Slawi
Encyclopedia
Slawi is the capital city of the Tegal Regency
Tegal Regency
Tegal is a regency in the northwestern part of Central Java province in Indonesia. Its capital is Slawi....

 of the province of Central Java
Central Java
Central Java is a province of Indonesia. The administrative capital is Semarang. It is one of six provinces on the island of Java.This province is the province of high Human Development in Indonesia and its Points Development Index countries is equivalent to Lebanon. The province of Central Java...

, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

. Slawi is known for the production of a particularly fragrant black tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

 and the tea drinking culture known as Moci.

Geography

Unusual for a tea producing area, Slawi has a warm climate with a gentle sloping geography.

Slawi is located about 20 km south of Tegal at the central north coast of Java in the Central Java province. It is bordering with Adiwerna (Banjaran) sub-district to the north, the Pangkah sub-district to the east, the Balapulang sub-district to the south and the Jatibarang sub-district (located in the administrative area of Kabupaten Brebes) to the West.

Society and culture

The majority of citizens work as farmers, in the metal industry, the public service, or in a variety of home industries, including teak furniture-making and weaving sarongs.

As generally the case with 'urbanisation', many young people leave the area after high school, heading for larger urban centres such as Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...

, Bandung
Bandung
Bandung is the capital of West Java province in Indonesia, and the country's third largest city, and 2nd largest metropolitan area in Indonesia, with a population of 7.4 million in 2007. Located 768 metres above sea level, approximately 140 km southeast of Jakarta, Bandung has cooler...

, Semarang
Semarang
- Economy :The western part of the city is home to many industrial parks and factories. The port of Semarang is located on the north coast and it is the main shipping port for the province of Central Java. Many small manufacturers are located in Semarang, producing goods such as textiles,...

 and some timber processing towns such as Banjarmasin
Banjarmasin
Banjarmasin is the capital of South Kalimantan, Indonesia. It is located on a delta island near the junction of the Barito and Martapura rivers. As a result, Banjarmasin is sometimes called the "River City"...

 and Balikpapan
Balikpapan
Balikpapan is a seaport city on the eastern coast of the island of Borneo, Indonesia, in the East Kalimantan province, a resource-rich region well known for its timber, mining, and petroleum export products. Two harbors, Semayang and Kariangau , and the Sepinggan International Airport are the main...

. In the last three decades, some are working overseas in places such as Middle East, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Their financial remittances are an important source of income for the area. The out of town family members would generally return to Slawi for the Moslem holidays of Idul Fitri
Eid ul-Fitr
Eid ul-Fitr, Eid al-Fitr, Id-ul-Fitr, or Id al-Fitr , often abbreviated to Eid, is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting . Eid is an Arabic word meaning "festivity," while Fiṭr means "breaking the fast"...

 as a tradition.

Local crafts include traditional forms of batik
Batik
Batik is a cloth that traditionally uses a manual wax-resist dyeing technique. Batik or fabrics with the traditional batik patterns are found in Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, China, Azerbaijan, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, and Singapore.Javanese traditional batik, especially from...

 and metal working, and Wayang Kulit puppet shows are also performed.

The local language of the area is Javanese
Javanese language
Javanese language is the language of the Javanese people from the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, in Indonesia. In addition, there are also some pockets of Javanese speakers in the northern coast of western Java...

, spoken with a distinctive regional accent.

The local cuisine lists among others, Tahu Aci, fried tofu triangle with one side filled with cassava flour - represent the best vegetarian fried tofu among Asian cuisine. Sega Lengko, made of boiled and steamed rice adorned with fermented soybean cake pieces tempeh
Tempeh
Tempeh , or tempe , is a traditional soy product originally from Indonesia. It is made by a natural culturing and controlled fermentation process that binds soybeans into a cake form, similar to a very firm vegetarian burger patty...

, tofu
Tofu
is a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is part of East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and others. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu...

, soy-bean sprout tauge, sand fried peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...

 and some hand crushed krupuk aci cassava flour cracker and/or krupuk udangprawn crackers, fried shallots with mild chilli peanut sauce over the top prior to serving. There are also variety of chicken turmeric soup, Soto Tegal and Sate Tegal. There are many local food stalls, called Warteg (Warung Tegal), which offer daily meals at affordable price for all walks of life.

Tea drinking at the small or large eatery has a famous local term called Moci - literally tea drinking from one small clay teapot with one teacup for each person. It is the way to drink the locally produced fragrant jasmine black tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

. The teapot is filled with a small paper bag the size of matchbox full of jasmine tea and poured with slightly scalding hot water. The brewed tea is then poured into a clay teacup with rock sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

. The way the locals do is not to stir avoiding average sweetness, drink while it is hot preferably with some slurping noise as well. Some will pour it on the saucer and slurp it with abandon pleasure. The idea is to get to the last slurp or sip when it is sweetest and in this way encouraging refill. It somewhat reflects the Malay pantun
Pantun
The pantun is a Malay poetic form. The pantun originated as a traditional oral form of expression. The first examples to be recorded appear in the 15th century in the Malay Annals and the Hikayat Hang Tuah. The most common theme is love....

 proverb, 'berakit-rakit ke hulu/berenang-renang ke tepian/ bersakit-sakit dahulu/bersenang-senang kemudian', meaning there is a satisfying end to a difficult beginning. Not to be mistaken with the way the Russian drink their tea, by holding the rock sugar between the teeth and sip the tea.

Moci is frequently accompanied by Mendoan, a moist fermented soybean cake (tempe or tempeh
Tempeh
Tempeh , or tempe , is a traditional soy product originally from Indonesia. It is made by a natural culturing and controlled fermentation process that binds soybeans into a cake form, similar to a very firm vegetarian burger patty...

) fried in wheat fluor batter, often eaten with sambal ulek (oelek) or plain chilli paste or simply bite into one bird's eye chilli then bite a piece off the tempe. This is a favourite drink while enjoying the famous Sate Tegal, sate of local goat meat.

Local areas of interest

There are several beaches within easy reach of Slawi, as well as Guci, an area of waterfalls, gardens, and public hot springs at the foot of Slamet Mountain, approximately 27 km south of Slawi. In addition, nearby Alun Alun Kabupaten Slawi is a garden with a large fountain that is popular on Sundays.

In the city itself, there are the old and new markets, the Singa and Rama theatres, as well as the historical Pankah Sugar Factory, and the 4th Slawi Primary School, both of which are part of the Dutch colonial legacy in the city.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK