A Cup of Tea with Barry
T
his month’s ‘cup of tea’ is with one of our newer members, Barry. And what a wonderful insights he has to share about growing up in nearby Bandung. Today, Bandung is Indonesia’s third most populated city, but go back thirty years and it was a very different place altogether. Barry is the youngest in a family of seven children which, he tells me, was an average size family for Bandung at that time. When he was growing up, the typical diet of Bandung people was heavily based on vegetables and fruit, supplemented with fish from nearby rivers and lakes. There was very little meat until the late 1980’s when the overall Indonesian economy improved. Food typical of the Bandung region is very different from that found in Jakarta. Soup in Jakarta tends to feature coconut milk whereas in Bandung that is not the case. A typical Bandung dish would be home made gado-gado which is most simply described as steamed vegetables with peanut sauce. However, the sauce and preparation was much more complex than you tend to find today. While modern gado-gado is modified to suit many people’s taste, traditionally in Bandung gado-gado had a stronger, more authentic flavour which you could say almost reflects the character of the Bandung people – strong, earthy, no short-cuts. A key difference in the preparation of food there compared to Jakarta was the freshness of every element. Nothing was ever cooked or mixed in advance, rather, every meal was prepared on the spot. For example, many other regions might cook Nasi Padang in advance or save it overnight. That would never have happened in Bandung; it would always have been made fresh, with the freshest ingredients possible. Barry first visited Jakarta when in junior school. In the days before highways and modern vehicles in Indonesia, it was a five-hour drive over mountains and through rice paddies going from Bandung, through Bogor, to Jakarta. The roads and tracks were lined with jungles heavily treed with hardwoods such as mahogany and teak. One travelled past small subsistence farming villages rather than industrial and commercial buildings like we see today. Then, there were more horse-drawn carts than there were private cars or motorcycles. While today many people travel from Jakarta to Bandung for the shopping, Bandung was previously
an exclusive holiday destination for wealthy Dutch merchants and government officials. Prior to the late 1700’s, Bandung was shrouded in mystery as a mythical village. Set in a stunning valley, Bandung featured a heavy fog morning and evening. Unless you knew exactly where the village was, the Dutch explorers would not find Bandung except by getting completely lost and stumbling across it – which is exactly what happened. They called it the “Paris of Java” because of its abundance of thriving and exotic flower species. Today you can visit active volcanoes such as Mount Tangkuban Perahu which is popular with tourists. So, how did our new friend go from being a boy in Bandung named Arief to being an Australian named Barry? Well, here’s the short version. Barry’s eldest brother joined the cruise ship industry in the 1960’s. Another brother joined in the 1970’s, and Barry followed them in the 1990’s. He found himself in Australia where he met his future bride, Claudia. Barry and Claudia were married in 1993 and started raising their two children in Melbourne. Now, that meeting is a story in itself! Barry was working as a Pizza Boy on the Fairstar cruise ship when he clapped on eyes on a fair Aussie maiden. She fell in love with his (then) welldeveloped abs, with a background soundtrack of the dulcet tones and mullet hairstyle of Michael Bolton. Six months later Barry brought his new, pregnant wife home to Bandung. Claudia was laden with two suitcases and no idea about what she was getting into. Barry’s family embraced her with all the love a stranger in a foreign land could want – from kampong living and then relocating closer to Barry’s parents. Claudia and Barry welcomed their eldest son into the world even though he was nearly born in the “Hold On Gemini”, and so their story continues… During the intervening twenty years, they have regularly moved back and forth between Australia and Indonesia to ensure their children enjoy a good balance of values and culture from both heritages. Claudia was recently offered a job here in Jakarta and they took the opportunity to come back to live. We are delighted that Barry has decided to join our ANZA community. He brings a fresh perspective, a great sense of humour, and helps prop up the male demographic somewhat!! Welcome aboard Barry, and thanks for taking the time to share with us your stories about Bandung. As for the name Barry? Well, only Australians could take Arief and turn it into Barry … think about it… say the two names together… Barry Arief… Barrier Reef … there, now you’ve got it! Yep, only in Australia.
By Deniese Cox