Breakfast of Memories

By Barrie | September 29th, 2007 | No Comments

A breakfast, or eye-opener as a famous American chef said, has to be an inspiring start to the day. And as cooking and eating are mostly founded on memories one should eat what one enjoys. But many people still eat the same breakfast day after day, despite it being the most important meal of the day as gastronome and epicurean el supremo Suryatini N. Ganie explains.

I had no toast or scrambled eggs today, instead eating some hot steamed rice, butter, salt, pepper and sliced fresh tomatoes I liked when I was a child and bought a curry pastry from my favorite bakery. I seldom felt so good after breakfast!

And after my unusual breakfast, I was inspired to have a look at what people in various regions in Indonesia eat for breakfast. I called some friends hailing from various regions who are experts in their regional foods.

“In South Sulawesi,” Rut said, “we often have sokko‘ for breakfast. Sokko‘ is made from glutinous rice and eaten with a sambal from tomatoes and steamed grated savory coconut.

“But we are also very practical people and the rest of the sokko‘ is sometimes made into a lemper bakar, wrapped in banana leaves and the filling will be shredded chicken or meat. The sokko‘ is a very old dish and I remember my grandmother always made a real delicious sokko‘.”

And when calling a friend from South Kalimantan, she told me that breakfast for them was not only sweet bread rolls and coffee or tea, as they usually eat now, for the sake of practicality, but a succulent lontong gulai ayam and hot sugar-less tea afterward.

“And when did you make the lontong,” I asked her. She then gave me a simple recipe of how to be able to enjoy a typical gulai ayam breakfast.

“You can also order some lontong should you not be able to make it yourself,” she suggested, “or make a larger quantity and store it in the refrigerator. It will be still very edible after 2-3 days. When you need it, steam it for several minutes and the lontong will be all right to eat again.”

To make lontong, wash and drain 300 grams of rice and boil it until half done in 400 ml of water until the water is fully absorbed. Take from flame. Cut banana leaves in 20 x 20 cm pieces, put 4 tbs of half-cooked rice in it and tightly roll the leaf into a cylinder.

Secure ends with toothpicks then boil the wrapped rice over medium heat for about 90 minutes until done. Drain and let cool or put in the refrigerator. Lontong can be made one or two days in advance, stored in the refrigerator or a cool place.

My friend also told me that the people of South Kalimantan enjoy a wide variety of foods for breakfast. There is soto banjar and one big bowl with ketupat, which is a kind of lontong made in a gauze wrapping.

My neighbors, people from Klaten, near Surakarta in Central Java, often enjoy their favorite breakfast of sego (Javanese for cooked rice) kelem. The dish is rather spicy and has a very herbal aroma because of the additional limau lime leaves.

Uncommon is the addition of yellow egg noodles to the portion of rice, though the dish is considered a rice dish. It is a very interesting breakfast dish indeed.

Cirebonese breakfast on docang made with soft cooked young cassava leaves, soybean sprouts and tempeh, topped with a red krupuk variety. Another Cirebonese breakfast is nasi jamblang, brought by the vendors from the small village called Jamblang.

It consists of hot steamed rice, various side-dishes like braised or fried tofu, eggs prepared in a variety of different ways, semur ayam or daging and some five to six dishes more from which one can choose.

Have a nice start to the day with a varied and nutritious breakfast before returning to the familiar toast and scrambled eggs, croissant et caf‚ au lait, Broetchen und Honig, etc.

Suryatini N. Ganie