as a Food Culture and ’s icon

Gudeg is an icon of Yogyakarta’s cuisine. It’s a traditional Javanese cuisine we can trace the history to the 1500. It’s made from green (Javanese: gori; Indonesian: nangka muda) and stew for hours in a mixture of spices (, , candlenuts, seeds, , daun salam (Indonesian bay leaves) and leaves), and . The additional of teak leaves is important to colour the dish into reddish-brown.

According to the history, it was popularized during the construction of Islamic Mataram Kingdom with Kota Gede or the Great City as the capital city.

Panembahan Senopati circa 1584 – 1586 is the founder of Islamic Mataram Kingdom. He was the son of Ki Ageng Pemanahan and adopted son of Sultan Hadiwijaya. Ki Ageng Pemanahan was a very good friend of Sultan Hadiwijaya, a successful farmer in Manahan, Solo, whose son of Danang Sutawijaya.

As a result of the help Ki Ageng Panembahan to kill Aria Penangsang whose the cousin of Sultan Hadiwijaya’s wife, Panembahan Senopati and his father was granted a Mentaok forest which is known as Kota Gede in modern day. Sultan Hadiwijaya who ruled Islamic Demak Kingdom at that time and moved the capital city to Pajang, near Kartosuro. The movement was caused by a rebellion of Ario Penangsang and infiltration of the Portuguese that monopolized spices trading by colonizing several trading ports a long the north coast of ; starting from Banten, Sunda Kelapa, down to Tuban and Gresik, including Kendal, Demak, Jepara and Lasem.

When Danang Sutawijaya deforested the area, he employed lots of troops and labours. The troops then found abundant numbers of jackfruit and coconut trees to feed themselves. They cooked the unripe jackfruit with ground shallots, , coriander, candlenuts, palm sugar, and added the salam leaves (Indonesian bay leaves ) and slices of galangal.

To cook unripe jackfruit, it needs to boil jackfruit with water and spices then stir until it is really cooked, soft and drier so it can be stored for 24 hours without reheating it.

In Javanese, the word stir constantly is hangudeg – ngudeg – so, then they called the dish as Gudeg.

Serving Suggestion The originally serving of Gudeg in the past is considering vegan as it doesn’t add with either eggs or chickens as in modern day.

Nowadays, Gudeg is served with a portion of white steamed rice, chicken dish either ayam (chicken in coconut gravy) or (fried chicken), telur (tea eggs), opor telur (egg in coconut gravy) or just regular hard boiled egg, and/or , sambel goreng krecek (beef rinds fried )

Variations

Foods are always evolved. So is Gudeg. Types of Gudeg are thrived. From original dry type. You’ll find the wet and Manggar (Coconut Flowers)

Based on the region, there are Yogyakarta, Solo and .

Dry Gudeg is a typical of Yogyakarta style. It’s known as well as “Red Gudeg”. It’s sweeter, drier and dark reddish due to teak leaves addition.

Wet gudeg contains more coconut milk which is usually a typical of Solo style. More watery and soupy. Opaque colour due to no teak leaves is being added.

Yogyakarta's gudeg is usually called "red gudeg", while Solo's gudeg is also called "white gudeg".

The Eastern Javanese style is less sweet and hotter as a result of addition.

As the city where Gudeg was born, Yogyakarta has always been associated with Gudeg. Sometimes, Yogyakarta is called as “Kota Gudeg” or the City of Gudeg.

Availability and packaging

Gudeg can be packed into a besek (bamboo box packaging) or kendil (claypot), or canned. Canned gudeg can be last up to one year. and restaurants serving gudeg can be found throughout Indonesian cities, such as Greater Jakarta. It is a popular dish in Javanese restaurants, and can be found in neighboring countries, such as

Note :

The special territory of Yogyakarta had been always contributing to the central government during the revolution and the independency. The late Sultan Hamengkubuwono the 10th was once appointed as the Vice President during Soeharto regime. Meanwhile during Soekarno’ s presidency, the Sultan was appointed as minister of defense as well as the governor of Yogyakarta special Territory.

After Bali, Yogya is the second most popular tourist destination due to its location where is very near to Borobudur and Prambanan temple complex. Both temples are awarded by Unesco as a World Heritage.

Borobudur is a Buddhist temple, built by King Samarottungga from Syailendra Dinasty, dated back to 850 AD and Prambanan complex of temples, were built at the beginning, by Sri Maharaja Rakai Pikatan who married to the daughter of Samarottungga, princess Pramodha Vardhani, and then, extended by Sri Maharaja Dyah Balitung Maha Sambu around the 10th century.

With a new international airport in Yogya that located 40 kms away to the west. In Kulon progo, several new development tourist destination are available to be visited, such as Glagah Beach, Kalibiru, One Thousand Stones Songgo Langit, Woh kudu Beach, small lake of Sendangsari, Pajangan, Flower Garden at Samas Beach, Geoforest Watu Payung, Pintu Langit Dahrono in Bantul. etc

So, there will be more opportunities to introduce Gudeg as Yogya’s cuisine to conserve the culture and attract tourists globally. Despite still preserved the authenticity, we’ll serve to be an eye-catching presentation and slightly adapting the market’s tastebuds eg. Making it less sweet or less spicy sambal goring krecek as the side dish.

Let us work on it, by opening more Gudeg resto.

Jakarta, 28 April 2020 Prepared by

Mimis Katoppo - Sasmoyo