The Nyai Table And The Diversity Of The Betawi People

Nyai Table Illustration (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Betawi and diversity are two things that cannot be separated. The manifestation that the Betawi people have an open and tolerant nature can be seen on important days. Eid for example. They make the momentum of eating together at the living room table (Meja Nyai) as a display case for diversity.

Almost all Betawi food – pastries to heavy meals – comes from a fusion of cultures. There are traces of Chinese, Portuguese and Dutch culture. Even the Nyai table later became the true embodiment of the phrase: bineka Tunggal Ika.

For Betawi people, Eid al-Fitr is a big event. All forms of preparation are carried out to the maximum. Including serving delicious food for a large family. The most interesting thing, from the many menus that are made, almost certainly there is no Islamic (Arabic) nuanced food.

The majority of the food served is from ethnicity, race, culture that is outside the Islamic ethnic race.

The rows of pastries that inhabit the jar are usually: nastar, syringe cake, one cake, kiji cake, lunkhead and various sweets. While the line eats heavy: buffalo meat stew, cakes, and red bean soup.

Take for example nastar. The presence of nastar in Indonesia is actually thanks to the Portuguese settlers who came to Asia with pineapple seeds from their colony, South America. The Portuguese often use pineapple as the main ingredient in making pineapple pies.

This cake was quite popular in its time. The Dutch, who had just conquered Jayakarta and turned it into Batavia in 1619, fell in love with the delicious pineapple pie. The love for pineapple pies made the new rulers (the Netherlands) try to innovate. Therefore, be a lasting cake called nastar.

"Ananas tart (pineapple pie) was later modified by the Dutch so that it became nastar, as many Javanese call it," wrote Vincent Gabriel in Success In The Peranakan Food Business (2015).

The main dish is the same. Many Indonesian foods originating from the culinary culture of the Dutch are now a mandatory menu for the Betawi people. One of the most classy is buffalo meat stew. This typical Dutch food is also combined with a touch of Chinese culture from soy sauce.

“Semur (smoor) is a type of food that has a sweet taste typical of the Netherlands using chicken or beef ingredients. This food has been adopted as a popular local dish in rijsttafel under the name smoor djawa (gebakken vis met een pittige sauce)," said Fadly Rahman in Rijsttafel: Culinary Culture in Colonial Indonesia 1870-1942 (2016).

The meaning of diversity from food

A row of food on Nyai's table is proof that Betawi people can accept differences. Historian JJ Rizal believes that food for the Betawi people is not just a matter of being delicious or expensive. More than that. Betawi people believe that every food served has one value.

"Food is not just delicious, ajib-ajiban, but there is value, there is wisdom in food. And from food we are taught the values of respecting and living friendly with differences." Said JJ Rizal to VOI.

Not only JJ Rizal, Betawi Cultural, Masykur Isnan revealed that Betawi people have always been good at fostering a sense of brotherhood and a spirit of togetherness to everyone. Food is the main medium.

“This Betawi is the result of cultural diversity and the process of acculturation. If you understand these intricacies, the Betawi people will be seen as a portrait of diversity, even in the form of Eid offerings," he concluded.

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