Legend has it that once, when a plague attacked the city of Yogyakarta on the island of Java, the Sultan ordered his subjects to cook sayur lodeh and stay at home for 49 days. The epidemic was over. What is this?
Sayur lodeh is a smooth vegetable curry with coconut milk base and seven main ingredients. Nutritional experts have tested the dish and found that this seasonal, readily available ingredient is indeed perfect for quarantine.
Science or not, the most important thing is that the Sultan asked for solidarity from his people. A whole city cooked the same meal and it created a real sense of belonging in all the people.
„The Javanese belief system is actually based on the avoidance of misfortune,” says engineer, teacher and ethnography student Revianto Budi Santoso. „Avoiding bad things is more important than achieving personal goals. The Javanese believe that if there are no obstacles, life will take care of itself.”
Symbols play an important role in Javanese gastronomy. The number, colour and shape of ingredients are all significant.
„What is particularly interesting is that the sayur lodeh is not an initiative, but rather a response,” explains Santoso, „a reaction to a problem that seems to be defeating everyone. It is an attempt to alleviate, to circumvent what may not be possible at all.”
For a foreigner, the most mysterious thing about this sayur lodeh story is that it is not mysterious at all. The ingredients are all things that an average Javanese farmer can easily get his hands on. And the preparation of the dish is even simpler: put everything in a pot and start cooking. It used to require a spear and - preferably - a flag made from the material of the Prophet Mohammed's tomb, but I think it's easy to make without that.
Yogyakarta, like so many cities in the area, has undergone significant changes in recent decades. Shopping malls and hotels have sprung up, fast food has found its way in, but people inside have been slower to change. They still need rituals and sometimes the old and the new intertwine. Indeed, when the crown virus outbreak occurred, it is said that the current reigning sultan sent a WhatsApp message to residents asking them to stay at home and cook sayur lodeh.
Many doubted the origin of the message, but many took it to heart. They stayed at home, cooked and shared the food with their neighbours. A spokesman for the Sultan denied in a local newspaper that such a message had been sent. Yogyakarta is an autonomous kingdom within the Republic of Indonesia, where the Sultan is very keen to appear modern, and that is why he shies away from such beliefs and does not want the world to see him as having a single recipe for fighting the pandemic.
If something helps, no matter where it comes from. Let's cook and stay home!
(source: bbc.com)
