Breads, Indonesian Style

taken from noname's at sitepicture

Lately, a boycott has happened to Sari Roti, a bread company in Indonesia.
Many people reacted differently, thus the appearances of Sari Roti breads in Social Media, being stepped on & unsold by those who embraced the boycott, being bought &consumed by others who were disagree with the boycott.

Some of the readers may think that rice is the main staple in Indonesia.
That is true. Why do Indonesian eat breads then ?

Indonesia once colonialized by the Netherlands. They might introduced Indonesians to eating bread. For Indonesians, breads are for breakfast. Kids also have breads for lunch at school. Breads are also eaten for dessert.

taken from san merio baking course

Indonesians like their bread sweet and rich in taste, soft in texture, and filled with many kinds of filling. Sweetened coconut, mung bean paste, crushed peanut, chocolate paste, mocha paste, cooked meat and veggies, fake cheese are the common filling. Oh, how I love the fake cheese, it's made combining flour, margarine, dry milk and salt, mixing them together untill the consistency of dry grated mozarella cheese.

Sandwich bread is also popular, and Indonesians call it "roti tawar" meaning plain bread. Of course people will spread something in their "roti tawar" like margarine and chocolate sprinkles, margarine and sugar, condensed milk, but rarely ham and cheese.

Bread hawkers go out early in the morning. They holler to announce themselves to the housewives and helpers who will go out of the house, stop them to buy the breads.

taken from sajiansedap.com

Jakarta has traditional style breads which are Roti Gambang ( Gambang bread ) and Roti Buaya ( Crocodile bread ). Gambang bread has a scone but chewier -like texture, brown colored, sweet, cinnamony taste and sprinkled with white sesame seeds. Roti Buaya are sweet breads shaped into a pair of crocodiles. They are about 50 cm in length. Usually they are present in Jakarta traditional wedding.

taken from mudahmenikah.wordpress.com

The pair of crocodiles symbolizes faithfulness between a husband and wife because crocodiles only have one mate during their life.

The oldest bread company in Indonesia is "Tan Ek Tjoan" which was founded in 1930. The second oldest one is "Lauw" which was founded in 1945. They are still selling bread until now.