Spending New Year’s Eve With Javanese & Balinese Kings

At the end of 2004 the King of Surakarta, His Excellency Pakoe Boewono XIII (PB XIII) and family along with Balinese Kings held a dinner party themed “Return to Solo” on Friday (31/12) at the Suly Resort & Spa, Ubud. The dinner party in which the King of Surakarta served royal specialties cooked by Gusti Alit (spouse to PB XIII) and enjoying classical royal dances with gamelan orchestra along with Javanese songs until the dawn of 2005.

The party began at 8.00pm Local Time with the presentation of typical Javanese foods such as Jenang Soru ( food served annually to celebrate Suro—the first month in Javanese calendar) consisting of white rice porridge along with side dishes of fried sambal, chicken cooked with coconut cream, yellow pickles, fried salty whitebait (ikan teri), shredded meat, fried grated coconut with sauce, klingkam, awur egg and basil leaf.
Other dishes served were lumpang consisting of tempeh, tofu and vegetables. There was also gudeg solo a menu consisting of chicken cooked with coconut cream, krecek fried sambal (cow’s skin cracker) and the gudeg itself made of young jackfruit cooked in coconut milk soup served with rujak dogan (young coconut) the water of young coconuts mixed with brown sugar.
Apart for enjoying dinner together, it was also accompanied by the running of documentary films of 1 hour and 12 minutes duration narrated on the “adang ceremony” (a ceremony held once in 8 years at Royal Palace of Solo) and the film “Pakoe Boewono XII Struggles for an Existence” (a film narrating on biography of the father of His Excellency Pakoe Boewono XIII, Tedjo Woelan). Both films were directed by IGP Wiranegara.
The party was closed by a gamelan orchestra and dances performed one after another for consisting of 3 dances; (Bambang Cakil, Golek Asmarandana and Gambyong). (BTN/BP/Para)