TAMAN SARI, YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA

TAMAN SARI, Yogyakarta

Nostalgia behind a magnificent park where the princess have a royal bath

Its never be a dull moment to explore the royal palace complex.One of the interesting spot is taman sari. It is a place where the royal family spend their free time. There is a big pool in the main corner in Taman Sari. This pool is the vocal point in Taman Sari. 
 

This pool called as umbul pasiraman or umul binangun. They say, it was a place where the royal princess, mistress and the sultan’s wife take a bath. In the other side, there was a tower faced the pool. In this tower, the king watches them and then chooses one of them to accompany him in the night. 

The guide in Taman Sari says that the story is real from time to time. The king known as a man with many wife and mistress. The interesting side is that all of those women are competes each another to attract the king.

The main area of Taman Sari especially the pool is surrounded by high wall. This is happened because this place is not a public place that everyone can go inside. It is only for them who get a special permit from the King.

Underground Mosque,  Sumur Gumuling

If you already there, there will be something missing if you are not explore the underground mosque sumur gumuling. It named that way because this mosque located exactly in the top of gumuling water well. Yes, this place is located under the ground; this building is the real example of the old architecture in Yogyakarta.

The purpose of this underground construction is to create echo so that the sound of Khatib can be heard in all corners in the mosque. Inside the mosque, there is a gumuling water well that surrounded by fives stairs. This philosophy comes from the number of Rukun Islam.

This building is unique because it has many ventilation and open area, with the purpose to get natural lighting and keep the air circulation. With 1.25 meters wide wall, many said that the bricks are not attached by cement but white egg.

Yogyakarta never fail to spread its’ unique fascination, like the traditional ceremonies, the polite attitude, the bustle of the palace, and the historical buildings that hardly stand up althought the bricks are attached by using white-egg. Talking about egg, there is a unique food made from egg, which is called endog abang. 

Endog Abang, modest culinary with high philosophy

Endog abang (red egg), in Javanese language endog means egg and abang is red. Endog abang can be found in sekaten festival in Yogyakarta.

Endog abang is made from boiled chicken egg that added a red food coloring. Then the red boiled egg is stacked in the skewer and decorated to make it more beautiful. Endog abang is typical snack in sekaten festival.

Commonly, the seller lady carries the endog abang with basin or bucket. Some of it is plugged in a banana stem. The taste of endog abang is the same as ordinary boiled egg. However, it has special meaning. Egg itself is a symbol of a new life or the beginning of a life, red color is a symbol of prosperity. The skewer is a symbol of the relation between God and human. So, the whole endog abang means a new-life symbol for a better future, for prosperity but still in stay in the GOD’s way

The emerge of endog abang in sekaten festival cannot be traced. The fact, today endog abang becomes the typical food in sekaten festival. It is not complete if you enjoy the sekaten festival without taste the endog abang.

Pele Noodle, The taste of Javanese Noodle with perfect recipe

It is not complete if you are in Yogyakarta but you are not go around the north square of Yogyakarta Palace. Especially in the night, there are many “lesehan” culinary stands that welcoming you with warmth. The well-known stand is bakmi jawa pak pele that famous with the perfect taste. Every day, there are hundreds of people come to taste the menu especially Javanese noodle.

The menu is simple. There are bakmi goreng, bakmi kuah, bakmi nyemek, nasi goreng, and etc. There is a secret about the unique taste of the food here that it is cooked in traditional charcoal stove. It produced stable flame so the food is perfectly cooked. 

Besides the secret recipe, bakmi pele is using duck egg to enrich the taste of it. Duck egg is well-known to make the taste of the food becomes balance and tasty. Bakmi pele is open in twilight until midnight.  The price is Rp 18.000 (+/- $ 1.5). If you come here in weekend and holiday season, be ready to wait longer. Please note! It is hard to just looking for parking spot.

Oseng-oseng mercon by Mrs. Narti , the taste of spicy koyor !

If you are spicy food lovers, you can try “the spiciest food” in Yogyakarta called oseng-oseng mercon (red “firework” very spicy food as if it will explode in your mouth).  Along KH Ahmad Dahlan Street, you can easily find this food. The roadside tent is open at 5 p.m.

The most famous is oseng-oseng mercon bu Narti. The owner is 54 years woman named Mrs.Narti. She is very humorous person. She said that the idea to make oseng-oseng mercon just comes out directly in her mind. Sadly, her husband passed away that time, so she has to take care of her three children. With her strong will and the situation she creates extra hot food from meat and koyor a.k.a the cow muscle.

Can be said that Mrs.Narti is pioneer in this bussines. She start selling oseng-oseng mercon in 1998. In the first time, she just can sold 2 kilogram in a day. By the time, now she needs 50-100 kgs of meat and koyor in a day. It s very spicy food made from chili, salam leaf, galangal. Served with hot rice it will be a perfect combination. It is quite cheap, Rp 16.000 / portion.

There are many alternative foods if you are not spicy food lovers there are fried chicken, fried duck, fried quail and etc. There are two spicy levels. The best seller is the spiciest one. It tastes better served with hot rice. The rich taste between salty, sweet and spicy will attract your tongue. 

Sate klatak pak pong, Perfect taste from Perfect Burning

For lamb lovers, there is a unique lamb culinary in Yogyakarta called sate klatak. It can be one of your culinary references. Sate klatak quite different from ordinary lamb sate a.k.a satay. The lamb is stacked in iron skewer, and then it is dipped in simple sauce, and then burns it with flame.

It named that way because there is a typical sound when the stay is being burnt. It sounds like “klatak..klatak”. You can find a group of sate klatak seller in Imogiri, which can be reach 45 minutes far from yogyakarta. The most famous one is sate klatak pak pong, the pioneer of this business. It located in 7 km east Imogiri, Bantul, DIY.

Sate klatak usually served with tengkleng sauce or a kind of soup with goat meat as the base material. But not a few of those who enjoy satay with no extra seasoning, but only with chilli pepper. It's that simple, without using peanut sauce or seasoning sauce.

Sate pak pong is open at 10a.m till midnight. There is another special menu called tengkeleng. Sate klatak and tengkleng best served together. For complete package + drinks you need to pay Rp 35.000-50.000 ($ 3- $ 6).

They used bicycle spoke as a skewer, it makes the lamb meat well-cooked. The natural taste of lamb meat blends perfectly with Indonesian spice. 

In weekend or public holidays, they need 10-15 goats or more. The costumers are come from another city in java or outside Java Island, such as Solo, Semarang, Surabaya, Bandung, Jakarta, and etc.

You wanna try??

SARSA PARILLA

The pioneer of carbonated beverages in Indonesia

Sarsaparilla was booming amongst Yogyakarta royal family circles in era 1960. It is claimed as the first carbonated beverage in Indonesia which smells like root beer. Many people called it as lemonade.

Nowadays, it’s quite difficult to find this beverage especially in Yogyakarta. Maybe it can be found in another city in Indonesia. In Yogyakarta, some well-known brands are no longer exist in the market such as ay-hwa. It was booming in Yogyakarta. It happened because there are some brand-new carbonated beverages come from another country and it’s quite difficult to find a ceramics bottle cap. Ceramics bottle cap? Yes, this is the uniqueness.

Yogyakarta’s Sarsaparilla is packed with a glass bottle with ceramics bottle cap. Although, there is modern packed Sarsaparilla, it will be different for them who already fall in love with the original bottle pack (glass bottle with ceramics cap).

Now days, you can find this traditional beverage in Soto Kadipiro. It’s quite cheap; you can taste it for Rp 5000-10000, it depends on the brand and the bottle size. Are you interested to taste root beer van Yogyakarta? Enjoy the aroma of sarsaparilla soda.

Local flora and fauna market in Yogyakarta

This market is abbreviated as PASTY, and since it has been relocated from the Ngasem area or inside the palace complex in Bantul km 1, Yogyakarta. Now, this market becomes more organized. PASTY is not only a place to buy animals and plants, but it is a necessity for Javanese people. A Javanese man is considered perfect when they have a house, a wife, a horse, a dagger, and birds, with this assumption, the existence of the animal market is a necessity.

This market is attracting the tourist with its uniqueness. Many tourists come visiting this market. Although, they are not there for shopping but window shop. Don’t be shocked when you meet a 6 meters long python in the entrance.

The most wanted in this market are birds. However, there are also another animal such as reptiles, dogs, and cats that traded. The market is look like a zoo because there are many domestic and foreign tourists that visited it.  Are you interested in hunting animals or unique birds? Maybe this market could be your tourism spot reference when you visiting Yogyakarta.

Piece of solace in the crowd. WIJILANKUSTIK. The old song voice in Yogyakarta

Yogyakarta and street musicians are two elements that cannot be separated. In Yogyakarta, besides street musicians you can also find the music group that already famous in music industry in Indonesia. There are four musicians that build their career through street-orchestra music group. They sang country music and also old song.

Ganip, Suker, Gianto, and Geni are the names of streets-orchestra music group. Complete with guitar and contra bass. They are very humble and simple. They move from one restaurant and another to impress the audiences. They are never missed to entertain the visitors at the gudeg center, Wijilan. They are there to entertain from morning till midnight.

Yogyakarta did have a lot of stories. Spare your time to enjoy Central Java!!

Yogyakarta is a rich-culture city.

#enjoyyourtrip_IND