In Indonesia, soil is not just a raw material for bricks and ceramics, it's also a snack that one family has been making for generations.
Tuban, in East Java Province, is the only village that produces "ampo," a snack made from clean, gravel-free dark earth collected from nearby paddy fields.
Although there is no medical evidence, villagers believe the soil snacks are an effective pain-killer and pregnant women are encouraged to eat them as it is believed to refine the skin of the unborn baby.
There is no real recipe: makers of the snack use a wooden stick to pound the soil into a hard, solid mass.
Rolls of dirt are then scraped off the with a bamboo dagger, baked and smoked in large clay pot for half and hour and then they're ready to serve.
The better the quality of the soil, the better the taste of the snack, its creator, fifty-three year-old Rasima, says.
Rasima, who like many Indonesians only has one name, makes ampo everyday to sell at the local market, just like her ancestors.
She is the village's only ampo producer, and can earn up to $2 a day to supplement her family's income from farming.
"The ampo-making has become a family tradition in the village and I do not know exactly when it started," she said.
"All I know is that it was made by my great-grandmother and it was continued by my grandmother then my mother and now I continue to make it."
Rasima says her knack for finding good soil comes from her job as a field worker.
"I work in the paddy fields of others, looking for banana and teak leaves, so my job is always in touch with nature," she says.
Fans say the soil snacks have a cool, creamy texture.
"I think the taste is nice and I usually eat this. It is nothing special, it feels cold in my stomach," said Siti Qomariyah, who has been eating the snacks since she was a child.
In Tuban, a village in the East Java province of Indonesia, earth is used to make “ampo” a creamy snack believed to have medicinal properties.
According to Rasima, the ampo cook of Tuban, there is no real recipe to making this bizarre snack. All she does is look for clean, gravel-free soil, in the village’s rice paddies, pound it into a solid block, using a stick, and scrape rolls out of it,with a bamboo dagger. The rolls of soils are then baked and smoked for an hour. Rasima then takes the earthy snacks to the village market, where she earns about $2, to supplement her family’s income.
Tuban is the only earth-eating village on the planet. There are people, around the world, who enjoy eating sand, or kaolin, but not baked soil. Villagers believe ampo is a natural pain-killer, and that it makes babies’ skin softer, if eaten by their pregnant mothers.
As for the taste of ampo, “it’s nothing special, it feels cold in my stomach” says one of the Tuban locals, who has been eating ampo, ever since she was a child.
source:
http://reuters.com
http://odditycentral.com
http://unp.co.in
http://trickfist.com
http://ubervu.com
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://opinibureto.blogspot.com
Although there is no medical evidence, villagers believe the soil snacks are an effective pain-killer and pregnant women are encouraged to eat them as it is believed to refine the skin of the unborn baby.
There is no real recipe: makers of the snack use a wooden stick to pound the soil into a hard, solid mass.
Rolls of dirt are then scraped off the with a bamboo dagger, baked and smoked in large clay pot for half and hour and then they're ready to serve.
The better the quality of the soil, the better the taste of the snack, its creator, fifty-three year-old Rasima, says.
Rasima, who like many Indonesians only has one name, makes ampo everyday to sell at the local market, just like her ancestors.
She is the village's only ampo producer, and can earn up to $2 a day to supplement her family's income from farming.
"The ampo-making has become a family tradition in the village and I do not know exactly when it started," she said.
"All I know is that it was made by my great-grandmother and it was continued by my grandmother then my mother and now I continue to make it."
Rasima says her knack for finding good soil comes from her job as a field worker.
"I work in the paddy fields of others, looking for banana and teak leaves, so my job is always in touch with nature," she says.
Fans say the soil snacks have a cool, creamy texture.
"I think the taste is nice and I usually eat this. It is nothing special, it feels cold in my stomach," said Siti Qomariyah, who has been eating the snacks since she was a child.
In Tuban, a village in the East Java province of Indonesia, earth is used to make “ampo” a creamy snack believed to have medicinal properties.
According to Rasima, the ampo cook of Tuban, there is no real recipe to making this bizarre snack. All she does is look for clean, gravel-free soil, in the village’s rice paddies, pound it into a solid block, using a stick, and scrape rolls out of it,with a bamboo dagger. The rolls of soils are then baked and smoked for an hour. Rasima then takes the earthy snacks to the village market, where she earns about $2, to supplement her family’s income.
Tuban is the only earth-eating village on the planet. There are people, around the world, who enjoy eating sand, or kaolin, but not baked soil. Villagers believe ampo is a natural pain-killer, and that it makes babies’ skin softer, if eaten by their pregnant mothers.
As for the taste of ampo, “it’s nothing special, it feels cold in my stomach” says one of the Tuban locals, who has been eating ampo, ever since she was a child.
source:
http://reuters.com
http://odditycentral.com
http://unp.co.in
http://trickfist.com
http://ubervu.com
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://opinibureto.blogspot.com
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