Hello Asean Hive Community
I am back with my 1.5 USD meal saga. This time I will share another Somay, I recall I have posted about Somay years ago here on HIVE. The word Somay itself comes from Siu mai or Shumai which means a steamed dimsum.
In Indonesia there are two kind of Somay, the shumai that is a steamed dim sum, in form of grinded meat wrapped by wonton skin, which this is the correct food for the Shumai name, and the second one which I have posted here and I post it again here. The second one is the adapted food which the idea came from the original Shumai, but they are a mix steamed stuff and eaten with peanut sauce.
We are talking about the second one here, the steamed mix food one.
Although majority of Somay as the streetfood are sold on stall, but years ago, or better I said decades ago, they were sold by people who wonder around with their bicycle. Nowadays less people are selling in that way, and even if we find one, usually they use motocycle. None wants to spend their stamina to pedal their bike anymore lol.
This doesn't look convincing for some of you, especially from outside south east asia, but I will be honest here. This guy sells a very good Somay. One thing you need to know, these Somay taste very different from one people to another. Some of them, like this guy Somay, taste very good and I even dare to say it is better than some Somay sold in fancy restaurant which would cost us 4 to 5 times of his. It was one of a few food my late father asked me in his dying days.
How much does it cost? Usually they sell in package, this one sell 15.000 rupiah for a six pieces. one pieces is 3000 rupiah, if you buy one you will get an extra. this is round 0.8 USD anyway. Some of them are a bit more pricy, for example an egg and sometime he made a big somay with an quail egg inside. It could cost us 5000 rupiah / IDR or around 0.28 USD. These ones could not be part of the package.
SOMAY CEKEK
The difference I want to share is what I call as Somay Cekek. Somay cekek is actually the same as those somay, but only the way how we eat it become the reason why the name exist. Cekek comes from Cekik, which means to choke or to strangle. In the past many kids ate somay directly from the plastik wraps, by choking or strangling it one by one.
For example this was my Somay I got from that dude. It was wrapped by a plastic. I did not have any time to sit down and had it on my plate, so I had to eat them while driving my car.
So this is how I ate them, I opened the wrap, choked them one by one to eat them. Anyway I do not recommend anyone to drive their car while eating. It is dangerous and there is no benefit to show people how good you can do it. Some people like me often do this not because we are a great driver, but more like time sometime are not on our side and we have to eat or else we get another health issue.
For some people, they would not eat Somay in this way, not because it is gross... but It represents poverty. In the past people had difficulty to serve somay on a clean plate, so many ate them directly from plastic wrap because it was cheaper than affordable. Plastic plates weren't available in the past.
But for me... As long the food is good, the nutrient is good too or it is a healthy one... I do not think too much about trying to have myself looked so neat and cosmopolitan lol. I work on construction site anyway, being neat and dandy far from my style.
So what do you think about this Somay cekek, do you have similar food with this one in your place? Anyway that's all for my post today, have fun with your days, and do not forget to get some good food!