Tajin Milk

Not every child in this world is lucky enough to be able to drink milk. That was my thought almost every-time I wash rice before cooking.

I don’t know since when; maybe since long time ago during our ancestors’ era, maybe it was just started tens-of -years ago. In many areas in Indonesia, where there are still a lot of people from low income families couldn’t afford to buy milk for their babies, they use rice soup as the substitute for milk.


Tajin Milk (source)

It is called ‘tajin milk’. To make ‘tajin milk’, first we need to boil the rice with large amount of water. After that we get some kind of porridge. When we filter this, we would get some rice soup. This rice soup is the one used as the substitute of milk for the babies. We can add some sugar or just plain like that.

I myself have never tried how it tastes. Actually I’m pretty curious whether ‘tajin milk’ actually really has a lot of nutrition or not because there are still a lot of pro and contra rumors about giving ‘tajin milk’ to the babies and toddlers. I don’t know about the actual usage of this ‘tajin milk’, it’s just something that caught my attention: when people are force to ‘think creatively’ in the middle of economy pressure.

(FK)

Jamu

Jamu Gendong (source)

One of our traditional beverage is jamu. It’s tonic or herbs made by rhizome, leaves, or fruits. It’s either in liquid form, powder, or dried leaves. It tastes bitter, so it’s better drank with sugar or honey.

Jamu are sold by many ways, but the one we used to see the most is “jamu gendong” or a female seller who carry a basket of jamu bottles in her back. Nowadays we don’t see this kind of seller so often. Insted, we can see male and female sellers who sell jamu by riding a bycicle.

Another kind of jamu seller is a stall with STMJ speciality. STMJ stands for Susu Telor Madu Jahe or Milk Eggs Honey Ginger, which is one of the most popular jamu mixtures among adult males.

Jamu convinced to be good for health and able to cure cough, muscle pain, sprues, and it’s also good for women who is on diet or men’s sexual health.

There are a lot of jamu mixtures, such as beras kencur (made of rice and greater galingale), kunir asam (made of turmeric, tamarind, and other plants), jamu pahitan (made of sambiloto—latin: Anrographis Paniculata) and many others. Each mixtures has its own benefit for our body.

For beginners, jamu might be hard to drink. But for our ancestors, jamu is like a daily drink, and that’s how they keep their body healthy before they knew any of modern medical treatments.

I can’t stand most jamu mixtures either, but I often drink beras kencur. It tastes rather sweet, so it’s easy to drink.

Next time you find a jamu seller around, please give it a try. You can try beras kencur for starter. But I tell you now, it’s not good for those who’s on diet, because it’s raising appetite.

Those who’s on diet, please try kunir asam instead. It tastes rather sour, and good for women.

By the way, please pardon my bad English. m(_ _)m

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