Java and Its Volcanic Soils

Java lies along the volcanic arc that runs the length of the Sunda chain, a long island whose spine of cones, among them Merapi, Bromo, Semeru and Merbabu, has laid down ash and weathered rock over many centuries. The island's cooking, from the court kitchens of Yogyakarta and Solo to the coastal towns of the north and the Sundanese uplands of the west, rests on the soil these mountains made, and Sri Owen's regional survey treats the island's food as the food of its rice lands.

The ash of Java's volcanoes breaks down into deep, mineral-rich soil, and on the plains and lower slopes it supports wet-rice cultivation of a density that few islands of its size can match. Rice is the centre of the Javanese meal; everything else, the vegetables, the fried tempeh and tofu, the fish, the small portions of meat and the sambal, is eaten to accompany it. Sri Owen describes the Javanese table in these terms, as a plate of rice surrounded by dishes of contrasting character rather than a sequence of courses. The same soils grow the plants on which the island's seasoning depends. Galangal Alpinia galanga, kencur Kaempferia galanga, turmeric Curcuma longa and ginger Zingiber officinale are dug as rhizomes, lemongrass Cymbopogon citratus and salam leaf Syzygium polyanthum are picked from the garden, and candlenut Aleurites moluccanus is ground to thicken and enrich a paste. Coconut Cocos nucifera supplies milk and oil, and the sugar palm Arenga pinnata supplies the dark palm sugar that gives Central Javanese cooking its sweetness. Soya beans, grown as a dry-season crop after the rice, are the basis of tempeh, made with the mould Rhizopus oligosporus, and of tofu and sweet soy sauce. The regions of the island divide by what the land and the courts made of these materials. In Yogyakarta and Solo, the seats of the old courts, the taste runs sweet, and gudeg, young jackfruit cooked slowly with coconut milk and palm sugar, is the dish most associated with Yogyakarta. East Java is salter and more pungent, and rawon, the black beef soup coloured with keluak Pangium edule, belongs to that side of the island. The Sundanese west, with its raw vegetables eaten with sambal, has a plainer and fresher manner, and the north coast, with its fishponds and ports, looks to the sea for its protein. The volcanic ground also shapes the coffee and spice trade that the island later served. The highlands of Java grew coffee under Dutch administration, and the name Kopi Arabika Java Preanger, a Geographical Indication, preserves that west Javan upland origin. Java's long history as a rice-producing and trading centre, recorded in the Nagarakretagama of 1365 for the Majapahit court, gave its kitchens both the surplus to elaborate their food and the contact with other peoples that brought new ingredients to the pot.

The Javanese table is built around steamed rice, with side dishes chosen to contrast in texture and seasoning: something fried, something in coconut milk, something raw or lightly cooked, and a sambal to sharpen the whole. The Central Javanese palate leans sweet through palm sugar and sweet soy sauce, while East Java favours salt and heat, and Sundanese cooks serve fresh raw leaves beside the rice.