If youve spent your childhood years in Indonesia, especially in Java, you must have known es dung-dung, a traditional ice cream sold by peddlers who knock their carts with a stick, making dung! dung! sound hence, the name.
Even until now, es dung-dung sellers can be easily found in most neighborhoods, maybe except in high-class real estates. They go around from one neighborhood to another, usually in broad daylight, offering the sweet dessert for kids (and adults) with sweet tooth. The price for a cone of ice cream used to be only around few hundreds rupiah, but nowadays the price is around Rp 2,000 or Rp 3,000 per cone.
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Pak Rudi, who I met a few days ago, is one of the es dung-dung sellers. He has been doing the same job since 1986.
Ive started selling es dung-dung around 30 years ago, when I first arrived in Jakarta, he recalled. I had my friend teach me how to make the ice cream, and Ive been selling this around here ever since.
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You can either have es dung dung on a cone, in a cup, or on a sliced bread. (Brilio/Retno Wulandari)
Rudi wanders around in East Jakarta to sell his ice cream. He usually starts around Cipinang Muara area and ends the day in Prumpung area near Jatinegara Station. Its about 12 to 14 kilometers in a roundtrip.
He starts selling at around 10 a.m. every day, right after he finishes his other job.
I have a side job to earn more. I cant rely only on es dung-dung, he said while putting layers of ice cream on a cone. Every morning I help moving ice blocks from the delivery truck to my employers house.
His morning job gets him around Rp 250,000 a month, but his income from selling ice cream is unpredictable. Sometimes he can get Rp 100,000 to Rp 150,000 per day, but at times he goes home with only Rp 60,000 in his pocket.
Im glad that todays kids still love to eat street ice cream although modern ice cream is everywhere. I think its because traditional ice cream is very affordable yet tasty. It also reminds many people of the good old days.
To preserve the taste, Pak Rudi makes his own ice cream.
In the evening, I go to the market to buy the ingredients: coconut milk, sugar, flour and salt. I wake up at 3 a.m. and start stirring all ingredients until theyre perfectly mixed. I put the mixture into a stainless steel cormorant, which the I put in the middle of a box full of ice blocks. Then, I stir the mixture constantly until it freezes and dries, he said. I finish the process at 5 a.m..
Homemade es dung dung. (Brilio/Retno Wulandari)
Stirring is the traditional method of ice cream making. Thats how es dung-dung gets its other name, es puter (stirred ice cream).
Though his daily life looks hard, Pak Rudi is grateful with what he has right now. At least, he said that he managed to send his daughter to college and his other two children to secondary school.
Im grateful. After all, everyone has his own allotments in life, right? he said with a smile.