Street Foods in Bireuen Town : Roti Bakar Amin

Bireuen is a small town in Aceh Province of Indonesia. Although Bireuen is small but it’s pretty well-known town in Indonesia. It has a great historical story, when first Indonesian President Soekarno ever lead the nation from this town to defend our fragile independent in Juni 1948. Indonesia was just declared independent day in August 17, 1945 but the Dutch colonialism imperium was still trying to invade Indonesia. That’s why Bireuen is also called “Kota Juang” - The Town of Battle

And during the rebellion of GAM (Acehnese Independence Movement) was escalating in 2000-2003, Bireuen is the center of battle between GAM soldiers and Indonesia Troops. Fortunately, after Aceh hit by earthquake and tsunami in 2004, GAM and Indonesian Government agreed to cease fire and now we could live peacefully. The economic activities is growing, no more stressful of being in conflict.

And the business activities is also getting better, and now we could easily find new restaurants and coffee shops open. Not only big and famous restaurant but we may discover many street food business in the town, one of the is “Roti Bakar Amin”. So, Roti Bakar is “roasted bread” and Amin is the brand. It’s located at Andalas Street and the business is ran by a Chinese girl. A few days ago, I tried to taste this famous street food.

She doesn’t need modern and sophisticated equipment to roast her breads. The tools are only a charcoal furnace, a metal grill, and a metal grill holder. She just burns the bread with the charcoal. It’s very simple and cheap method, but she did it very well.

She just burned the breads for a few minutes, and she made sure the breads are not totally burnt. I am witnessing the whole process there while waiting for my order. I bought six pieces of roasted breads.

After the breads are roasted well, then she applies the jam. It’s a special homemade jam. It looks so tasty and sweet. There are secret ingredients she use in jam as the taste of the breads is really influenced by the quality of the jam.

When everything is ready, the roasted breads are placed in a food box. And they are ready to take away. When we were there, some consumers were also waiting their breads roasted too. This street foods is for takeaway as there is no seat around there.

“Roti Bakar Amin” is so easy to access, as it’s located at the heart of Bireuen Town, at the end of Andalas Street, at the intersection to Dewi Bioskop Street. When I was there, the traffic was good.

As Bireuen is an old town in Aceh, we may still encounter old buildings and we still find wooden buildings in the heart of town. They were built over 60 years ago when Dutch Colonialism still took over the government in Indonesia.

When at home, I enjoyed the breads for one of iftar menu. I admit that Roti Bakar Amin is so so delicious and tasty. If you like to try it, just visit the stall.