A street food legend draws crowds

(Yogyakarta) Before dawn in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta renowned for its street food, a line of half-asleep customers winds its way around waiting for the local star.

At 5 a.m. sharp, a frail old woman in a sarong appears on the back of a black motorbike.

She descends slowly, clutching her basket which contains the treats she has been selling for more than half a century.

At 76, Mbah Satinem has long been a foodie secret known only to residents of Indonesia’s cultural capital, but she rose to stardom after appearing in a 2019 Netflix series: Street Food: Asia.

Every day, she opens her stall before dawn and bends over a table to prepare and sell the traditional sweets known as ‘jajan pasar’.

She places several desserts on a banana leaf, including “lupis” made with sticky rice.

Another popular dish is “tiwul”, cooked with cassava flour, palm sugar and “cenil”, a tapioca flour jelly.

“I have been selling lupis for a very long time, nothing has changed,” she says at the stand she has occupied since 1963.

“Lupis and I are made for each other,” she laughs.

Fights for cakes

She cuts the cake with a nylon string, gently places it on the banana leaf and pours thick liquid palm sugar onto it before sprinkling it with grated coconut, for a breakfast that draws crowds.

The recipe is a secret transmitted by his mother. And cooking over a wood fire gives this treat a smoky flavor.

“I used to help my mom make these treats. When she saw that I prepared them better than her, she asked me if I wanted to sell them. I answered yes”.

“She asked me again if I wouldn’t be intimidated to do it, but I said no. So she wanted me to cook these treats”.

Mbah Satinem’s stand is now surrounded by dozens of customers who observe, fascinated, his gestures and film them with their phones.

“The taste of his lupis remains the same,” said Budi, a 49-year-old resident of the city.

“The flavor and gooey consistency of lupis, with a thick brown sauce, it’s delicious. »

Her sweets, sold until 9 a.m. just for 10,000 rupees ($0.87) apiece, are so popular that she has had to assign numbers to customers waiting after fights over her cakes.

” It’s worth it “

Customers who have to wait more than an hour to satisfy their sweet tooth come from all over the island of Java, where Yogyakarta is located.

Rama Luhur, who comes from Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, waited almost two hours to be able to taste the famous lupis, after having salivated for a long time in front of the Netflix series.

” It’s worth it. You can find ‘jajan pasar’ everywhere, but I appreciate his hard work,” the 39-year-old Indonesian told AFP.

Mbah Satinem’s efforts only cease during the fasting month of Ramadan. Every other day, she gets up in the middle of the night to cook.

“I usually wake up around 1 a.m. and go to bed after isha,” the evening prayer around 8 p.m., she says.

Because of her age, the Old Lady’s Stand has become a family business.

Her husband takes care of the sticky rice, her son manages the wood fire, her daughter drives her to her stand and helps her during the four hours she works there.

When asked why she doesn’t abandon her stand, which is usually run by young people, the street food legend replies with a simple laugh.

His daughter Mukinem offers an answer.

“She loves it, she loves making these treats.” “And she can’t sit still.”