Bull Noodles All the Rage: Trimurti, Central Java

By Barrie | July 3rd, 2007 | No Comments

A bull, a giant mixer and loads of sunshine are the noodle recipe of choice for an Indonesian family that has discarded machines for this traditional, and time-consuming, process.

The Ferry family in Trimurti village in Bantul district, south of the ancient city of Yogyakarta, has been making “mi lethek” or “dirty noodles” this way for over 60 years.

Yasir Ferry, the 40-year-old who now heads the business, says any method except the bull and the stone mixing bowl yields poor quality dough.

“We have now found the right way to mix the dough,” he said. “We once tried it with a machine, but we found that it didn’t give us the best results, because the noodles kept breaking.”

Mi lethek, which is made from cassava flour, is a favourite in this part of Indonesia, and gets its name from its speckled appearance.

Noodles, and rice, are Indonesia’s staple foods. Annual per capita consumption of instant noodles among the 220 million population is 57 packets, lower than Korea at 70 packets.

Ferry’s grandfather started the business in the 1940s and it flourished until Ferry’s father decided to close the factory.

Yasir re-opened the business in 2002, partly driven by the lasting popularity of the locally made noodles.

Ferry still relies on the same equipment his grandfather used sixty years ago, apart from the bull of course.

The factory produces between 800 and 1,000 kilogrammes of noodles every week, providing jobs to some 25 men in the village.

The process involves grinding the dough with the use of the bull’s strength and a wooden pole attached to a large mixer.

The noodles are then pressed with the use of a simple wooden machine and put out in the sun to dry for a day.

“These noodles can last for up to a month in room temperatures. After a while, it only changes in colour, but it doesn’t get any fungus or mould,” Ferry said.

Source: Reuters India