Tracing the origins of rendang and its development
- PDF / 3,764,591 Bytes
- 11 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 2 Downloads / 188 Views
Journal of Ethnic Foods
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Open Access
Tracing the origins of rendang and its development Fadly Rahman
Abstract One of the most Indonesian popular food is rendang. In recent years, the popularity of this food goes upward to foreign countries after CNN’s polling in 2011, and 2017 placed rendang at the first number of the most delicious food in the world. Along this time, rendang is often associated with the culture of Malay and Minangkabau. Nevertheless, this research tries to trace the historicity of rendang and also the possibility of foreign culinary influences which shapes this Minangkabau’s food heritage. By employing the historical method supported with the reading of various primary sources, this article traces the trail of rendang and resulted fact findings related to foreign culinary influences in West Sumatra and also its development in becoming an Indonesian national food. Keywords: Rendang, Origins, Malay, West Sumatra, Minangkabau
Introduction There are so many ethnic foods in the Indonesian culinary sphere. Of the many, rendang can be said to be an iconic one in the collective tastes of the Indonesians and has even become a part of the national identity, besides it also being associated with the Minangkabau culture of West Sumatra. It can be seen from how rendang is always presented in typical Minangkabau restaurants in every city in Indonesia, always presented as one of the special dishes on every Lebaran (Islamic holy day), and is one of the common domestic menus in Indonesian households. In essence, this Minangkabau specialty food is liked by all social levels and ethnic groups in Indonesia. The image of rendang as an ethnic and domestic food then increased to the global level after CNN Go released a poll titled “World’s 50 Most Delicious Foods” in 2011. The world’s attention then was turned to this black meat preserved food. The results of the poll put rendang in the top-notch position as the most delicious food in the world. This has become a kind of “victory” for Indonesia in dealing with Malaysia, considering that this neighbor country once claimed rendang as part of its national food. In 2017, Correspondence: [email protected] Department of History and Philology, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Padjadjaran, Jatinangor, West Java, Indonesia
based on 35,000 votes on social media, out of fifty delicious foods in the world, CNN Travel in the “World’s 50 Best Foods” poll, again put rendang in the first place as the world’s most delicious food (Fig. 1) [1]. The rating as the most delicious food in the world itself is more on representing the tastes of foreigners in assessing the long-lasting and “crunchy” rendang; different generally with processed meat that is chewy or tough. Rendang is considered suitable not only as an official dinner, but also as a provision for travelers who need preserved food for weekly to monthly periods. Cooking rendang can also be interpreted as a surefire strategy to prevent meat from decay so that it can be eaten anytime and taken anyw
Data Loading...
