UNAIR NEWS – Hundreds of street food sellers line up in Karangmenjangan street from the afternoon. The buyers crowd the street vendors. Congested traffic and crowds are a common sight in Ramadan.
Inexpensive with a large portion, apparently, is one reason people are willing to jostle in the crowds. UNAIR students are also seen in the street to look for ta’jil while waiting for Maghrib.
Umi Mayadah, a student from Jakarta, expressed her admiration to Karangmenjangan street. She considered Karangmenjangan street be a food point that provides various needs of students around campus B UNAIR.
“There is so many kinds of food that they will make us difficult to choose. Karmen is the center of snacks during Ramadan around campus B UNAIR. We can find any kinds of food from fries, fruit, soup, meatballs, satay, to the food we don’t have in Jakarta,” she stated.
Umi said that there are differences in the culture of having iftar feast between Jakarta and Surabaya. In Jakarta, most people choose to eat snacks when breaking fast while in Surabaya, people prefer to eat heavy food.
“If in Jakarta it is rarely direct to eat heavily. The problem is that people eat lightly like rice, cakes, and vegetables. “People here are different, most of them immediately eat heavily directly like rice and meatballs together,” explained the student who likes to buy martabak and ice fruit on the Karangmenjangan market.
Meanwhile, Agus Wisanto, one of the satay sellers in Karangmenjangan street, said that there are more than 200 street vendors in the Karangmenjangan Market. The merchants are given freedom in selling their food. They only need to pay 2 thousand rupiah for the sanitation fee.
Sometimes students do not have to pay as it is already paid by street vendors.
Furthermore, the man who is often called Cak Wit was impressed with this year’s Ramadan. For seventeen years selling satay, the month of Ramadan always brings him blessings with an increasing number of buyers.
“Yes, Alhamdulillah, all street vendors here are always excited to welcome Ramadan because the business is great. Every year there is always an improvement, though sometimes not much,” Cak Wit said. (*)
Author: Fariz Ilham Rosyidi
Editor: Feri Fenoria Rifa’i
