‘Urutan’, Favorite Food of Galungan Day

Galungan day, which celebrates the victory of Dharma (good) against Adharma (bad), is celebrated by all Balinese Hindus. In Bangli Regency, the tradition of celebrating Galungan day is not very different from other areas. The Mepatung tradition of buying and sharing pork, for example, is almost the same in every village. The meat from mepatung can be made into several kinds of traditional foods for Galungan day. On penampahan Galungan day, the day before Galungan day or Tuesday Wage Wuku Dungulan, all people who celebrate Galungan partake in mepatung. On this day, the people start making many kinds traditional foods, such as satay, komoh, lawar, tum, pesan, sup balung, and urutan. In several places, the people still store pork meat in palm stems (upih) known as buntilan.
Along with satay and lawari, urutan is a favorite food of Galungan day. Urutan is a kind of sausage made from pork intestines filled with chopped meat and flavoring. It is quite simple to make; clean the intestine then fill with the chopped meat. To give flavour to the urutan, it is better to dry it first by putting it above the bungut paon (traditional cooking place). According to Mrs. Sri, a citizen of Bangli, the dried urutan from the fumigation process can be kept for up to 10 days and it tastes delicious. ‘If the urutan is quite long, it can be cut bit by bit and fried before eating,’ she said. She also said that terasi, a condiment made from fermented and pounded shrimp or small fish, should not be used in the urutan so that it doesn’t attract flies. The flavorings to be used are lengkuas (the ginger plant), kunyit (turmeric), bawang putih (garlic), daun salam (a laurel- like leaf used in cooking) and salt. These should be ground and mixed with the chopped meat. (BTN/030)