BAKAR BATU

Roasted rocks... sounds delicious, no!?!

Luckily, the name of this traditional Papuan food actually refers to the cooking-method... not the food itself!

In the mountainous areas of Papua, a meal of Bakar Batu is usually prepared for monumental meetings or ceremonies, or, more specifically, as a way to 'bury the hatchet' between two parties (or even warring factions/tribes)!

The stones are heated in fires, while a hole is dug in the ground (usually, although at the one we were invited to last week, they did it without a hole). Banana leaves are laid down, and a layer of sago flour is added, on top of which a layer of bamboo strips are arranged. Red-hot stones are then placed on top. The stones are then covered with meat (often freshly-slain wild boar), more stones and banana leaves are added, on top of which are placed the vegetables; all of this in alternating layers (leaves, rocks, meat, rocks, leaves, veggies). Usually, sweet potatoes, cassava, various leaves (such as from sweet-potato, cassava and papaya), and apparently sometimes even cucumber and corn, are layered into this mass. Once everything is included, several layers of banana leaves are wrapped up around the entire mass, and strapped together using vines; this huge, steaming package is left to cook for at least an hour.






Concurrent to the package being compiled, we were also treated to a very special making of 'papeda batu' (rock papeda). I have written about this traditional glue-like staple of Papua previously, but this was certainly a new and interesting way to make it! This method uses those same red-hot rocks to cook the papeda from the simple ingredients of sago flour and water. The process is really fun to watch, because as the sago turns gelatinous, and then 'gooey' (the indicator of the transformation into 'papeda'), it seems to 'know' its cooked, and spit the hot rocks out itself!





After an hour of other activity - lots of song and dance - the steaming package is sliced open and spills out it's delicacies.



The whole feast is eaten communally, sitting around on grass mats, using banana leaves as plates, with no need for utensils. I must say, the meal is all the more delicious because of this 'primitive' ambiance! It was actually very enjoyable food as well - and the addition of wild boar meat achieved a lovely mingling of aroma with the veggies and the sago.

Papua.