactions during the event.

If small boxes usually contain 10 legondo, she is asked to pack just two in one box. "Legondo is a snack. Ten in a box is too heavy. The trainer chef said that snacks must not be too fulfilling. Moreover, we are serving these to runners," she said.

Sri Lestari, 45, who owns Tari Snacks in Mendut subdistrict, Mungkid district, did not care too much about the plastic wrapping of her lemper (savory glutinous rice with filling) snack. She was suggested to replace the plastic wrapping with paper. "This is part of our love for the environment and anti-plastic waste movement," Sri said.

The training by hotel chefs broadened the local entrepreneurs\' horizons. Wanto, 35, a resident of Ngaran hamlet who sells jumbo-sized tempe mendoan (fried tempeh), for instance, never knew how to properly use banana leaves for food.

"I just learned that it\'s better to use the outer side of leaves for mats. The inner side sometimes has white spots. It\'s not good to look at," said Wanto, who also works as security guard at the Borobudur Temple.

He is also trained to calculate production cost in detail. This helps him determine selling price.

Training

The 25 local dishes were obtained from the impromptu visits of four chefs of prominent hotels in Magelang, namely Plataran, Puri Asri, Grand Artos and Villa Borobudur Resort hotels. Plataran Hotel & Resort chef Iqbal Batubara said that they curated more than 40 dishes around Borobudur Temple. These include legondo, lemper, mendoan, mangut beong, fish cakes, soto lesah, slondok rintik, taro crackers and wedang uwuh herbal drink.

It\'s more about packaging, appearance, hygiene and economic calculations.

Iqbal said he was amazed that the local area had so many high-quality culinary products. "We have no complaints about taste. It\'s more about packaging, appearance, hygiene and economic calculations," he said.

The local entrepreneurs are taught how to proportionately measure all ingredients so that they are not used up too quickly. Puri Asri Hotel chef Indah Suprapti said that, in her years of doing business, many local businesspeople mixed and matched ingredients and condiments based on feelings. As a result, production cost balloons up.

Moreoever, local food businessplayers often use certain ingredients in excess as they thought it would make the dishes more delicious. Thanks to the training, they now know that this is useless.

Grand Artos Hotel and Convention Magelang ched Ganang Tri Sutaryo said local business owners felt lucky whenever their revenue was higher than their production costs. They often do not calculate their actual profit. "They don\'t think it\'s important to appreciate themselves. This is a mistake," he said.

Digital Economy

Apart from boosting product quality, Bank Jateng also introduced the local business players to digital and noncash transactions. Bank Jateng corporate secretary Djoko Sudiatmo said to boost local businesspeople\'s digital economy awareness, Bank Jateng lent dozens of EDC machines and 5,000 electronic cash bracelets to the Synergy and Harmony Festival and other culinary exhibitions that are part of Borobudur Marathon 2019. GoPay and OVO may also join.

"Local business players must also understand technology and social trends," he said.

KOMPAS/REGINA RUKMORINI

Makanan khas- A basket of legondo (sticky rice and banana) is on display unique to Borobudur district of Magelang regency, Central Java. The 2019 Borobudur Marathon, which will be held on 17 Nov., is promoting traditional foods of the region.

Borobudur Marathon 2019 project leader Catharina Rini said Harmony Market was part of the Pawoné Borobudur Marathon 2019 program. This event aims to progressively drive the social ecosystem and unite all stakeholders, especially locals.

Harmony Market aims to provide a stage for local culinary feasts in Borobudur. Hopefully, it does not stop here.