Taste the excitement of Eid al-Fitr delicacies

Happy Eid al-Fitr 1442 H.

May this wonderful day bring peace, happiness, joyful and prosperity to you and your loved ones.

Celebrating Eid al-Fitr will normally mean gather together all families, friends and relatives in a place where everyone can enjoy tasty and mouth-watering selection of cuisines and beverages, exchange stories, share love and care, and of course, keep the memories in photo and video collection.

At the present situation, since we must practice social distancing therefore online gathering will be an option without loosing the warmth and cheering environment as well as the richness of cooking.

In Indonesia, Eid al-Fitr celebration is usually held for a minimum of two days whereby the first day will start with Eid praying, then ask forgiveness to closed families and relatives, and followed by enjoying the delicious Eid al-Fitr cuisines and giving out a gift of money inserted into envelope to teenagers and children.  The second day celebration is more for close friends by visiting their houses or gather in a favorite place or restaurant.  Nowadays, all these activities will mostly done via online especially when travelling remains restricted.

A combination of traditional and modern spreads will be prepared.  There are also the not-to-miss menu options which I am about to explore in this writing.

Main dishes

Selection of main courses will range from rice cakes or known as ketupat. Ketupat is a rice cake packed inside a diamond-shape container made of woven young coconut leaves or palm leaves. 

It has a plain taste and is usually served with other condiments and main dishes, such as, chicken cooked in coconut milk or known as opor ayam, rendang which is a rich and tender beef stew, young papaya cooked in coconut milk with red chilli paste, stir fried green chilli with a zip of coconut milk or also known as ase cabe and chicken dish poached or simmered in sweet soy sauce or also called as ayam kecap.  All of these cooking will use a lot of spices and herbs creating a rich and authentic taste.

Although there are many other cuisines prepared depending on which provinces in Indonesia you are originally from, but chicken cooked in coconut milk or opor ayam will definitely amongst the menu option as it is already a tradition to be served during Eid al-Fitr.

Indonesian crackers

Different kind of Indonesian crackers will also be served as side dishes to complete the whole eating experiences during Eid al-Fitr.  This is normally called kerupuk which is a deep fried and crunchy cracker made from starch and often flavored with prawn, fish, squid, onion, vegetables, chilli or nuts. Kerupuk is a popular Indonesian cracker that can be consumed with main dishes or during your snacking time.

Rengginang is a different kind of Indonesian cracker made from cooked glutinous sticky rice that is seasoned with spices, made into a flat and rounded shape.  You can also find variety flavor of rengginang from spicy green and red chili, shrimp paste or garlic.

Indonesian cookies

I have talked about main dishes, side dishes and crackers to enjoy the wonderful Eid al-Fitr.  Then, let’s explore range selection of cookies commonly available during this special day. 

Kaasstengels and nastar are amongst the most favorite cookies available during Eid al-Fitr celebration.  Kaasstengels is Dutch influenced-Indonesian cheese cookies shaped as sticks and sprinkled with grated cheese on top.  While nastar is a popular pineapple cookie which is a small, bite-size pastries filled with pineapple jam.

What’s else? There are many other selections of cookies such as cheese sago, chocolate with peanut, buttery chocolate chip with crunchy cornflakes, kahk cookies which is super buttery cookies dusted with powdered sugar and also many other sugary cookies that can be decorated with colored icing sugar.

Indonesian dessert

These Indonesian desserts are normally available during Eid al-Fitr, such as, matsuba, enkak ketan, lapis malang, lapis legit that are quite pricy and take quite long hours to make them.  Matsuba and engkak ketan cake are originated from Palembang, South Sumatera.  These cakes will require an approximate 8 hours to make them, each using different flour and a lot of eggs.  They taste so sweet yet unique which become favorite cakes especially during this special celebration.

Another unique cake is lapis malang and lapis legit.  Lapis malang cake is from Malang city, East Java and is a soft cake with a mix of sweet and sour taste from strawberry jam between cake layer. While lapis legit is also called as sweet thousand-layer cake which uses a massive amount of butter and eggs.  Lapis legit is quite expensive not only because of lots of ingredients used but also due to the effort when baking the cake.

It’s now a time to enjoy the memorable day of Eid al-Fitr. Stay happy and humble with the continuous implementation of health protocol to protect you and everyone you love.

Have a wonderful day.