Savory and Soft Serabi Notosuman

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Enjoying local culinary delights is always an interesting thing for travelers. This type of culinary is a special attraction because it reflects culinary treasures of region in question. This time I would taste one more typical Solo culinary after I’ve tasted five of them.

That morning, I decided to leave Alun-Alun Kidul (South Square of Surakarta Hadiningrat Palace) early because the sun had shone on that open area. After taking shelter for a while under Waringin Kurung Sakembaran^*1, I immediately ordered an online taxi service to Jayengan area.

Shortly after executing the order, a black Toyota Avanza came to pick me up. Taxi driver was very easy to recognize me after I had given my characteristics in detail starting from the color of my clothes, bag and shoes which I was wearing. I opened the front left door and buried myself in the seat.

“Serabi^*2 Notosuman, Sir!”, I confirmed the destination.

“Ok, Sir”.

The online taxi drove to east, tracing morning streets of Solo City. It was a national holiday, Islamic New Year, and streets were deserted. I arrived in ten minutes and entered parking area. The first glance was a large green nameboard with words “Serabi Notosuman”, this was the famous Solo City snack. I should try it or at least bought it as a souvenir.

In a corner, six production employees were busy working on making serabi. Those employees deftly handled more than a hundred mini serabi pans, carried large basin of dough from the kitchen, greased each pan with oil using a round brush, poured the dough with a distinctive hand shake to form a thin layer over the puddle of dough, then covering the pan for three minutes to produce a cooked serabi. Hot serabi were started to be lifted one by one using a small taper and then were cooled on top of tampah^*3, then were wrapped in banana leaves to be ready to sell to buyers. Indeed, the serabi which sold in this outlet were fresh serabi because they were directly taken from the stove.

I entered the inner room, it turned out that this outlet didn’t only provide serabi. But it also provided some other traditional culinaries such as intip, jenang, lanting, jipang^*4 and others.

Serabi Notosuman itself was almost a century old, had a distinctive and savory taste of coconut milk. That morning, I chose to order two kinds of serabi, plain serabi and chocolate ones at a price of IDR. 2,000 per piece to bring as a souvenir.

Located on Mohammad Yamin Street, this outlet operated from 06:00 to 17:00. This culinary based on rice flour and coconut milk had two outlets with different owners, namely Serabi Notosuman Ny. Handayani, which was characterized by its orange color packaging and Serabi Notosuman Ny. Lidia with green color packaging.

So, take your time to stop by at Serabi Notosuman when traveling to Solo.

Note:

Waringin Kurung Sakembaran^*1: The twin banyan tree is full of magic in the middle of royal’ south square

Serabi^*2, one of the most common snacks in the market when visiting Java

tampah^*3 is tray which is made from woven bamboo

intip, jenang, lanting, jipang^*4 are typical Javanese snacks

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