63rd Indonesia's Independence Day

18 Agustus 2008. Yesterday was 63rd Indonesia's Independence Day. Back to the country, they have interesting things to celebrate it. They have different kind of fun games like eating crackers, football saroong, put nail in the bottle (of course not so easy as it sounds :-)), marble game, sport games, etc. Then they also have a bazzar where people selling food and stuffs, and of course independence stage where people can perform dances, musical drama, dan other things. So what did I do to celebrate it here? Well, since there are no Indonesians around who I could ask to play fun games or to celebrate it ... then I came up with idea to make 'Tumpeng Kemerdekaan'. If you don't know what is tumpeng ... well nasi (read: rice) tumpeng is often prepared for special occasions like communal feast or we call it 'selamatan'. It made from rice, cooked in coconut milk tinted yellow with freshy-granted turmeric, then steamed. Then after it cooked, it is shaped like a cone. Depending on the scale of the selamatan, the rice may then colourly adorned with number of dishes like fried chicken, omelet strips, fried dried anchovies, whole boiled eggs fried in a sauce, sweet and sour pickled vegetables, cucumber slices and red chillies cut into flower shapes.

Ok, back to my 'mission' during Independence day ... as I mentioned before, I decided to make nasi tumpeng. Well, usually this kind of meal is for many people because it needs extra effort and also time to cook it. But since nobody around to celebrate ... so it was just us :-) Saturday night I made a simple model of cone - since I don't have the real model made from alumunium here. So I just made it from thick paper then padded with alumunium foil. Then I made also the flag from small white paper, then coloured the half part with red marker. Just as simple as that :-)

Then next day, Sunday - on Independence day ... I started cooking at 9:30 ... I prepared all by myself ... I cooked the fried chicken, sambal goreng ati ayam (spicy chicken liver), perkedel kentang (potatoes croquettes), telur bumbu ( boiled eggs fried in a sauce), acar kuning (yellow pickled vegetables), and of course the yellow rice. I finally finished the whole cooking session at 1 o'clock. So I cooked more than 3 hours. It was quite 'extreme' for only 2 people, hehehe ... Oh well the important thing is the spirit ... I want to make something different for my country's Independence day ... no matter where I live I carry the spirit. And what make me happy and proud is ... this was my first Nasi Tumpeng I ever made ... and it turned out well! Great job, Tatie! hehehe ... When I was still in Indonesia, I used to participate during the celebration ... the games, the perform or helping around to prepare the celebration. And here, no one I could ask to celebrate it. Not so many Indonesians living in Slovenia, and they live in different region. And going to Indonesian embassy in Vienna is quite far as well.

Anyway, for my lovely country, INDONESIA, I wish you 'DIRGAHAYU KEMERDEKAAN ke 63 ... MERDEKA!! dan JAYALAH SELALU!