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In Pursuit of Putu

by Cynthia Webb

Putu ( pronounced "putuh" ) is a most delicious but also elusive sweet food which can transport you to heaven if you are lucky enough to be able to find it !

I first sampled the delights of putu, in Yogyakarta three years ago, when an Indonesian friend spotted a passing "Tukang Putu" with his characteristic whistling apparatus. She jumped up, ran over to him, spoke to him and waited about five minutes, then returned with a small hot parcel wrapped in banana leaves, with a square of newspaper on the outside, secured with toothpicks at both ends. She opened this little treasure and there inside were white tubular shaped things, with a golden centre. "Silahkan" she said gesturing towards the food, telling me how much her Australian son-in-law likes to eat it.

One taste and I was hooked! From that day on, whenever I am in Yogya, I have been continually on the alert for the sound like a whistling kettle, coming from the Putu man's portable cooker.

The reason that it is so hard to find, is that in each kampung ( residential area) there is one putu man who is continually moving around. Some of them are on bicycle and some are on foot. His apparatus is two wooden"cupboards" hanging from each end of a strong stick, which is carried on the shoulders of the walking putu vendor. If he has a bicycle, the compartments are on either side of the front wheel. On the left side are the ingredients. A drawer full of partially pre-cooked white sticky rice and a smaller drawer with freshly grated young coconut meat. On the other side, is the cooking equipment.

Of course the vendors on bicycle are harder to catch. Sometimes one hears the putu man in the distance but by the time one can run out to the roadside and look left and right, he has already disappeared up a small laneway or is pedalling into the distance, too far away to run after him. Recently I was suffering withdrawal symptoms, not having chanced upon the Putu-man for three weeks. Then suddenly a couple of days ago, my luck changed and I have found one every day, and yesterday, - twice!

If you have been in Indonesia during the last few years, you will have noticed that almost everybody seems to be using a "handphone" now. They are hugely popular and useful here in a country where many people do not have a phone connected in their home. Yes, technology is catching up with tradition. There is now an "Andong" driver (horsedrawn carriage) in Yogyakarta who has his handphone number written on the andong and in his newspaper advertisement. This makes me think how useful it would be if the putu vendors had a handphones too. We could just SMS to him when the cravings come for the sweet taste of putu.

While talking with the putu vendor yesterday, I learned some very interesting things about the business, as well as trying my hand at making it myself.

Apparently all the putu vendors in Yogyakarta are from the town of Wonogiri. There are at least fifty of them, working in various kampungs in Yogya. They mostly live together in the same location and they guard the secret of their most exquisite food. I have sampled putu made by copyists from Yogya, who sell it near the Pasar Beringharjo, but there is no comparison. One must have the original. In other major towns around Java, there also teams of putu vendors who have journeyed out from Wonogiri.

The basic ingredients are white sticky rice, rice flour, grated young coconut, a touch of salt and some vanilla and a knob of gula kelapa ( the golden palm sugar). However there is more. There are secrets which cannot be revealed, known only to the long time traditional vendors of putu from Wonogiri.

These ingredients are put into six centimetre long bamboo tubes of about one centimetre diametre, and placed over steam vents in the wooden top of an old tin cooking oil container which contains water.. The vendor turns them over after a while, switches them about as they are ready and uncooked ones replace them over the vents. If one looks inside the door of the righthand cupboard one sees a kerosene burner below, heating the water and creating steam. This steam cooks and binds the ingredients within a few minutes, and then the vendor slides them out onto the waiting square of banana leaf. He grates young coconut meat over them all and wraps them up. This heavenly food is priced at only about 2,500rp for five pieces. Of course it is best eaten immediately while piping hot.

But there was some bad news yesterday. . . very soon they will all disappear from Yogya's kampungs for a couple of days because they all plan to go home to Wonogiri for Independence Day celebrations on the 17th August. Now I know why I was mysteriously deprived of putu for a couple of weeks last December. It was the Idul Fitri holiday, and of course they went home then too.

Email: cintia35@hotmail.com