Cultural Culinary Wisdom in Religious Ceremonies and Rituals of Javanese-Thai Muslims in Bangkok

Abstract

       The purposes of this research are : 1) to study the history and context of the community of Thai Muslims with Javanese descent in Bangkok. 2) To study the wisdom and culture of food in religious ceremonies of Thai-Muslims of Javanese descent in Bangkok and 3) to prepare a traditional recipe for Nasi ambeng in the rituals of Javanese Thai Muslims. This research is a qualitative and experimental research with data collection and sensory testing. The sample consisted of 50 households of Thai Muslims of Javanese descent and 10 community scholars. The research instruments were interviews, questionnaires and a 9-point hedonic scale sensory test. The statistics used for analysis were mean and standard deviation. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics.
       The results showed that: 1) Thai Javanese Muslims in Bangkok are descended from Javanese Muslims who migrated to live in Thailand since the reign of King Chulalongkorn. Subsequently, they settled and expanded their households and built a mosque as the center of the mind until it became a community of Thai-Muslims of Javanese descent to the present. 2) Thai-Muslims of Javanese descent also inherit the cultural identity of food trays for using in religious ceremonies to recognize the deceased, the Nasi ambeng, which consists of 7 types of food. These are Opor ayam, Sambel goreng, Perkedel,Serundeng, Karang asem, Tongkol goreng and rice. 3) Prepare Nasi ambeng, a traditional tray recipe that is used in rituals and test results from a total of 5 recipes found that Opor ayam from recipe No 4, Sambel goreng in recipe No.3, Perkedel in recipe No. 2, Serundeng in recipe No.1, Karang asem in recipe No. 4 and the Tongkol goreng in recipe No. 2 were the most accepted.