Papua is known as a society that still upholds traditional traditions from generation to generation, including cooking methods. It is barapen or grilled stone, one of the Papuan cooking methods that are still frequently used today.
This method of barapen or burning stones is a joint cooking ritual that aims to offer gratitude, stay in touch with family and relatives, welcome happy news, or gather soldiers to fight. One of the people who still often use this method of cooking is Martince or who is familiarly called Mama Tien. Tien is one of the Papuan culinary chefs at the Papuan Cultural Diversity exhibition which was held at Plaza Sarinah.
Then the fire was started. The stones are arranged neatly on top of the food that you want to cook, then hit with another stone, “said Mama Tien when met by Kompas.com on Thursday (5/12/2019). How to burn stones still uses fire produced by wood. collected then burned. After that stacked with stones which are then put into a big hole. The hole is then covered with dry leaves to be burned again.
The large stones were stacked neatly. After that, the ingredients to be cooked will be arranged on it. Such as fish, chicken, beef, and most often pork. However, before that, the ingredients were wrapped first with taro leaves or banana leaves so they wouldn’t get dirty.
Apart from meat, a food ingredient that is often burned by stones is taro. The ingredients are then crushed with stones until they are tight, and if it feels ripe, then they are removed. The cooking process takes a long time. This typical Papuan cooking method is indeed quite complicated and takes a long time. It usually takes 3-4 hours to cook food, depending on the size of the food being cooked and the type. “Because the process takes a long time. First burn the wood, then put the stone. Waiting for the stone to heat is very long,” said Mama Tien. “That’s why I cook, grilled stone, not a little because it’s a little bit,” he continued.
Even though the cooking process is quite long, it all paid off with a delicious taste. According to Rika Ramandey, a cook who is also experienced in Papuan culinary delights, this method of cooking with barapen can also give different characteristics to food. “It can make fish and meat not runny. It’s still soft but not wet,” said Rika.
Source : kompas
