The Tambak — Milkfish Ponds of the North Java Coast

The tambak are the brackish-water ponds that line the low northern shore of Java, cut from tidal flats and mangrove margins and fed by the sea through sluices and channels. They raise milkfish, Chanos chanos, known in Indonesian as bandeng, and the tradition of pond culture on this coast is old enough to belong to the history of Java's ports rather than to any one recipe. The fish reaches the kitchen of the whole coast, from Banten in the west through Semarang, Juwana and Gresik to the Madura Strait in the east.

A tambak is a shallow earthen pond, divided by low banks, in which the salt water of the sea is let in and held, and let out again, with the tide. The milkfish is the fish of these ponds. It is a silvery, streamlined fish that feeds on the algae and soft growth of the pond floor, and it is stocked as fry and grown on until it is sold. Sri Owen, in Indonesian Food, writes of bandeng as the fish of the Javanese coast, and the cook's relation to it is shaped by one fact above all: it is full of fine, forked bones set within the flesh. The pond landscape is a working one, flat and open, a pattern of water and embankment running behind the shore. The same coast gave Java its harbour towns, and the ponds sit beside them as part of the same economy of salt, fish and trade. The water in a tambak is neither river nor open sea, and the farmer's craft lies in managing it: the opening and closing of the sluices, the depth of the pond, the stocking of the fry. In the kitchen the bones decide the treatment. The cook of the north coast has long dealt with them in two ways. The fish may be cooked whole and eaten with care, or the flesh may be worked free of the skin and bones, seasoned and returned to the skin before frying or grilling, a labour that gives the dish known as bandeng presto or bandeng tanpa duri its character. Where the dish lives or dies is in this patient handling of the fish, since a milkfish carelessly boned is spoiled. The milkfish takes its place on the Javanese table in several forms: fried, grilled over charcoal, cooked in a yellow turmeric-based sauce, or smoked. It also appears in the festive season around the Chinese New Year among the Chinese-Indonesian families of the coast, for whom the large fish carries its own place at the table. The tambak thus ties the sea, the port town and the household together in a single fish.

Milkfish is mild, rich in the belly and sweet in flavour, and it takes seasoning well. The coastal cook gives it the usual Javanese base of shallot, garlic, turmeric and salam leaf, or grills it with sweet soy sauce and serves it with sambal and steamed rice. Its richness is balanced by sourness and chilli, and the fried fish is eaten with the crisp skin as part of its appeal.