Roast Pork 'Bipang Ambawang' Sales Surge After Jokowi's Viral Speech

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Restaurant owner who sells the typical West Kalimantan dish ‘bipang ambawang’ or roasted pork, Juniarto, said that there is over 100 percent increase in demand for the aforementioned dish, which his restaurant sells as a main course, after it went viral in social media.

It went viral mainly because President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo somewhat mentioned the dish in one of his recent official state speeches as he talked about sending gifts for loved ones to overcome the ban on mass exodus or ‘mudik.’

Jokowi gave the speech in the context of promoting the ‘made-in-Indonesia pride Day’ or BBI which is a program to endorse local culinary products in ecommerce platforms. 

“But we are unable to meet every order as we have a limited number of stoves,” said Juniarto to Tempo on Monday, May 10.

The limited number of stoves in his restaurant located in the 23rd kilometer of Trans Kalimantan poses an actual problem as the process of cooking the roasted pork would need over 9 hours to make. Out of the regular 3-4 orders on a normal day, he faces the challenge to cook 12 a day after the dish became a trending topic in Twitter on Saturday, May 8.

Another problem he faces in preparing this dish also comes from the main ingredient itself as the ‘bipang ambawang’ exclusively uses suckling pig aged between 3-5 months which are directly bought from local Kalimantan residents who raise small groups of pigs at home. 

“We maintain our quality and only use pigs from villagers who raise the pigs themselves,” said Juniarto who now faces orders from West Papua up to Jakarta. 

FRANCISCA CHRISTY ROSANA