Bengkulu Culinary

Bengkulu  is a province of Indonesia. The capital and largest city is Bengkulu city. It was formerly the site of a British garrison, which they called Bencoolen. The province also includes Enggano Island. It is on the southwest coast of the island of Sumatra, and borders the provinces of West Sumatra, Jambi, South Sumatra and Lampung.

Kenduri

Early in the morning last December 24th we were, like many around the world, anticipating a feast. But this was to be no dinner or turkey or roast beef or roast lamb or ham. We'd been invited to village about an hour from Kuala Lumpur to  watch the preparations for a kenduri (Malaysian for 'ceremony' or 'celebration').

This particular kenduri was to mark the engagement of my Malaysian teacher's sister. All kenduri involve protocol - there are must-do's and must-don'ts; dress should be appropriate, and ritual respected. But this is Malaysia, a country where food is never an afterthought. So, as the betrothed-to-be prepared herself for the afternoon's events, assorted relatives and neighbors cooked up an amazing meal for the guests.

We arrived early to find M's grandmother sweeping the courtyard and his father on a ladder plucking rambutan from one of the many fruit trees that shade the house. Cats lazed about here and there in the early morning sun. Preparations had already begun at the bangsal, an outdoor raised and covered platform that's usually used for lounging but that can be called into kitchen use when the weather is fine and extra space is needed.

M's family expected 100 or so guests for lunch, so caterers were called in - a few village ladies, reknowned for their culinary skills, who have experiece cooking for crowds. They arrived with huge pots of half-cooked curry sauces that would be finished off in the one-room hut opposite the house that serves as a second kitchen.

These ladies may have been asked in to do a job, but when it came to cooking, everyone - M's sisters and mother included - deferred to Aunty, a sturdy and smiling 69-year-old relative who'd been driven in from Kelantan state for the occasion. After chopping carrots and longbeans at the bangsal she moved to the power position in the cooking hut - a low stool within easy reach of ingredients and a couple of portable gas burners - and, with the village caterers, set to finishing the meal.

Mul bari is a sort of curry made, on this day, with chicken. Aunty started by heating the brick-red sauce, made with loads of dried chilies, onions, shallots, and ginger, and then added chicken pieces that had been marinated in serbok kuzi - a mixture of garlic, ginger, and condensed milk - and then deep-fried. The pan holding the curry sauce was large, but the amount of chicken to be cooked larger, so Aunty added the bird in batches, leaving each to simmer in the sauce for a half an hour or so before removing it to make room for more.