Oleh-oleh from Salatiga and other Salatiga, Indonesia Shopping Tips

Name of Shop: Oom Tan, and others

Do as the Indonesians do and bring home some 'oleh-oleh' from Salatiga. Oleh-oleh litterally means souvenir, but usually the oleh-oleh Indonesians bring home consists of sweets and snacks. Every town has its specialties, Salatiga has at least three:

What To Buy: 1. Enting-enting gepuk, sweets made from peanuts and palm sugar.
2. Abon, dried and shredded meat. The original abon is made of cows meat, but nowadays there is chicken abon too. Make sure you get the flavour you prefer: there is sweet abon and spicy abon. Abon can be eaten as part of a rice dish, but you can also put it in a sandwich.
3. Dendeng, dried cows meat conserved with sugar. Can be eaten as bought or fried with a rice dish.

What To Pay: Depends of the size of the package, on average Rp 20,000 per item.

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Theme: Food and Drink
Directions: There is a cluster of oleh-oleh shops near the eastern end of Jalan Sukowati, where this street joins Jalan Sudirman. Close to Hotel Beringin and the chinese temple (klenteng).
On the corner is Oom Tan's.

Name of Shop: Rawa Pening area

Google for "enceng gondok" and you will find several suppliers of enceng gondok products. What are they made of and where does the material come from?
These products are made of water hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes) stalks, and a main source of the material is Rawa Pening lake north of Salatiga. Eichornia crassipes is a water plant native to South Amercia, but is has spread around the world. Aquatic plants scientists call it the worst aquatic plant in the world, because it tends to clog up lakes and rivers. So it was a big nuisance in Rawa Pening lake, until the natives learnt to put its stalks to good use. Now enceng gondok (as water hyacinth is called in Indonesian) is harvested, the stalks are dried in the sun and all kinds of products woven from them: from sandals to baskets, from chairs to flowerpots.
Actually most of the dried stalks are transported to Jambu hamlet at Bantul south of Yogyakarta, where most manufacturing takes place. But along the Salatiga-Semarang road near Rawa Pening one can find a few shops offering locally made enceng gondong products.

What To Buy: Baskets, sandals, chairs, etc.

What To Pay: A set of four terrace chairs may go for just Rp 400,000!

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Theme: Local Craft
Directions: Rawa Pening recreation area on the Salatiga-Bawen road.