Rawon, the black soup

Speaking about the traditional food in Bandung, maybe we can’t add Rawon on the list. I don’t really know where it is come from exactly. The reason I want to discuss about Rawon is because this is my favourite food which is cooked by my sister herself. There are various type of cooking Rawon. It depend on how do a cook want to build the taste. Rawon actually only a sweet soup with meat as its primary substance. It served with vegetables, such as carrot, stringbeans, and beansprout. One that makes it so different is the colour of the soup, it is black. This black colour is coming from the spices. The composition of spices that darken the colour of the soup is called ‘keluak’, the fruits of the kepayang tree. It is small and has a round shape before it is crushed with another spices. A cook usually mix it with onion, ginger, ‘ketumbar’, and then they add salt, sugar, or monosodium glutamate to make a perfect taste. Rawon is a perfect dishes to eat with rice. A good Rawon can be seen also on its meat, more tender the meat on the soup, the better the taste of the Rawon.