Nasi ambeng and nasi tumpeng are Javanese cuisines that comes with a platter of rice accompanied with a number of side dishes, usually served as part of commemorating an event or a communal ritual like the slametan.
The side dishes tend to require preparation that takes much effort and usually challenging to be prepared by one person.
Given the variety of preparation and cooking methods, one has to be fully aware of the sequence and approach to preparing all the dishes, to be ready by the time that ritual of slametan ends.
While much studies have been on the slametan, usually attended by men, I have yet to read about the ritual that is occurring in the kitchen that usually begins way before the first verse is reciter during a slametan.
Having found food preparation therapeutic, I began to read about mindfulness in cooking and saw that possibility that the communal cooking that accompanies the communal ritual of slametan is a ritual on its own.
JavaNiche 