Relevance of Traditional Betawinese Food Carts Design as

Inspiration of Betawi Food Counter at Food Court in Shopping Mall

Reno Fanthi

, Dila Hendrasukma

, N. Amarena Nediari

Interior Design Department, School of Design, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia 11480

Keywords: Relevance, Food Counter, Shopping Mall.

Abstract: Betawinese traditional food has certain ways in selling the food. The food carts found in the street as a tool

to sell traditional food, it has specific design that able to identify Betawinese food. Nowadays, people have

started to enjoy eating at food court with consideration of many aspects, such as food selection, quality of

food and price. Jakarta has indirectly made the mall as one of family friendly destination especially during

school holiday and weekend. Food court has become main facility in shopping mall. It required a good

design that should be applied in service, ambience and the food as well. Betawinese food has its own

specialty that needs to accommodate by its counter. Therefore food counter design should adapt the cooking

process of the dishes. Food counter design also supports the ambience of food courts, it enclosed

information that able to identify the food and represent the place of origin. This research used observation

and literature study as method, supporting with site visit, documentation and data. Hopefully this research

could give contribution in promoting Betawinese traditional food with modern way of selling as an effort to

preserve Indonesian culture.

1 INTRODUCTION

Indonesian traditional cuisine is one of tangible

goods of Indonesian culture that has specific recipes

from the ingredients, cooking process up to the

purpose of serving the dishes. Gastronomy is skills

and knowledge relating to food and drink which

enhances the pleasure and enjoyment of eating and

drinking (Santich Barbara, 2004). Nowadays, people

have started to enjoy eating at food court with

consideration of many aspects, such as the food

selection, quality of food, and reasonable price as

well.

There are several ways in selling Indonesian

traditional food that mostly have seen as street food

i.e carts, bicycles, carrying the goods called

‘gendong’, and also using a log that has goods in

both side called ‘pikul’. Each way of selling food

has specified their own identity of dishes,

ingredients, activities and design including in

Betawinese traditional food.

There are three phases of culinary growth in

Indonesia: 1). Original food; period of the

archipelago kingdom before the invaders came to

Indonesia, with specific technique in cooking

process such as steamed, wrapped in banana leaf and

using rice and roots as source of food, 2). Multi-

culture food; period of cooking process has been

influenced by immigrants from Arab, China and

Dutch. In the cities there has been acculturation in

culinary that creates new dishes, such as peranakan

dishes with Chinese culture, bistik dishes with

Dutches culture and gulai dishes with Arabian

culture, 3). Contemporary food; period of fast food

and instant food, when culinary are influenced by

multinational industry with tends to standardized the

cooking technique, and there is less demand in

traditional dishes (Alamsyah Yuyun, 2013).

In order to taste the real traditional food, it is

important to know the preparation process as well,

since some of Betawinese traditional food has

specific presentation, like asinan Betawi, ketoprak,

gado-gado, kerak telor and many more. Some of

Betawinese traditional food is multi-culture food

which the cooking process has been influenced by

other culture.

The vast development of culinary tourism has

been answered by mall developer through food court

facilities. Food court has become one of facilities

that have been standardized in local regulation for

DKI Jakarta No. 10/2004 for business tourism in

food and beverages facilities, including restaurant,

Fanthi, R., Hendrasukma, D. and Nediari, N.

Relevance of Traditional Betawinese Food Carts Design as Inspiration of Betawi Food Counter at Food Court in Shopping Mall.

DOI: 10.5220/0010010500002917

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences, Laws, Arts and Humanities (BINUS-JIC 2018), pages 457-461

ISBN: 978-989-758-515-9

457

catering service and bakery (Pelayanan Jakarta,

2004). Food court design needs to accommodate

storage, preservation, and preparation of various

beverages and food products unique to the individual

module (Papas, Chris & Antonio DiRico, 1995).

Every dish has their own specification that needs to

accommodate by its food counter. Therefore food

counter design should adapt the original cooking

process of the dishes.

This is an interesting topic to be discussed as most

food court in shopping malls has specific thematic

that applied in its interior design. There are few

questions in this research that need to be answered:

1).What is the importance of traditional food carts

used as inspiration to design food counter in food

court? 2). What elements can be used as inspiration

taken from traditional Betawinese food carts? This

research focused on the relevance of Betawinese

traditional food carts as inspiration of Betawinese

food counter in food court. Site visits and field

inspections are planned to discover Betawinese

traditional food that found in food courts and still

utilizing traditional carts for selling the food in the

street. The findings data will contribute in specify

aspect that needs to comply in designing food

counter in food court.

2 METHODS

This research used observation and literature study

as method, supporting with site visit, field

inspection, documentation and collected data. The

object observation is Betawinese traditional food

carts that available on the street and food court. The

chosen sites to conduct survey are Eat and Eat at

Gandaria City, Food X-Change at Bintaro Exchange

Mall, Food Avenue-Lotte shopping avenue, and

Living Kitchen at Living World-Alam Sutera. These

food courts have a thematic concept as a street food

courts. Analysis is done by comparing Betawinese

traditional food carts design to identify the basic

structure to be applied on the food counter in food

court area, visiting the chosen food courts and

documenting food counter design.

3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Betawinese Traditional Food

Betawi is a community of mixed descent, different

races and ethnic group who for generations lived in

Jakarta. Betawi have assimilated different cultures

from Malay, Sundanese, Javanese, Chinese, Indian

and Arab (Jakarta Tourism, 2015). Betawinese foods

are savory and delicious. Exposure to the variety of

Betawinese traditional food are often found among

the Betawinese people, even so there are some

traditional food started to extinct because the lack of

knowledge in producing it and there are no longer

people wants to sell it.

There are four categories in Betawinese food i.e

main course, snack, drink and desserts. The most

popular of Betawinese food are kerak telor, soto

Betawi, asinan Betawi, nasi uduk, nasi ulam,

pindang bandeng, gabus pucung, gurame pecak, kue

rangi, kue dongkal, kue cucur and kue ape. Bir

Pletok, selendang mayang, es podeng and es doger

are some of drinks and dessert from Betawinese

traditional food (Erwin & Lilly T, 2008).

Discussion for Betawinese traditional food in this

research is specific in Betawinese pickles (asinan

Betawi), which most founded in food court and still

utilizing traditional carts for selling the food in the

street. Asinan Betawi is in dessert category with

ingredients such as pickled vegetables, tofu, peanut

sauce and rice crackers with palm sugar syrup on

top. There is no cooking process in the cart, and the

ingredients are stored in glass jars standing inside

the carts.

3.2 Betawinese Traditional Food Cart

The history of carts originally had a function for

transportation. Carts have different function and

design values around the world until they can

eventually develop into conveyance to sell

(Beaumont, 2014). Traditional food carts become

one solution for food vendors to meet the customers,

and provide benefits for customers because they do

not have to go out to buy the food. Most of carts

design have specific features, there are two wheels

and one peg and need one person to push it as a cart

driver or the food vendor.

Food carts are still found on the street in Jakarta and

surrounding areas, as a street food. In residential

area there are plenty of food carts that go around the

neighborhood in order to sell the food. Betawinese

pickles traditional carts using bell as specific identity

as they go around the neighborhood, thus people will

notice when the cart is coming. Traditional food cart

is specifically designed with purpose of selling the

food and it also supported with working space and

storing system. As they go around to meet the

customers, they also able to stay at one place to wait

for the customers to come. Generally, traditional

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food carts only operate during the day so they do not

need special lighting to support the selling activity.

It is founded from the observation of traditional

Betawinese food carts that nowadays some of

traditional food carts have been modified based on

the needs of food vendors. As shown picture,

Betawinese pickle traditional carts has been

modified by adding bicycle into carts because it is

more efficient to paddle than to walk. The cart is

made of wooden frame, glass on three sides of the

carts and title of the dishes on the front and left side

of the cart. This improvisation proved that as long as

it does not change the basic function, it is possible to

add other features in the carts. The color does not

have certain meaning, but certain carts identify type

of selling food.

Figure 1. Betawinese pickle traditional carts. (Nediari,

2018).

Traditional food carts can be made based on Quality

Function Deployment (QFD). It divides into four

aspect, they are ergonomic, performance, materials

and design (Iqbal, 2016). There is reference of

specific requirement for food carts such as 1).The

heights of top table for working area is 93.8 cm 2).

Storage for cooking ware 3). Display of food

ingredients near the working area based on the

recipes 4). Made from wood with traditional design

5). Title of the product. Based on field inspection of

traditional food cart there are some component in

food carts. There are 1). Window display, 2).

Preparation desk, 3). pickle assorted storage covered

with glass, 4). Cart stand, 5). Bicycle wheels in both

side, 6). Text as the identity for the food cart, 7).

Handle. There is no cooking process in Betawinese

pickle traditional cart, the preparation started with

putting all the ingredients in a plate, which the

vendor needs to open the jars at the window display.

Figure 2. Cart components of Betawinese pickle

traditional cart. (Fanthi, 2018)

3.3 Food Court and Food Counter

The shopping mall is a place of crowd for urban

communities with particular interests. Their

departure to the mall is an independent interest

without any emotional ties between each other

(Nediari, 2013). Jakarta has indirectly made the mall

as one of family friendly destination especially

during school holiday and weekends. It is found that

every shopping mall has its own food court and

located at the highest level of the building.

The existence of a food court in every shopping mall

as one of the main facilities serves as the fulfillment

of community needs for culinary tourism as a series

of shopping and relaxation visits at the shopping

mall. This causes shopping malls in big cities to

provide a wide area intended as a food court that can

accommodate visitors as well as variety of food

stalls at one time. This food court area is never

empty of visitor, thus encourages culinary

entrepreneurs to constantly create the variety of food

offered while promoting authenticity of flavors and

ingredients in every food.

The variety of dishes in food court divided into

appetizer, main course, snack and dessert. Food

court has counters and stalls in serving the food. It is

found that main course are placed in the counter

while snack, appetizer and desserts are placed in the

stalls that some of them found inspired by the

traditional selling tools such as cart and pikul. These

inspirations applied in thematic food court with

street food concept. For some people, buying food

from traditional food cart gives nostalgic value, and

at the same time people also gain knowledge and

experience in seeing how the food vendors prepared

and served these traditional dishes. This experience

are meant to be brought up into food courts not only

as knowledge but also to show the younger

Relevance of Traditional Betawinese Food Carts Design as Inspiration of Betawi Food Counter at Food Court in Shopping Mall

459

generation who rarely meet food carts because they

do not eat street food.

Food court are rental spaces that managed by

company who specialized in culinary business.

Nowadays, most food court has deposit system in

term of payment, customers are able to pay the

deposit and top up the card with in certain amount. It

also can be refund in cash if the balance is under Rp

50.000,-. The price of food and beverage in food

court starts from Rp. 10.000-Rp 80.000.

3.3.1 Eat and Eat

Eat and eat is located on 2

floor at Gandaria City

shopping mall. Managed by PT. Marche Multirasa

Indonesia since opened in 2010, Eat and Eat has

different concept than other food courts in shopping

malls. Food market concept applied in Eat and Eat

as curated street food hub. It served street food from

Indonesian traditional food to snacks from other

countries. The late Bondan Winarno as a culinary

expert and journalist said that “Eat and Eat has been

successful as pioneer in providing stage for

Indonesian traditional culinary. It is an honorable

place for Indonesian traditional cuisine - including

the hygiene and sanitation” (Multirasa, 2018)

There are a lot of variety of street food that available

in Eat and Eat food courts both local and

international food. This food court has food counter

and stalls, some of main courses are serving in

counter and stall. There is one counter that

specifically served beverages and placed in the

center of the food court. From dozens tenants in Eat

and Eat, there are ten menus of Betawinese

traditional food dividing into appetizer, main course,

snack and dessert. Here are the findings of the visit:

1) Betawinese pickled stall placed in the main

entrance of the food court, 2). The stall does not

present the original selling media as a street food, 3).

Working area in the stall has applied the original

working arrangement as in traditional cart.

3.3.2 Food X-Change

Food X-Change is located on 1

floor at Bintaro

Exchange Mall in South Tangerang. Managed by

Talaga Sampireun. Despite of varieties of dishes

served in Food X-Change, in both food counters and

stalls, there are only two Betawinese traditional

foods found in the food court. In terms of food

display and selling media, the findings of the visit

are: 1). Betawinese pickle was sold in traditional

food cart with no design consideration, 2). The food

stall grouping is not well organized with different

design at each stall. 3). There are no specific areas

that identify the origin of food.

3.3.3 Food Avenue

It is located on 4th floor at Lotte Shopping Avenue,

South Jakarta. It has a lot of variety of food both

local and international food. The findings of the visit

are:1). Betawinese pickle cart found in traditional

cart and placed in special area next to dining area,

2). Food counter only served main course.

3.3.4 Living Kitchen

It is located on 2

floor at Living World, Alam

Sutera in South Tangerang. The concept is to enjoy

delightful culinary experience in hommy and playful

environment from legendary street foods [13].The

food court had been renovated and opened on March

2018. It has food counter and stalls.The findings of

the visit are: 1). Asinan Betawi served in traditional

food carts and placed in special area, 2).The

traditional stalls are located in special area for

appetizer, dessert and snack, 3). Food counter served

main course only.

The cultural treasures and various traditional dishes

of the archipelago also fill the food court and

alternately celebrated in the form of provincial

themes, where its application to the food court area

through thematic interior design approach. The

thematic approach of interior design includes two

things, namely the understanding of the typical

selling medium of the traditional food presentation,

and the relationships contained in the manner of

serving the food in the original culture with the form

of original selling media, such as wheelbarrow,

paddle or pikul tool.

The results of the conducted survey on food court

visitation in several shopping malls, devoted to

traditional Betawinese Pickle outlets as one of the

available menus, found that:

❖ Most of food courts that use traditional food

cart as selling media are only move the cart literally

into the food court without any design consideration

and adjustment.

❖ Food counter/stall Betawinese pickle does not

have elements of tradition in accordance with the

original selling medium

❖ Food counter/stall Betawinese Pickle does not

display the identity of the origin selling media which

is the uniqueness of the experience will be the

originality of the typical food

Based on field facts, suggested that the existence of

traditional elements applied in the presentation of

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typical food through replicas of the original street

food cart. Media in the form of replica carts or pikul

tools will effectively associate with the original

means that circulate out there. The physical

resemblance of the media sells according to the

typical food when applied in the food counter/stall

area is to provide the visitor experience of the

preparation and presentation procedures as well as

the knowledge of the original tradition of Betawi

traditional food; Betawinese pickle.

4 CONCLUSION

Base of the above findings, the existence of

traditional elements is recommended to be applied in

food counter or food stall as an emphasis to provide

experience in the preparation process and

presentation, as well as knowledge of the original

tradition of Betawi pickles as traditional food.

1. Maintaining the original selling media in

the food court is an effort to preserve Indonesian

culture, with the aim that people can know the media

selling traditional food and gain experience of the

preparation process of traditional food

2. a. The application of cultural inspiration is

applied through maintaining the working area

contained in traditional food carts exist in the food

counter design.

b. The elements that can be applied in designing

the food counter for Betawinese pickle are based on

traditional carts component such as : 1) preparation

desk, 2). See-thru pickles storages 3). Bicycle

wheels, 4). Window display 5). Text of food identity

Food court area with thematic interior is the gateway

of visitors to enjoy the culinary tour of the

archipelago. Interior design should meet the criteria

of the design of food outlets that carry the

uniqueness of their respective areas while ensuring

the suitability of selling media with their origins. It

is hoped that with this recommendation can be

developed a new design on food counter or stall that

can display elements of tradition in a food court as a

public space. Furthermore, these two things become

a reference in viewing the potential suitability of

selling media design with traditional food of

Betawinese culture when shifting to food court

arena.

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