Instant Noodle of Tampomas Jaya

“...simple recipe can make your man’s stomach happy...err...an inch below to be exact...." [The sacred love recipe of Roro Mendhut]

Pronocitro, a prince charming was the victim of Roro Mendhut’s recipe, as well as other thousands men. It just a cigarette, all used cigarette from Roro Mendut will be a precious thing. All men fight to get that cigarette. The shorter the cigarette the heavier the price. All those men want to feel the taste of Roro mendut’s saliva, yes, if you cannot get the lips; it is fine to get the saliva....

...instant noodle with egg and pepper will make your tongue dancingwildly...

Koeaing! The modern-say Pronocitro is a food-lover either. The Javanese call it by term of Keplek ilat, the Betawie call it by goyang lidah, in English term it is like ‘a dancing tongue’. Moreover, how to make our tongue dancing? It is very simple actually, just get the noodle, yes you are right, the Chinese flour with long-form made! Talking about noodle, it means we talk about Indomie, the most famous one here in Oost-Indie.

Indomie has a trickle down-effect to make a living for millions peoples. You can easily find the Indomie vendors around Betawi Raya and Pasundan land. I don’t have any idea how the Indomie vendors are hardly to find in Eastern and middle Java Provinces. Accidentally, mostly the owners of Indomie Vendors are from Kuningan or Sumedang, two cities of Pasundan Land.

One of them is Tampomas Jaya group. I think this is the biggest one around Pasundan and Betawi. Tampomas itself is a volcano around Sumedang district. It was the name of a sinking ship years ago in Masalembo strait as well.

My first contact with this vendor is when I was a student of Padjadjaran University in Jatinangor Darussalam. As you know, we student doesn’t have much money to buy a thing. Therefore, the only way to get the good and delicious food with less money is Indomie vendor. The price is affordable to us.

lekkeeeeeer....

I go to Tampomas Jaya almost every single night. The place was so strategic, before the University entrance. Because I was the Frequent and loyal visitor, the little boy who guard that vendor has known me completely inside and outside....

"Like usual big bro...........?"
"Yes....do not forget to plunge directly the rawit chili right to the boiling water..."
"Consider it done bro....I guarantee myself it will be delicious, nothing’s compare to it..."

You cannot forget the rawit chili if you want to eat the most delicious noodle...

"With egg bro?”
"You don’t have to ask for it, you knew it...."

The second secret is the egg; you get the gurih-taste more if you add the egg to the noodle, beside it is important to get some added nutrient for a poor student like me....

"Ari sawinya kumaha ?"*
"Just add it more kid..."

Sawi vegetable has an attractive and decorative function to the food, it makes you want to eat as there is something greenly there....

Set...bret...bret...bret.....the skillful hands of Encep start to work, I don’t’ have any idea how many times he doing this. Maybe thousands time, repeatedly. He does the same work every night, from six in the morning up to midnight, or from midnight to the next six in the evening, because the Tampomas Jaya open steadily full 24 hours. So, if you find yourself starving at anytime, just go to Tampomas Jaya .

The Bagong chili sauce --which peoples say it made from rotten cassava and papayas— was the most delicious one, according to my tongue! It is getting delicious if you add the pepper-flour on it! Hmmmmm....the deliciousness of the secret recipe-formula can be compare with the Chinese Emperor’s Chef ! The secret of this recipe is on the ultimate mix of three main seasoning, two parts of Bagong chili sauce, one part of sweet soya bean sauce and two parts of pepper-flour......you can try this at home soon !

My favorite noodle is chicken curry. It is just fit with my tongue, the seasoning comes from India and of course, The Javanese has made some conversions here and there. Gurih, hot, fatty....hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......just like tasting the wine -river of Heaven.....

How about you pal ? Chicken curry or Chicken onion ? Chicken Soto or Beef Meatball ?

Koeaingdimiehkeunsiah!
More Chinese than Chinese
*Sundanese : What about the sawi leave big bro ?

The story of tiger

It was a long time ago when Java island still surrounded by heavy forest, so many wild animals like lions, savage buffalos, wild hogs, cobra snakes, big monkeys, bekantans and tigers. Tigers? Yes, tiger, animal with strip on its leather. However, do you have any ideas that a long time ago, all tigers had blank leather instead of stripped leather? If so, why nowadays they have stripped leather on their body? All comes up with a story, so does with this one, check this out:

...do you know that a long time ago tigers had no strips on their skin why isthat so...?

The story begins from corpse-smell forest, it was the heaviest forest at the northern Priangan land, and right now, we know it as Subang town. There were so many tigers communities around. Priangan was under The King Prabu Gelo Sipatugelo. This King had a full-adrenalin hobby, hunting. It was not a usual hunting like the wild hogs hunting but tiger hunting. He did it once in every three month. The tiger’s communities were always afraid whenever The King’s group men arrived for hunting and it means death for them, a useless death. Ironically, The King and his men did it just for fun...

The Monkeys lived there too, there were two groups of them, the big one and the little one. The little one known as lutung. The lutung is widely known as the smartest animal in the planet. Because of that, they often became the last resort for advice. This included tiger. How come? Between the hunters and the victim were unite? Why not? While we as human kind know the rules of cease- fire why didn’t them. This break of fighting happened because the tigers were sick of The King Hunting season. Every three months their life was in danger, this hunting threatened their communities’ population for the future. Therefore, the King of tigers had ordered to a tiger ambassador named Meong Bandung.

Meong Bandung....the tigers ambassador

After a while, Meong Bandung finally arrived at the lutungs’ village. It was in the middle of heavy forest.
"Hey you tiger, how dare you come to our village?" said the King Lutung. His formal title was Lutung Kasarung, because he always wear sarong wherever he go, but definitely with no under pant within.
"I come with peace, as the highness ambassador to give you all his warmest regard..."
"What for?”
"For the sake of our future, as you know we face a dangerous situation that can lead to the extinct of our race, because every three months, we become the victim of The Human King hunting, they kill us for fun..."
"Wow, that’s good news for us actually, it means we can get rid of our potential problems, the tigers...."
"Our King knew it for sure, therefore he commands if the lutungs refuse to help, we destroy all of you until the very end..." he cried loudly in anger...
"Ka ka kka ku ku ka ka kak...come on don’t get mad easily, we, the lutungs like to have some jokes, mostly to tigers. Ok before everything gets worst just speak out then...you can have yourself burned but not your mind..." said the King Lutungs as he known that he has no power before this ambassador...
"Very well, just advice us how to face this bloody King and his armed men, do you have any?”
"We do, definitely, if we don’t, we already vanished for along time ago..."
"And what is that for the King Tiger sake?" replied Meong Bandung curiously....
"It’s a piece of cake actually, thing that you tigers do not know even a little so far is, human track your smelly odor to hunt...therefore you should take a bath diligently, the way human face difficulties to track you...' replied Lutung Kasarung while he fixed his sarung position as the ‘balls’ was going anywhere...
"What, taking a bath...you should know that we, tigers, take a bath only once a day for maximum, and that’s with our own saliva and tongue..."
"Of course no saliva included, if so you’ll have a stinky smell..."
"So if not with our own tongue, what are we supposed to do with?”
"With water...and not just common water...it must be rainfall water, and you know what, the best part is you all should take a bath in the middle of heavy rain...."

The tigers like to have a bath in the middle of heavy rain ever since. They started to have competition each other to have the best aroma in jungle. When the lightning and thunder began to came up and roar in the sky, all the tigers came out and ready to have a mass bath. However, new habit didn’t come cheap. Many of them were sick, got fever and exhausted. All parts of their body felt black and blue, cold, acute diarrhea, unfocused visioning, no food appetite, and no sleep tight. Once again, Meong Bandung was sent back to get the medicines....

The King Lutung then gave his effective recipe to heal the tigers. Actually, he stole it from human habit during his ‘human period life’. As you know, The King Lutung Kesarung was a human before gods cursed him to become an ape. It was because he often takes a pip the Kingdom’s princess when they took a bath nude. The recipe was simple, kerokan ! They have a mass kerokan each other. You can imagine how crowded the jungle was. Eventually the magical things happened. They got well soon and it made them crazy. The kerokan-stamp printed on their leather for good, even though they have rinsed repeatedly. Therefore, nowadays you know the tigers as stripped ones...

Koeaing!
Tiger in ape cage...