Preserving our culture, Supporting the community, Good habits: Choose local products, not imported ones

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I envy countries where peaches grow. I enjoy the soft, juicy and fresh taste of peaches while my mind takes pleasure in relating their bright yellow color with the benefits of antioxidant.

This kind of fruit is also exported to Indonesia, immersed in liquid syrup and packed into can. However I just can’t consider ‘canned fruit’ as fruit any more nor I will spend money on imported fruit whereas I have alternative products grown by local farmers.

As a matter of fact, there is a far better option: mango. It is everybody’s favorite fruit and has its own place in our culture.

At this time of year, mangoes are piling up every where!!!

All varieties of mangoes: harum manis (yellow, juicy and tasty flesh), gedong gincu (orange color, irrisistable smell plus superb taste), golek (less juicy, mild taste), kweni (smaller shape, mix taste of sweet and sour), indramayu (dry flesh that makes it good for ‘rujak’).
Rujak is a part of our culture, which is a traditional dish made of all sort of different fruits, sliced or coarsely smashed, served with sweet and spicy peanut gravy.

There were also a few times when I planned to make mango pudding like the one my grand mother used to make, but my husband always disagreed. "It’s better to eat the fresh ones," he always said.

Just before the end of year, still in the rainy season, mango will be replaced by other famous seasonal fruits: rambutan and lengkeng.

Rambutan is famous because of it’s rambut (=hair) and also its fresh taste and richness in vitamin C. It’s also cheap cause it has to be sold fast. Why? Unlike mango, which is usually picked before it ripes, you may not harvest rambutan too early and once rambutan already arrives at local markets, it will last not more than five days before its beautiful red hairy skin turns to awfully black.
No wonder we are also attracted to buy rambutans in bulk. This way we can enjoy eating them day by day. However on precisely the third day, we are forced to finish the rest of them otherwise they will all be rotten.

We are also blessed with all species of unseasonal fruit through out the year.

The most popular one is banana (pisang). My parents in law’s big familiy loves pisang raja (first rate banana variety with green skin; raja means king), my eldest daughter prefers pisang raja serai (has a very mild sour taste), meanwhile my choice is pisang ambon (netral taste, yellow skin).
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pisang raja

Sometimes I also buy pisang nangka (becomes very sweet when it ripes while its green skin turns black) for making pies or simply dip it it boiling water to get healthy breakfast.

Sudden guests arrive? Just serve banana fritters : whole pieces of banana or cut in two, dipped in flour batter then deep fried. The key lies on the flour batter. Good flour batter makes good coating, when combined with the sweet taste of pisang nangka and served while still warm, hmmm….!

Don't forget about our other traditional meal: kolak. Which banana is best for kolak ? Pisang tanduk of course! This variety looks like a long horn of an animal. Send a bowl of kolak (cuts of banana and sweet potatoes in coconut milk and palm sugar soup) to neighbors! A simple way to preserve our culture and to be courteous as well!

What do I make for close relatives? There are still countless unseasonal fruits available for this purpose. I usually add slices of jackfruit into the regular recipe of klappertart (a pie filled with sweet dough and slices of very young coconut flesh). I will also prepare fruit cocktail (small round cuts of almost all kinds of fresh fruit served in simple syrup). They require quite a lot of work but never fail!
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There are 46 million farmers in Indonesia. Half of them still live in poverty. Let's pay more attention to them, our own community, by choosing local products!

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