Preservation of Apem Cake as a Gastronomic Heritage at the Yogyakarta Palace

Abstract

Yogyakarta is one of the number 2 tourist destinations after Bali, Yogyakarta has various types of tourism, one of which is gastronomic tourism. One of the gastronomic tours that is still being preserved in Yogyakarta is the Ngapem traditional tour which is held at the Yogyakarta Palace once a year before the month of Safar. The month of Safar is the second month in the Islamic or Hijri calendar which means quiet and lonely. However, this tradition had stopped for two years due to the co-19 pandemic, but now the palace is making efforts to re-hold the Ngapem tradition. Ngapem tradition is our gratitude for the blessings that have been given by God Almighty. This study aims to find out the history and philosophy of apem cake for the ngapem tradition in Yogyakarta and to find out the efforts of the palace in preserving apem cake. This research is qualitative research. Methods of data collection by in-depth interviews, observation and documentation to get an overview of the apem cake and the ngapem tradition. The focus of this research is in the Yogyakarta palace. The key informants in this study were cultural figures from the Yogyakarta palace, while additional informants were the Yogyakarta City Tourism Office and gastronomy experts. The results of this study indicate that the apem cake is a legacy of Ki Ageng Gribig, a descendant of Prabu Brawijaya, where he brought the cake back to the island of Java from a trip to the Holy Land. archipelago which then the cake is distributed to the surrounding community. The role of the government in preserving the tradition of ngapem is always to support the palace to hold a ngapem event every safar month or before fasting, where the apem cakes are made into gunungan which are paraded to the Gedhe Kauman Mosque and then distributed to the community after a ritual procession is held.

Keywords: apem cake, gastronomic tourism, preservation, Yogyakarta palace