Balapis. Sound familiar to
you? Well, if you are Manadonese or indonesian traditional cake-lover, you
know what it is.
Have no idea about it?
Balapis means berlapis-lapis. It’s Manado layer cake. Balapis is made of a
mixture of wheat flour, coconut milk, sugar, vanilli, and salt.
Like chocolate? Add in some
chocolate paste/powder.
Wanna another flavour?
Have some suji leaves as additional ingredients. Indonesian folks use the
greeny leaves as natural food coloring.
Patience
and Endurance
It is definitely much
easier to eat Balapis than to make it. The thicker is the cake, the more layers
it has.
I haven’t ever cooked
Balapis. But according to references I read, the layering process takes quite
much time. 10 minutes to cool down a layer. If not, you will only get a colormixed
steamed cake instead of Balapis. Cooking Balapis teaches you patience and
endurance.
The
Balapis Lover’s Order
On last Thursday my friend
and I had lunch at a small Manadonese canteen. After paying the bill, my friend
started a chit chat with one of the
owners, the golden sisters.
“Tante, don’t you make
Balapis, too?”
“Emm, we do seldom sell
Balapis. The making is quite complicated. And it’s not bestseller. So we cook
it by order. But I think, tomorrow my sis will cook some. Someone ordered 3
pans.”
“Do spare some pieces for
me, please, please, please ....”
“Why don’t we order a pan
and we divide it?” I came with a suggestion.
My friend agreed.
My friend made a deal with the cook. We would
pick up the Balapis on the next day, before 5 PM.
 |
| Promise!/Dok. Pribadi |
The
Incident of Balapis
15 minutes to 5 PM. We
arrived at the cook’s house.
“Wait 5 minutes, please. The
Balapis is still in the steamer.
What???!
it should be in the refrigrator now,
not in the steamer!
“It does take much time to
cook Balapis.”
You know it. Why didn’t you prepare it earlier?
“Can we divide it then?”
asked my friend politely.
“No. You have to wait
until it cools down.”
“Then how we take it home?”
“I’ll lend you the pan. We
put it in a cake box.” Absolutely no feeling guilty.
“Celaka. What are we going
to do?” my friend whispered when the cook was away.
“The best solution is that
one of us buy the whole cake.”
The
Balapis was still very hot. It was heavy. Not to mention that the box was so big.
How could I bring it home by bus? I made my internal monologue.
“Let me buy it. Your
problem with it would be bigger than mine.” Daily my friend goes home with her
husband by motorbike.
“I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
So the story ended.
Are you going to sell
Balapis or anything else? Make sure you are well-prepared. Don’t disappoint your
customers.
Made any promises to
anyone? Keep them.
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