Batak cuisine

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Saksang and panggang, the typical Batak dishes in Lapo (Batak restaurant).
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Batak cuisine is the cuisine and cooking traditions of

andaliman (Zanthoxylum acanthopodium) as the main spice. That is why andaliman in Indonesia sometimes dubbed as "Batak pepper".[1]

Batak people are majority Christian — unlike neighboring Muslim-majority ethnic groups such as Aceh and Minang — Christian Batak people are not restricted to Islamic halal dietary law.[2] Many of the Batak's popular meals are made of pork as well as dishes made from unusual ingredients, such as dog meat or blood, however there are also halal batak dishes, mostly chicken, beef, lamb, mutton, and freshwater fishes.

Batak culinary centers are located in towns of Batak highlands, such as the town of Kabanjahe and Berastagi in Tanah Karo area. While some towns around the Lake Toba offers freshwater fish dishes such as carp arsik. The Northern Sumatra capital of Medan is also a Batak cuisine hotspot where numerous of Lapo (Batak eating establishments) can be found, yet the city is also a culinary center of halal Malay Deli, as well as Indian Cuisine and Chinese Indonesian cuisines. Outside its traditional lands in North Sumatra, Batak cuisine can also be found in Lapo in Jakarta, as well as most of the Indonesian major cities. Batak food is also widely present in Penang, Malaysia due to wide Batak migrant labour population found there.

History

Cooking traditions in many parts of

Minang, Malay and Aceh cuisines featuring typical curry-like dishes heavily influenced by Indian and Arabic cuisines. Batak cuisine however, retain its indigenous Austronesian cooking traditions; such as cooking meats (especially pork) along with its blood. Similar dish can also be found in Filipino cuisine, such as dinuguan. However, since many tribes of the archipelago have converted to Islam, the non-halal dishes such as those using pork, dog meat
, or blood, has been abandoned, and now only survive in non-Muslim areas, such as Batak lands.

Spices and flavourings

Andaliman
known in Indonesia as "Batak pepper"

Regional differences between Batak and Acehnese culinary influences, among others, are characterized by the choice of spices;

Murraya koenigii) as the main spice, while the Batak people prefer andaliman. Regions that use andaliman as main spices starting from the Gayo highlands in Central Aceh continue to the southeast up to Berastagi in Tanah Karo in North Sumatra.[1]

The most widely used spice in Batak cuisine is andaliman and batak onion (

lemongrass, ginger, galangal and turmeric
.

Meat

Saksang, pork cooked in spices and its own blood
Panggang, Batak style roasted pork

For many centuries

dog meats are commonly consumed. Dog meat is usually called B1, derived from biang, Batak word to refer a dog, while pork is often called B2 from babi. Pork (B2) or dog meat (B1) are usually cooked in its own blood, spiced and seasoned as saksang, or grilled as panggang
.

However, there is also

Mandailing Batak tribe. They apply Islamic dietary law which only allows halal
food and forbid consumption of pork, dog meat, and blood.

Popular Batak pork dish are saksang, fried cutlets sauteed pork in thick spicy blood sauces and Babi Panggang Karo (karo roast pork) — often shortened to BPK — which is locals' favourite and has become nationally famous through Lapo Batak restaurants nationwide. BPK consists of roasted pork slices with three accompaniments: a bowl of broth made from the essence of boiled pig's bones, a platter of porcine blood cooked with pepper and chili, and a saucer of extra-hot chili sauce.[2]

Another common meat consumed in the Batak cuisine is

Manuk Napinadar is a grilled chicken smothered in chicken blood itself, spiced with andaliman and garlic powder. Ayam Tasak Telu is one of popular chicken dish in Batak cuisine. Tasak telu literally means “cooking three times,” and consists of three dishes: the first part is boiled chicken< the second part is a sauce made of finely-ground corn kernels, spices and the remaining stock from the boiled chicken, the third part is an assortment of chopped vegetables and spicy coconut
.

Fish

Carp Arsik, Batak style spicy fish

Since the Batak tribes live in the interior of North Sumatra, freshwater fish that live in rivers or

Na Tinombur
.

Exotic dishes

Batak dishes sometimes use unusual meats such as dog meat (B1 or "biang" ) cooked as saksang or roasted as panggang.

One unusual notorious dish is Pagit-pagit that has distinctly pungent aroma. The ingredients include a brew of cassava leaves, santan (coconut milk), rimbang (a bitter but non-toxic variety of the nightshade family), flowers of some locally-available plants and some arsik sauce, pork or beef meat, mixed with additional unusual substance — juice from a cow's cud, food that has been digested and regurgitated.

Another exotic and rare ingredients is

kidu. It is the Karo word for white, plump grubs or insect larvae found in sugar palm trees
. The kidu-kidu sausages are named as such because they look similar to the grubs. The grubs are lightly fried to make the outer skin crispy while keeping the inner part juicy, and then briefly cooked in a boiling arsik sauce.

Beverages

For the Batak community,

Mandailing
region.

Dishes

Mie gomak, Batak spicy noodle soup, served with chayote and hard boiled egg

Snacks

See also

References

  1. ^ a b ROW/WSI (20 April 2013). "Andaliman, Batas Bumbu Batak dan Aceh". kompas.com (in Indonesian). Kompas.com. Retrieved November 10, 2013.
  2. ^ a b Roslin, Tash (June 30, 2009). "Batak Karo, Extremes In Cuisine". www.thejakartaglobe.com. The Jakarta Globe. Archived from the original on November 10, 2013. Retrieved November 10, 2013.
  3. ^ Wan Ulfa Nur Zuhra (21 January 2013). "Enjoying 'tuak' in Batak country". The Jakarta Post. Retrieved 5 November 2015.

External links

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