Money Report

Total money brought (excluding flazzcard): Rp. 575 000

Day 1 (in Jogja)

Rp. 5000: Indomie

- Flazzcard (Rp. 2000 something)

Rp. 20 000: Public bus to Borobudur

Rp. 50 000: Andong

Total: Rp. 75 000

Day 2:

Rp. 1000: Fixed the bike wheel.

Rp. 3000: Paid for bike park.

Rp. 3000: Drink

Total: Rp. 7000

Day 3:

Rp. 1500: sweet potato

Rp. 7000: Geblek and Gethuk

- Flazzcard: (Rp. 2000 something)

Rp. 15 000: egg roll

Rp. 10 000: ceriping

Rp. 50 000: lost

Total: 83 500

Day 4:

Rp. 10 000: Andong

Rp. 15 000: Public bus

- Flazzcard (around Rp. 2000 something)

Rp. 10 000: Public bus

Rp. 6000: Chicken noodle

Total: Rp. 41 000

Day 5:

Rp 10 500: Mi Letheg and lime juice

Rp. 40 000: Church offering

Total: Rp. 50 500

Day 6:

Rp. 10 000: Nasi bakar

Rp 8000: 2 portions of fried rice.

Missing: 52 000
Total pay for living cost: Rp. (around) 100 000

Left: Rp. 77 000

My Eksplorasi Private Project: Ketela

Ketela

Actually, this isn’t my original private project idea. I was interested with getuk, since the one shown to me in the peyek home industry. At that time, I didn’t know that the most known getuk is the snack version, not the main staple food. What caught my interest was that it just looks so unique, squishy, and appetizing, only, Kak Kukuh told me that it would be hard to find any information about getuk, as there are not that much sources about getuk around the village and in the market, so we moved the topic a step away, which is ketela, because getuk is made out of ketela.

I already received lots and lots of information about ketela from Pak Ceriping, from seeing his plantation, going to Rumah Ketela, and information from my observations and interviews in the market. At the same time, I bought some snacks made out of Ketela, which are getuk (I was surprised when I saw that the getuk is totally different from the one I saw in the village, as this is the first time I saw the snack version. Since then, I relized that there were many versions of getuk, so I didn’t ask the seller any further.

I’ll give you an introduction of what Ketela is. Ketela is basically another word for singkong/ cassava. It’s the root of the Cassava plant, and it’s normally used for food. The peeled skin is used as the cattle’s food.

The Ketela tree is multifunction, as villagers use the bark as firewood or planted again, the leaves as vegetables or if it’s too old, as goat’s food, and the roots (the cassava) could be used as food.

The first information I got about Ketela was from Pak Ceriping, who makes Ceriping out of Ketela. We saw a big pile of cassavas behind him as he sliced the cassava using machine, and he must finish slicing them all, and have them fried by his wife, or else they would not be good, although still edible.

Next we went to Pak Ceriping’s cassava farm, and there we saw a lot of cassava trees, and several papaya trees. We were allowed to help harvest the trees, and we helped/played cutting the cassavas off from the trees. It was pretty fun, although the earthworms scared me.

I got my next information from the market. I looked around for Ketela sellers, and I saw that there were plenty, but they were either busy with their customers or my friend who had the same topic as me already got them.

I found a vacant old woman named Ibu Sutia, 60 y.o, and has been selling in the market for 30 years. She not only sold cassava, but she sold vegetables too.

There were many types of cassava, ubi (sweet potato), and talas. Cassava are: Singkong mentega, telo Jendral (telo is the Javanese word for singkong and sweet potato), telo kuning, telo putih, and telo merah.  The cassavas are not precisely the colours mentioned above, but to differenciate them, the Javanese gave them their respective names. I didn’t get any information about what types of talas there were, I forgot to ask, but these are the types of ubi that I got: Ubi Kuning, Ubi Biru, and Sumbowo. I also got several receipes of snacks made out of Ketela, such as Geblek and Getuk.

I was running out of time as she had plenty of customers out of a sudden and they all bought their goods in large quantities, so off I went to one of the snack sellers.

These sellers (there were 2 woman) were Mbak Dah (55 y.o) and Mbak Yah (35 y.o)(both aren’t siblings) were more friendly than Bu Sutia, and I bought 1 geblek and 1 getuk. I was so surprised seeing the getuk, as it was totally different from the one I saw in the Peyek industry. Apparently, this is the snack version. I asked for other types of getuk but I saw and was told there were none. I then assumed that the one I saw in the home industry was the main staple food, Pak peyek did say that too :p.

I decided to buy geblek too, as I’m curious of how it looks like. It looks more like white chips.

I was told there were 3 types of getuk, Getuk Karet, Getuk Lindri, and Getuk Ubi Jalar. I didn’t know the name of the getuk that I bought. J

My next information came from Rumah Ketela, where the founder was Pak Ariswara Sutomo. He opened Rumah Ketela to show us how we can reduce our use of wheat, which we imported from various other countries, by cassavas and sweet potato. Importing wheat can cost up to 16 trillion, although most of the imported wheat will be made into instant noodle. One way to reduce the use of wheat is by not buying wheat flour (although I still buy them sometimes :p), as the less buyers, the more expensive wheat flour will be. A replacement for wheat flour is mocaf, or sometimes corn flour could be used, although the result won’t be as good as wheat flour. Like for example, cake, the ones made by wheat flour have smoother textures than the ones made by mocaf.  Another advantage of cassavas are they are gluten free, and some people must avoid eating gluten. Gluten could be found in wheat.

In the past, when Mount Merapi erupted, all our crops failed, but we still could survive by eating cassavas and sweet potato, as they grow underground, so they are protected, which shows that we actually can depend on ourselves, not on other countries for our main staple food. Cassava and sweet potatoes could be found everywhere in Indonesia, so it won’t be much of a trouble for the citizens to find them.

In Rumah Ketela, we were served with snacks on first arrival, which names most of us forgot. All of them were still warm (except the ones in containers) but for me, the most delicious is the purple one. We were also introduced to a new kind of root, Suwek, another type of edible root, papaya jam, a mixture of papaya and pineapple, which was put into the container when it was still hot so that it would be sterile, egg roll from suwek, which all of us (except me) tried to roll in the frying pan, 4 types of flour: mocaf, sweet potato, Suwek, and corn, and 2 types of ice cream: one from sweet potato and the other from corn.

They showed us how to make mocaf, and some facts about them. Mocaf is easy to keep, and they stand for a long time, starting from a month to 6 years.  Keeping wheat (flour too) is pretty difficult, as bugs often nest themselves there.

To make mocaf, they were washed, peeled, spread and dried, immersed for 3 days and 3 nights, and every 24 hours the water is changed. They were then fermented, dried again, then milled into powder by a machine called selem, and powered by gasoline.

I actually wanted to buy the corn flour, as I thought my mom never used it before, but after weighing the risks, I decided not to buy it. I bought an egg roll made out of Suwek instead.

We were then shown their vast garden of all kinds of root plants and some fruit plants. From all the information that I was given, the only thing that I remember is that there’s an itchy part on the talas plant and rainy seasons support the growth of the sweet potatoes. Now, I knew that there were 3 most known types of roots, ketela, ubi (sweet potato), and talas, but I didn’t know how to differenciate them. I didn’t really get a “full attention” answer, but from what I conclude from her answer was by looking at the plants.

Why isn’t Rumah Ketela really known? It's because they weren’t well advertised, they’re not even shown on TV. 

OasEksplorasi Day 6

After breakfast we all rode an Angkudes droven by one of the mentor's friend. Angkudes was like Angkot (Angkutan Kota), a public transportation, but Angkot is for the city, while Angkudes ( Angkutan Desa) is only for around the village. It was a private Angkudes though :p

We were all heading to Pantai Depok , and my group was to research about  Penangkapan. So when we reached there, we directly went out to the beach and searched for fishermans that we could interview.

The first fishermen we interviewed was Mas Jogi, 18 y.o. He became a fisherman because he had no option other than being a fisherman, in which he was self-taught. Despite that, he had been fishing for 3 years now.

He worked from 10-11 a.m, but he said that most fishermen worked at 11 a.m. We interviewed him around 10, so there wasn't much fishermen seen yet. Some fishermen started work from 5 a.m. to 12 though. Using nets and fishing rods, Mas Jogi had finished fishing and had caught crabs and several fishes. He only went fishing once a day, and that's it. The fish that fishermen caught depended on the season and weather. They would be sent to the collector where they would be put into ice and either sold somewhere or made into snacks by other people to be sold. The fishes won't smell and rot until the evening.

The boats were powered by machine, or else it couldn't float. It's on only at sea though, as they were given something like a wheelbarrow below it either when sending it off to the water or taking it back from the water so that the bottom side won't rip, as the boat's made out of fiber. When on sea, 2 people handle the boat, but when sending it off or taking it back, many fishermen helped.

When interviewing Mas Jogi, there are 3 local tourists who also asked questions, so mostly here we observe the boat around.

The next person we interviewed was Mas Sulis. He just came back from the sea, and had caught Patin and fishes, stingray, and one big Jambal fish (Ikan Patin, Ikan Pari dan Ikan Jambal). The one big Ikan Jambal would be sold in one big piece, it won't be sliced into smaller pieces.

When it's Ikan Bawal season, fishermen could earn from 2 million up to 15 million. It depends on the season too though, the amount of money they could earn.
Strong wind, big waves, and rain were some of the factors that makes fishing hard. It could damage or break the boat.

It's been a long time since I went to the beach, so when I was there I felt really happy and went to dip my feet in the seawater. We actually were not allowed to go near the waves because of the big waves. Well, when I just reached there and started looking for fishermen, I was still allowed, watched by Kak Kukuh from afar. But when waiting for some of the boys to come back, and went to dip my feet again, I was called by Kak Inu. I walked around barefoot though, except when we're about to go back.

We waited for the boys to finish their interview, then off we went to the Mi Lethek factory. But before that, we ate in a simple food stall that served Mie Lethek so that we know how it looked and tasted like. At first I didn't want to eat because I was worried that I would run out of money for paying transportation and other things, but then my mentors told me that I won't be eating for a long time, so I finally agreed to eat fried Mie Lethek and cold lime juice. Most ordered Noodle soup. I was really surprised by the taste, it tasted so fresh, unlike the ones that we often see in the city. When the Noodle soup came, our first impression was that it looked dull, and light grey not the whitish transparent vermicelli.

The fried ones came after a really loong time, until the ones who ordered the Noodle soup finished long before us. All those waiting made me really hungry, so when I got it, I quickly finished mine and shared with Zaky. But then I got full so I finally shared with Yla :p. 

After that we rode the Angkudes to the factory. Along the way, our mentors told us that President Soekarno was a customer there along his presidential year. I will tell the whole story of it in another article, as I have a lot to talk about. :v. But my part was finding about the history of the factory, alongside Yudhis and Kaysan. We were the history group.

After that we went back home with the Angkudes. We reached our homestay, and wrote our logbooks.

We went to church (except Ceca), the Ganjuran church at 5:30 p.m. (the Bahasa Indonesian one).

I'll stop here and I'll continue next time. 

OasEksplorasi Day 5

I woke up earlier than the alarm today :) and I prepared my pack. It was this morning that I just realized that my pencil case was missing. I tried to look around the house for it, among the girls' things on the floor, in Gatotkaca, but it wasn't there. It was then I just realized that it was missing, and I either left it in the market or in Rumah Ketela. After the girls woke up I asked them if they'd seen my pencil case, but non of them did. Well, I didn't really remember the way to the market, nor to Rumah Ketela, so I just accepted it and got ready.

I ate breakfast and made sure that nothing was left behind in the room, tidied it up, and at this time I "lost" my Ceriping gelombang :(. So Adinda and me were discussing about how to, well, in my point of view was how to bring the Ceriping that we bought in an easier way, but maybe in Adinda's view it's how to give the Ceriping to our host in a nice way together with the bag that I bought in which Adinda and Yla painted among those 3 days that we stay in Dusun Maitan. We thought that the other was thinking the same. My plan was to put the Ceriping into the unused bag (the bag that they hadn't painted on, for the one in Dusun Palbapang). Adinda's plan was to put it in the painted bag. Well, in the end when we're about to leave, my Ceriping was in the painted bag, and if I asked for the Ceriping......

Well, it's another "loss" :). But anyway, my family  rarely ate chips, because we considered it unhealthy (especially when I bought a lot. My plan was 1/4 for me and 1/4 for my family, and I ate none). So well....

After we all had metup in Gatotkoco, our mentors were to take our photos with our hosts. Actually the girls didn't plan on taking a photo with our host, but as everyone did it...... We were the last to take though.

Overalll my experience in Dusun Maitan is OK, the only thing that I have to get used to was the crouching toilet and eating the really spicy vegetable. I couldn't handle the vegetables served by every host that I went to, but I didn't dare say/complain anything about it, because that's what I got from every host, so it's like their local food. So if I complain, I thought that it would be like, "insulting" them. But then I was told by my mentors that it's okay to complain that the vegetabls are too spicy.  

After the photo session the Andongs arrived, we were all still waiting for the (always late) Zaky and Ceca who stayed in one Homestay.

We rode the Andong and then walked to Terminal Borobudur. We then rode the bus to Jombor, from Halte Jombor we then took the Transjogja to SMA 7.

In Transjogja, a funny event happened. Ceca was debating with a man. I didn't know how he looked like because I sat rather far from where the funny event happened, but from my friends' description, he looked like a person from an institute. This was what happened (translated to English):

Man: Which school are you from?
C: Oh, we're homeschooled Sir.
Man: If I were Indonesia's president, I would make Homeschooling illegal!
C: Why sir?
Man: Why homeschool when you'll try to get a certificate in the end?
C: Because we're forced to Sir.
Man: You can have a lot of friends in school.
C: As school students you only have limited friends, while homeschooled children could make lots and lots of friends.
Man: School kids can find friends in the holidays.
C: For homeschoolers, holiday is everyday!

And then the man changed the topic. Yudhis, who sat near them, was already putting a sour look. He couldn't bare listening to the conversation :D. Too bad I was sitting far away from them.

We reached Desa Palbapang with a local bus. A woman who sat next to me asked where we were heading and we said Desa Palbapang. She said in a rude tone that we already passed Desa Palbapang. I don't like people like that so I just kept silent after answering a few of her remarks.

We met 2 old women when we were dropped outside Dusun Ngringinan, where we were going to stay. They were from Dusun Ngringinan, and were actually on their way home from the market. Yudhis offered to carry her bag at that time. He thought that it would be light, seeing that she's an old woman. When he tried to carry it, he said it was soo heavy, it's unbelievable that the old woman could carry that much. Yudhis finally took turns with Zaky and Yla when carrying the bag.

One of the old woman.

The old women led and directed us to our respective homestays. Some of the boys' homestay were changed because of certain reasons. We girls stayed together with our mentors in Bu Gun's house. But before we went to our homestays, we all went to Bu Cicil's house, a tempe maker. We were given refreshments, and all of them were organic and handmade, or just plain fruit.

I thought at first that the peanuts were the fried/baked ones, but this one was steamed, so it's soft. It's delicious though, but it's new for me. The purple liquid that you see was actually boiled Telang flower mixed with lime. If you don't mix it with lime, the colour would be blue. It's purple if mixed with lime. Nice though!

We all relaxed (I fixed my broken strap) ourselves because the walk we had just now was so tiring. We also just knew that Bu Cicil's husband's name was Pak Gun, there were a lot of people named Gun there, that's why when the girls said we're going to Pak Gun's house, the old woman became confused. And I think she directed us to Bu Cicil's house too. We relaxed until the bike that we ordered came. We were then allowed to go to our respective homestay and agreed to meetup in Bu Gun's house (where the girls and mentors stayed. We made it as basecamp).We were also allowed to bike around and explore around before the meetup. 

Before the meetup, we helped peel Bu Gun's Hibrid corn, which were mainly there for the chicken's food.

 After the meetup, we then decided to visit the reservoir, but most of us took the wrong way and only Zaky and Kaysan made it into the reservoir. The rest of us went to the dove training place, where they trained the doves for a racing competition, by letting the male flew to a chosen place, then called to go back by holding (more like trapping) a female one. So it's like the male flies back as fast as he could to "save" the female. Even though we didn't go to the reservoir, the scenery was just so beautiful, I wished I had brought my camera. 

After that we went back to our homestays to have dinner then meetup in Bu Gun's house to write our logbooks. I noticed that there's 52k missing from my money, and so I was helped by Kak Kukuh to count. Zaky and me were still doing our logbooks, while the others that had done their logbook played Werewolf, including Kak Inu and Kak Melly. I really wanted to play too, so I ended the discusion quickly (the conclusion from the discussion with Kak Kukuh was that 52k was missing) and in the end everyone played. 

After playing werewolf, our mentors said that they had a surprise for us, that's why they let us had a great time first. I thought it was something really special. Well, the surprise was that our groups were changed. Here are the new groups:

Group 1: Yudhis, Andro, Ceca

Group 2: Kaysan, Zaky, Fattah

Group 3: Yla, Donna, Adinda

My reaction was just usual, because I'm sleepy :)

P.S. We saw fireflies there too which made us look like kids who'd never seen fireflies before :p.

OasEksplorasi (Day 1&2)

So far my posts have been about challenges starting from knowing my strengths to traditional food. It's all practices and exercises for this one exploration that I just had starting from last Monday (December 12th, 2016) to the really early hours of Tuesday (December 20th, 2016).

First, let me give you a picture of what OasEksplorasi is. It was a Pramuka event made in Klub Oase (a homeschooler group), created by Kak Shanty, Kaysan's mother. There were 17 people in total, and they were divided into two groups which each of us can choose from. There were Tim Jahe (they went earlier in late November, you can read about it here), and Tim Kunyit. I joined the latter.

The participants of Tim Kunyit were divided into 3 groups:

Group Marimas Rasa Soto: Andro, Kaysan, Adinda
Group Nasi Uduk: Yudhis, Fattah, Yla
Group Rawon Ayam: Zaky, Ceca, Donna

In this journey, we explored about the local foods of Indonesia in Jogja (specifically in Magelang and Bantul). Together, the 8 of us (there are 9 participants in total for this exploration, one lives in Jogja) started from Stasiun Pasar Senen and rode the 10:30 p.m. Progo economic train. We printed our tickets ourselves before. We were to have no connection with the internet or smartphones at all, just 3 old style (Nokia) phones divided among us.

My stereotype of an economic train were: uncomfortable, dirty, and narrow. Looks like all of my stereotypes are wrong. Yes, the aisle is narrower than the executive one, but it's still ok. I sat together with everyone except Yla and Zaky, because their seat was at the other side of my seat. We joked around and had fun, and most of us slept really late, 'till other passengers scolded us motionally because we're too noisy. Everyone fell asleep in the end.

I woke up several times, so I hadn't much sleep, but when I reached Stasiun Lempuyangan, I felt fresh. We walked to the wrong gate, (West Gate), while we should have went to the East Gate. and met our mentors, where they gave us a guidebook filled with a map of the village where we're going to stay in, the homestays we're going to stay in, a mini Javanese dictionary filled with simple words to help us talk with the locals, our schedule, and ways to get to our villages. But first, we had breakfast. My group guarded the bags while the other groups ate lunch, then it'll be my group to have lunch. I had Indomie Goreng (-5k).

After the lunch we walked to SMP 7 Transjogja bus stop and rode the 2A bus to the Borobudur bus stop. I paid using the flazzcard. In Jakarta, the bus stops are quite wide, while the bus stop in SMA 7 is small and narrow. We waited for quite a long time for the bus, and when we rode the bus, we all stood. As I've never rode a Trans Jogja before, I didn't know that the bus sways extremely, so when I stood we kept on nearly falling against the direction the bus was moving, unlike in Jakarta. I think my friends got the same experience too.

We rode a public bus to the Borobudur bus stop after that, but we paid 20k for it, while actually the real fee was 15k. 20k is the price for tourists. From what I heard from my friends, the person at the front of the bus took out his/her wallet when he/she was about to pay, making the kenek (driver's assistant) raise up the cost to 20k. So next time we were to just take out 15k and say that that's the only money we have if the kenek asks for more.

After reaching the Borobudur bus station, my friends had lunch in a food court. Not the type that you'll find in malls, but more like a food court made up of simple food stalls (warung). I didn't eat because I wasn't hungry. While waiting for my friends eating, I ate one of my snacks and wrote my logbook.

Yudhis talked with a woman selling food while buying his food, and the woman said that an andong (horse cart) costs 30-40 k. We were planning to ride 2 andongs to reach Dusun Maitan, where we'll be staying. It was writen in our guidebooks too that 30-40 k is the average coast of an andong. Meanwhile, after my friends finished eating, an andong driver offered his andong for 100k. What!? Even though I didn't know about Yudhis's conversation with the woman, I still feel that it's to expensive. Their reason was because it's a long way to Dusun Maitan, bla bla bla. Yudhis tried too barter for a lower price, and so they reduced it to a lower price but not as low as 50k.  They said that the journey is 5 km. We all said "Ahhh, that's easy", making us sound like we were used to walking long distances, that we'd practiced before our trip. As we set off to leave, the andong driver called us and lowered the price to 40 k :D.

I stayed in the homestay "Antasena" together with all the girls. I didn't immeadiately unpack, but I read the book that I brought "The Mountain of Adventure" by Enid Blyton. We were told to meet up with the others in Gatotkoco homestay where the mentors were staying. We discussed about our upcoming assignments and after that each group did an exploration around the village to achieve each group's goal. My group was to find for home industries around the village and observe them. We interviewed two of what we found (the Tempe Home Industry and Peyek)

Towards the evening, the local kids played football right outside Gatotkoco homestay. At first we only watched, then one by one everyone started to join except Adinda. Nobody counted the goals each group made, so we didn't know who won ^_^.

Once we all bathed, we discussed our assignments in Gatotkoco again then sleep. That's the ending for the first day. I felt really happy on this day. :)

     

Where Do Our Local Food Comes From (an interview in Festival Desa)

Last Sunday, I was assigned another challenge, which is to go to Ragunan, where a festival called "Festival Desa" was held. The topics there are all organic and local, as this festival aims to introduce people more to healthier foods. I had to interview a comitee and a booth. For the comitee, I have to find the reason why the festival was held, and for the booth, to find the reason why they sold each particular merchandise and find any interesting thing about it.

The first booth I visited was a booth of organic rice. The man that I interviewed was Pak Joharipin. He and his friends fight for the rights of local farmers to make their own seedling. Why? Because since the rule of former president Soeharto, all crop farmers should use hybrid seedlings that makes them depend on certain seedling companies. Chemical fertilizers and pesticide included.

Pak Joharipin mentioned that there are two kinds of seedlings. The first is inbred, and the other one is hybrid. Inbred seedlings are seeds that were carefully selected. They were saved and passed from generations to generations. While Hybrid seedlings were created in labs using high tech methods, as the seeds from hybrid plants won't produce uniform offspring, farmer must buy new seeds each time they want to plant.

How they fight are by developing local seeds for their own seedling and educating farmers by making "Sekolah Lapangan".

And this is the rice that we bought from Pak Joharipin.

The second booth that I visited was a booth from Kehati (Keaneka Ragaman Hayati), who introduced us to the variations of staple food that our ancestors used. We abandoned that tradition because of the rule from former President Soeharto to plant/eat rice, which wasn't their main local staple food. While actually, not all of the Indonesian land are suitable for planting rice, forcing them to buy the hybrid seedlings.

From the booth, I saw many kinds of flour such as banana flour, arrowroot flour, Sago flour, etc. The only absent flour was the wheat flour, as wheat couldn't grow here. The wheat are all imported.

This is buckwheat, a substitute for sugar. It has the same amount of sweetness, but less calories.

This is the buckwheat sugar.

Noodles made out of sago flour instead of wheat flour.

Buckwheat brownies.

Buckwheat brownies recipe

Various dried foods made from non-wheat flour.

The third person that I interviewed was Pak Tejo Wahyu Jatmiko, the head comittee. The reason why this annual festival is held is to make a "direct" connection between the food producer (farmers), and the consumers (in the city). This is the 5th time the annual festival was held.

Food is very important so we have to be independent on making our own local supply. One example of the danger of depending on other country was when Thailand got a massive flood that ruined their harvest, causing us not to get our food order, as they still have to feed themselves (although we've paid them). In the other hand, we cannot postpone our need.

From Pak Tejo, I knew that in the world, around the 1960s (and the 1970s in Indonesia), there's a movement called Green Revolution. The movement was said to raise more yield, and yes, there's more yield, but at the same time, it makes us dependent on other country's supplies for the seedlings and we are heavily in debt (for the building of water dams, large amounts of chemical fertilizer supplies, etc. etc) It was aimed to avoid the spread of Communism (it was during the cold war) and the theory was that people who were hungry were prone to rebelling (influenced by Communism/Uni Soviet). To prevent it, the US scientists improved the seeds in labs to raise the yield, so there would be more food. The improved seeds that we call hybrid, are "spoiled", as they want their surroundings to be exactly like the lab (more water, more chemical fertilizer, pesticide, etc. etc.) in the field, while originally, they could cope with the surroundings easily.

This Green Evolution concludes in a big factory that occupies 75% of the world's seedling supplies.

Conclusion:
I learned that I have to appreciate our local food more and the diversity of food. Besides that, I also learned about the hidden agenda behind the "amazing" Green Revolution movement.

My Reflection Journal (Part 1)

I interviewed 3 people, and the first one was an all-kinds-of-traditional-cakes vendor (including Mochi) in Pasar Laris. Before I interviewed her, I felt a bit scared, but not nervous, because the seller’s face looked kinda fierce. She answered kindly though.

The second person I interviewed is the Mochi Mochi vendor in Daan Mogot Mall. Although she answered smoothly, I had the impression that she’s reluctant to answer because she had to keep the privacy of the company. I didn't feel anything at all.

The third person I interviewed was the Mochi Ice cream vendor in Daan Mogot mall. She answered everything innocently (no reluctance) and I didn't feel anything. I felt sad though at the end because she lost 2 customers due to my interview.

The 7th Challenge (Part 2) All About Mochi

Part 1 is here.

Beware: This writing is reallly looong, so if you're not in the mood of reading a long essay, don't read it :p.

1. Mochi in Pasar Laris

I did my interview in Pasar Laris, Taman Palem, West Jakarta on Sunday, because that's one of the only days (the other one is Saturday) I have time to go to my chosen market. At first I planned to do it on Saturday, but I wasn't ready yet.

I chose that market because I knew the right seller. She sells her sister-in-law's homemade cakes (not a reseller), and she knew the detail of the process. I knew they were homemade cakes because the cakes weren't packaged yet. My mom also ever asked her though.  Her name is Dewi, and she is 55 years old.

My favorite non-wheat cake are Mochi, Putu, Klepon, and Pudding just because they taste really delicious compared to other non-wheat cakes. But I picked Mochi because:

1.They were the first things that came to my mind, and I have searched much about them.
2. My mom is the person who makes pudding, and if I interview her, it would be too easy.

Although my mentor already gave me suggestions of how I could deepen and find out more about the main ingredients of pudding. I decided to just go on with Mochi.

Tante Dewi sells many types of traditional cakes together with her elder brother, both wheat and non-wheat. She has a large stock of them, prepared for the mass amount of customers she'll get, and starts selling from 6 am to 12 pm.

There are more of them at the left, right, and bottom of the ta-

ble. The ones at the bottom won't be sold until there's a vacant

spot on the table.

I interviewed her at around 6:15.

Interviewing her is a bit of a risk. If it's done too early, she would be busy arranging the cakes. Peak time is from 6:30-10 am, so if I do it around 6:20, it would be full with customers and she would be busy helping them out.

My mom introduced me first to her, because if it's only me who talk, I will mostly get ignored. She probably will think I'm a spy, someone who wants to copy her and sell mochis. And well, I just look like an unimportant person compared to her other customers.

There are 3 variations of Mochis that she sells, although the one that's different is only the colour of the outer skin :D. There's pandan, plain, and black glutinuous rice. The inside is the same: peanut. The main ingredient is the same too: glutinuous rice.

She didn't buy the glutinuous rice in a packet and in ready-to- use flour, though, instead, she bought big gonny sacks of the glutinuous rice. I'm not sure it's really a gonny sack, more like a plastic gonny sack, because as far as my mom and I know, no one sells flour in gonny bags anymore. Her sister in law made the dough by immersing the glutinuous rice in water for a few hours, then pound it, like how the factories do in Japan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmSrULDVRPc

No wonder her mochis are different than the common ones, as she didn't like using those glutinous rice flour like "Rosebrand" or "Suji Wangi". "Mana enak" she said :p.

When trying to find out what kind of glutinuous rice flour she uses, it was kinda hard. Instead of saying "It's the privacy of the company/it's our private information" like how the other producers do, she kept on saying "Find it in Youtube." So I stopped.

Then my mom asked about how did she get the flour, where is the central market, but she didn't want to answer. To attract her attention, my mom asked "Do you use something like Rosebrand?", then she answered :p. And that's where I get the sentence "Mana enak pake Rosebrand, makanya punya kita beda." (Using Rosebrand won't be delicious, that's why our mochis are different.) Sorry Rosebrand companies.

Tante Dewi sold mochis as one of the many traditional cakes that she sells, because there are quite a lot of people who like mochis. Out of those three variants of mochis, the one that she likes best is the one made out of black glutinous rice. That's my favorite too :D.

The main ingredients used to make her mochis are: glutinous rice and a little bit of sugar. There are totally no mixture of wheat flour in it, and other than that, they just sprinkle some sesame seeds on top of the mochis.

Despite it's her sister-in-law who makes the mochis and other cakes, Tante Dewi was taught together with her older brother how to make it by their mom. Maybe that's where her sister-in-law learned her skills too. :p She started learning how to make it at 30+ though.

The process of making it is by making the skin first, mould it, then flatten it. The next step is to make the peanut filling, and put it onto the skin. Cover up the filling with the flattened skin, shape it, make it nice, add some sesame on it, then steam it. Finish. :D

Her sister in law starts making the cakes from 3 a.m. Together with 3o assisstants to help produce the cakes,  most of the time the cakes are sold, so I think the hard work really pays off. There is no most popular cake, all are well and sold! What happens to the unsold cakes then? (remember it happens rarely). They were either given to the mates, the security guards, or friends.

She said that these mochis doesn't contain any vitamins in them, but I think Carbohydrate is present in the mochis. Each cake/mochi costs Rp.5000.

Me interviewing Tante Dewi

The cakes I bought

The cakes I bought (1)

I have to make 2 trips there, because I forgot to ask about what type of glutinous rice flour. does she use. I missed one of the main question though, which is "How long does one of these take to make?" My mom did asked me if I have any more questions on the 1st visit there, but more customers kept on coming, and I have nothing more in my mind, so I said no. On the 2nd visit there, my mom asked the same question, and I said no, because I don't feel comfortable bombarding her with any more questions, seeing the fact that she already feels uncomfortable with my glutinous flour questions. :p. Even though she's free of customers :p.

They just put the cakes on trays, brought to the market by car, then if you bring your own box, you can just put the cakes there, but they have small plastic containers if you don't bring your own.

The average weigh of each mochi is 53 gr.

The inside of each mochi.

From my research, I found out that mochi came from either China or Japan, as no one was sure about it. Google doesn't even know who first invented it, not even Tante Dewi, as it's a heritated food, starting from our old ancestors until now. There were even endless variations (maybe even more are being made now). It was something no one could claim. But I did research about how mochi came into Indonesia, and hypothesis says that either the Japanese brought it here when they conquered us, or the Chinese had brought it hundreds of years ago. The most famous mochi in Indonesia is mochi Sukabumi. It's famous because making mochi is the oldest job in Sukabumi in the cake field.

http://www.bbc.com/indonesia/majalah/2015/05/150527_majalah_bisnis_kue_moci

2. Mochi mochi in Daan Mogot mall

The second person I interviewed is an employer from a small stall in Daan Mogot mall called "Mochi Mochi."

The brochure

The box

Side of the box

The person I interviewed is called Erna, and she's 31. There are 14 variations of mochi flavors that she sell, which are: plain peanut, red bean, green bean, black sesame, white sesame, salty peanut, green tea, pandan, chocolate, durian, strawberry, and chicken floss (the stock is finished). Her favorite is salty peanut, chicken floss, and plain peanut.  

She's only an employer, so she doesn't really know how is the process of making the mochi. But she knows though that these mochis don't have any mixture of wheat flour in it, and the main ingridient is glutinous rice flour. The factory is in Pesing, West Jakarta, and the mochis came in whole, complete shapes, and all she has to do is arranging them so that it looks presentable. 

We tried calling the company to ask about what kind of glutinous flour they use, and, although they didn't want to reveal the name of it, but they mentioned that it's a local brand. Some of the filler that aren't produced in Indonesia are imported (like green tea and red bean paste). 

I think the mochis have preservatives in them, as they can hold up to 3 days out of the fridge, and a week in the fridge. You don't have to steam it if you want to eat them from the fridge, all you have to do is wait for 15 minutes for it to soften up.    

She starts selling from 10 a.m. until 9.30 p.m. Usually she has a friend who help her there, but she/he wasn't present.

The mochis don't always sold out, unlike the ones in the market, but it also depends if the mall is crowded or not. If it's crowded sometimes it sold out, but the ones that aren't sold out will be given back to the factory. The crowd's favorites are the plain peanut ones, and it's usually on the weekends that many customers come.



All of the mochis cost Rp. 7000/each, even the packet where it's filled with only fine peanut grains and marble shaped glutinous rice only mochis.

I bought various types of mochis, although I forgot some of them.

All are cut in half.

Me interviewing Mbak Erna.

3. Frozen mochi

I don't interview anyone here, but I bought the frozen mochis from Hypermart Daan Mogot, on Friday.

The costs

The types of flavors they have.

Instructions of how to cook it.

There's a mixture of wheat flour though.

Before being boiled.

After I boiled them and they're ready to be eaten.

4. Ice cream mochi.

I have been asking my mom about ice cream mochi, and, while I was shopping in Daan Mogot Mall on Sunday, I found the advertisement (and my mom the booth) for this mochi ice cream booth called MochiMaru: 

There are a variaty of flavours here, but the ones that are available
 are chocolate, tiramishu, and durian.

The orange ones are the durian flavours.

We bought two mochis: chocolate and tiramishu.
We don't buy durian because I don't like durian.

Close up.

The employer's name is Wati, she's 20 years old. There are 10 variations of flavours, which are: blueberry, cheese, chocolate, durian, green tea, oreo, taro, strawberry, tiramishu, and vanila. The ones present are only the durian, chocolate, and tiramishu. The flavours she likes most are: chocolate, durian, tiramishu, and taro. The most bought ones are chocolate and oreo, because most of the customers are kids.

She doesn't know the process of the mochis because she has never been to the factory, but she knew that the factory is in Bandung, and the mochis came by car. They came in a complete shape directly, all Mbak Wati has to do is make it presentable. There is no mixture of wheat flour in it. 

The mochis could hold up to 1 month in the freezer, but they will melt when they're out of the freezer :v. There are no preservatives in this mochi though. It's only the skin that's mochi, the filler is ice cream :vv. Mbak Wati hypothesised that maybe they make the mochi skin first in a mould, fill the ice cream in, then cover it with another skin of mochi.

1 mochi here costs Rp. 10.000, but she doesn't know the weight of one of them. Although we have the choice to bring the mochis home and weigh it, my grandma wants to eat out, so I'm afraid the ice cream will melt when we reach home (only to weigh it). If you want to eat them there, there's a choice of cutting the mochi or not. If your teeth are strong enough to handle the cold, then Mbak wati won't cut it. If they aren't strong enough, then she will cut them for you.

She starts selling from 10 a.m to 10 p.m.. The weekends and public holidays are the days that she gets the most customers. Starting from 10 a.m till 10 p.m., there will always be plenty of customers.  

The mochis are stocked every week. The ones that aren't sold yet will be kept in the mall freezer, so the freezer is on 24h. 

I feel bad towards the end of the interview, because there are 2 customers waiting, but my interview took so long, so they left :(. She lost customers. :(.

From my research, I got the info that Frances Hashimoto was the inventor of mochi ice cream.

I didn't ask the question "Does these mochis contain vitamins?" because as I know they only contain Carbohydrates.

I also didn't ask the question "How long does one of these take to make?" because 1. I forgot and 2. The 2 other people I interview doesn't know the process of making it.

I researched where the central farming for glutinuous rice flour, and it's in Subang, near Bandung. I did a survey and found that the common flour that people use is Rosebrand, because it's cheaper than Sujiwangi. I found Sujiwangi after researching for more brands of glutinuous rice flour. From an online store, it costs Rp. 11.200 for 500 gr.  In Pasar Duta Garden, the flour seller sells 500 grams pack each for Rp. 8500 (Rosebrand). I think everyone sells glutinuous rice flour at 500 grams/pack. 

Tired writing this whole report :/
Sorry for the countless mistakes I have made.