Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Creative Culinary

My home town, Bandung, has always been known for its reputation as a creative city. This reputation is acquired from the vast development of creative industries in the city, which is especially influenced by the number of its young inhabitants (60 percent are below 40 years old). Well, for a long time Bandung has been the city where private and public universities are located, which make the individual culture flourish in this city.

One thing among those creative things is the culinary. The people in this industry did so many improvisation on traditional food. For example, the improvisation happened the long-known Indonesian processed rice the "nasi kuning" (=yellow rice) that has been a trademark for special occasion such as wedding party, birthday party, independence day or another commemoration. Nowadays, they made another version of processed rice, the "nasi hijau" (=green rice). The green color is made from "suji" leaves (Latin name: Pleomele angustifolia), while the yellow color is obtained from turmeric (Curcuma domestica).

And when some people didn't have baking oven to make brownies, they steamed it instead. It is called "brownies kukus" (=steamed brownies) and this kind of confectionary is a best seller!!!

Started several months ago, the talk of the town was the hot and spicy snack called "kripik maicih". The term maicih (I think) refers to a slang which means Mrs. Icih (Icih is typical sundanese name, the ethnic group in Bandung/West Java Province). This one is a modification of a long time known snack, maybe since I was in elementary school or even earlier. It looks still the same as I used to know. The different is the package/brand and the marketing system...



They sell the snack through twitter. And they likely to have no permanent selling outlet. They sell it on a car at different location in town. So, to know where to find it, you should check their twitter @infomaicih and then you will know where and when you can find the selling outlet. And be sure to remember the identity of the selling car (type, color, license plate number). Nowadays, they also sell at different cities in Indonesia, e.g. Semarang, Jakarta, Denpasar, Yogya, and so on.



And when you are ready to enjoy the snack, be sure to have enough glass of water with you! The President of #maicih (that's how they call their CEO.. LOL!) gives us tip how to eat #maicih properly : do not chew it in a hurry (since it tastes very very hot), but let them melt in your mouth..!!! What a tip!!! LOL.

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