Let's Enjoy Belitung! Get to Know Eating Bedulang, A Tradition Full of Symbols of Togetherness

POSBELITUNG.CO, BELITUNG - Let's enjoy Belitung through its traditions. Belitung has a variety of traditions.

Eating bedulang is one of them. Even eating bedulang has now been designated as intangible cultural heritage.

Eating Bedulang is a dining tradition from Belitung which can be interpreted as eating together facing a tray or flat round tray, which is used as a place to place small plates containing side dishes.

In the tradition of eating bedulang, one tray is for four people. These four people will enjoy the dishes served in a tray together.

The tray containing food is covered with a red serving cover called mentudong.

As a complement, the lambak tudong is placed on top of the mentudong, indicating that the tray is ready to be served.

"Eating bedulang is a Belitung tradition where in terms of customs there are rules or etiquette, not just eating," said Belitung cultural observer, Salim YAH, Monday (11/9/2023).

The etiquette for eating bedulang is that when you lift the tray and then put it down, the tray lifter must not stand still.

To serve the tray, there are two people, one of whom is the lifter in a standing position.

Meanwhile, another person sitting on his knees is tasked with receiving the tray from the lifter, then placing it on the floor where the tray is eaten.

The tray is then placed, including rice, plates, and a drinking bowl along with drinking water.

In the tray, five small plates containing side dishes are placed and in the middle there is a bowl as a container for the gangan darat culinary delights.

Salim explained that previously, gangan darat was served from the raw ingredients of pelandok (pelanduk, mouse deer) or deer meat.

However, because it is now a protected animal, the common gangan darat is beef or chicken gangan darat.

Five small plates as a container for side dishes in the form of fish satay, chicken opor, grilled fish, pineapple chili sauce and stir-fry.

If the grilled fish served is a large fish such as mackerel, cut the fish into three parts.

The head is cooked by gangan for people who cook or help at celebrations. The middle part is for making fish satay, then the tail part is for grilling.

Chicken opor is also served in the form of one large piece.

According to Salim, it's not that it can't be cut into small pieces, but this is the feeling of togetherness when enjoying eating bedulang.

"If you eat a little, eat a little, if you eat a lot, eat a lot, depending on how we take it," he continued.

Pineapple chilli sauce is served as a dip for grilled fish.

Apart from being a complementary dish, pineapple chili sauce is also believed to neutralize the fats in chicken opor.

When enjoying eating bedulang, the youngest must serve the older by giving them a plate and asking them to take rice and side dishes first.

This also marks the etiquette of respecting parents.

After finishing eating, only one bowl should be used to wash as much as possible. Then wipe using a napkin.

There is also a special way to use napkins so that everyone always gets a clean napkin.

Moreover, the Malays who identify as Muslims must apply the etiquette that cleanliness is part of their faith.

The napkin is initially folded in half four times.

After wiping their hands, the first person who has used the napkin must turn the fold over before the second person uses it.

The second person then double-folds the napkin, then folds it in the opposite direction for the third person to use.

Only then does the third person flip the fold so that the fourth person can use the same napkin, but on the clean side.

After the four people have finished eating, the tray is covered again with the mentudong and tudong lambak, then lifted and moved to the back or to the kitchen.

Then the tudong lambak is opened, a sign that the food in the tray has been eaten.

Salim said that eating bedulang is not only a way to enjoy food.

However, as a symbol of the application of good manners in the lives of the Belitung Malay people.

Eating bedulang also has values such as togetherness, mutual respect, cleanliness and good manners.

"As civilized and customary people we have to apply that, not just eat bedulang," he said.

(Posbelitung.co/Novita)