VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Welcome to “INDONESIAN WONDER”, a daily segment featuring tourism, culinary arts, fine arts and culture from various regions across Indonesia. In today’s edition, we will invite you to enjoy Bekamal Culinary from Banyuwangi.

Banyuwangi is one of the cities in East Java province. Osing or Using is indigenous people who inhabit Banyuwangi region. Traveling to Banyuwangi is not complete if you do not interact directly with the life of Osing people. They have rich and unique customs and traditions. There are Banyuwangi Gandrung Art, Barong Dance, Kuntulan, Tumpeng Sewu Tradition, and Jamuran Tradition. In addition, the Osing tribe also has a typical culinary that you deserve to enjoy. One of them is Bekamal, the culinary using meat as its main ingredient.

To taste it, the meat is then processed again to be consumed as a side dish. Before reprocessing, to minimize the distinctive aroma, bekamal meat must be washed with clean air and then soaked overnight with lemon juice. This is done, in addition to reduce the distinctive aroma, also reducing the dominant saltiness in Bekamal. The Osing community in Gintangan Village, usually serve Bekamal meat as side dishes. The meat put in bamboo rice or Sego Jajang. To try the taste of Bekamal that has been processed, you can find the culinary in Gintangan village, Banyuwangi. In addition, Bekamal is also sold in the form of packaging.

Bekamal is taken from the Javanese and Using language, which means the full of charity. The traditional culinary, is estimated has been existed since the 16th century when Islam began to enter the Blambangan kingdom, because at that time, people are familiar with the celebration of Eid al-Adha, so the meat stock is abundant during the sacrifice. The kingdom is a fragment of the last Majapahit kingdom in Java. The overflow of meat by the community is preserved into Bekamal. Formerly the local community, the meat was put into ‘kendil’ which is previously flavored and then closed tightly to at least 10 days. After the meat is considered cooked it can be taken just a little bit, to be sauteed as a side dish.

That was the segment of Indonesian Wonder, with the topic about Bekamal Culinary from Banyuwangi.