Why the ugliest noodles in the world are an Indonesian delicacy

Insider

Indonesia's mie lethek noodles, or "ugly" noodles, have a distinctive dull grayish color when cooked. We visited a factory that still makes them using 2,000-year-old methods — one of only two such factories left in the country.

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 This dough will soon be transformed

00:04 into the ugliest noodle in the world.

00:07 Or at least that's what locals here

00:09 in the village of Bantul in Indonesia call them.

00:13 Mi lettuk means ugly or dull noodles,

00:16 mostly because of their gray color when cooked.

00:19 This is one of the only two factories in the world

00:23 that still make them using methods

00:25 that can be traced back more than 2000 years.

00:29 And there's nothing simple about how they're made.

00:32 It takes days of grinding, stomping, cooking, and drying.

00:37 And if the factory doesn't sell them all in 10 days,

00:40 it could lose a whole batch.

00:43 So what makes these noodles so special?

00:45 We visited the Mi Lettuk Zapu Surpana factory

00:51 to see how this family business is still standing.

00:58 The cassava root that gives the noodles their color

01:01 and taste is also toxic when eaten raw.

01:04 So the flour needs to be soaked for two days.

01:09 The flour is then ground beneath a large stone

01:22 for about an hour.

01:23 It's so heavy it needs to be pulled by an ox.

01:28 Every few minutes, workers scrape it clean

01:31 of any sticky flour, while Salijo continues

01:34 to shovel the flour into the path of the stone.

01:37 He also adds water to the mix to get the right consistency.

01:42 At 70 years old, he is a master,

01:51 well accustomed to the physical demands of the job.

01:56 He presses down with his feet to firm up the dough.

01:58 He can feel when it's ready.

02:01 It should be strong and not fall apart.

02:04 When it hardens, he cuts the dough into eight-inch cubes

02:16 with a special knife called a sabit.

02:18 He then places them on a two-by-three-foot bamboo tray.

02:25 As with most tools, workers make them by hand.

02:28 The trays are heavy, and with a little help,

02:35 Salijo puts them in a steam oven.

02:37 After 90 minutes, they start to look for signs

02:43 the dough is ready.

02:44 While it's in the oven, the dough rises,

02:53 but it's still not ready for shaping into noodles.

02:56 It needs to go back to be ground one more time.

03:00 The factory has three oxen.

03:04 They are old, so while one works, the other two rest.

03:08 Mukido oversees the whole process,

03:17 making sure the dough doesn't fall apart.

03:20 (speaking in foreign language)

03:24 He's been working here for 20 years.

03:30 The factory opened here in the small town of Bantul

03:43 in the 1970s, providing jobs to a community

03:46 otherwise dominated by farming.

03:49 (speaking in foreign language)

03:52 Salijo has been at the factory for 10 years.

03:55 He collects the ground dough into bags,

03:58 each weighing 40 pounds.

04:00 Finally, it's time to shape the noodles.

04:05 This is the only step that isn't done by hand.

04:09 Each lump of dough is enough to make 100 noodles,

04:14 with each string around two feet long.

04:18 This machine was brought in 20 years ago,

04:21 but it often breaks, bringing production to a halt.

04:24 Workers spread the noodles on bamboo trays

04:38 and make sure they aren't tangled.

04:40 (speaking in foreign language)

04:47 (upbeat music)

04:50 The noodles cook in the oven again for about one hour.

04:55 The doors don't seal properly,

04:59 so workers use rags to plug any gaps

05:02 and stop the steam from escaping.

05:04 Then they're hung to cool for two hours.

05:10 Each batch makes around one ton of noodles.

05:14 (upbeat music)

05:17 In the morning, workers separate them by hand

05:21 into portion sizes.

05:23 (speaking in foreign language)

05:27 Workers lay the noodles on large bamboo trays.

05:39 The factory has 100 of them,

05:41 and each one can be filled with up to 45 portions.

05:44 The drying process takes about a day,

05:52 but if it rains or it's too humid,

05:54 there's a risk the whole batch could be ruined,

05:58 so someone always has to be on watch.

06:01 (speaking in foreign language)

06:08 (upbeat music)

06:10 That's because the noodles have no preservatives,

06:18 so if they don't dry fast enough, they could go bad.

06:21 (speaking in foreign language)

06:36 Juri Murianto inherited this factory

06:38 from his uncle 23 years ago.

06:40 (speaking in foreign language)

06:46 Chinese settlers and traders

06:52 likely brought noodles to Indonesia back in 2000 BC,

06:56 and with them came many of their methods.

06:59 Locals here say the first noodle factory in Bantul

07:03 was opened in the 1940s by a Muslim preacher from Yemen.

07:07 They started making them with cassava

07:09 because his wife, a Chinese migrant,

07:11 noticed it was abundant in the region.

07:14 But the rapid rise of mass-produced instant noodles

07:18 in the 1970s pushed traditional manufacturers

07:21 out of the market.

07:23 Today, Indonesia is one of the largest producers

07:26 and consumers of instant noodles.

07:31 Juri's factory is one of just two left in the country

07:34 that make mie letek the traditional way.

07:36 Once the noodles are dry,

07:40 workers pack them into 10-pound bags.

07:42 Each one will sell for around $5.

07:45 That's half the price of Indomie,

07:49 Indonesia's most popular brand of instant noodles.

07:52 Buyers like Dalia come directly to the factory

07:58 to select bundles of noodles to sell at the market.

08:00 The broken strands are reused in the dough

08:04 or fed to the oxen.

08:06 The Bantul district has become well-known for its noodles.

08:19 They're even fit for a president.

08:22 Barack Obama tried mie letek

08:24 during a visit to the region in 2017.

08:27 (people chattering)

08:30 Chef Harianto is one of the oldest mie letek vendors

08:47 in the area.

08:48 His father started the business before Harianto was born,

08:52 and he still follows the same recipes today,

08:56 cooking the noodles in chicken broth with vegetables.

08:59 Harianto uses the same charcoal stove his father used.

09:14 He says it gives a powerful aroma and better taste.

09:18 (people chattering)

09:21 The noodles are chewy in texture and plain in taste.

09:38 Almost all of Harianto's customers are local.

09:42 Despite costing half the price,

09:46 mie letek can't compete with the big instant noodle

09:49 manufacturers in Indonesia.

09:51 And Judy isn't sure how long he'll be able

09:54 to keep his business,

09:56 one of just two remaining in the country, alive.

10:00 His children have moved to larger cities

10:02 and have little interest in taking on the business.

10:06 (speaking in foreign language)

10:10, (laughing) (speaking in foreign language)

10:12 (laughing)

10:37 Meanwhile, Mukido is more upbeat about the future.

10:40 (speaking in foreign language)

10:45, (speaking in foreign language)

10:48 (speaking in foreign language)

10:52 (speaking in foreign language)

10:56, (speaking in foreign language)

11:01 (upbeat music)

11:03 (speaking in foreign language)

11:07 (upbeat music)

11:11 (upbeat music)

11:13 (upbeat music)

11:16 [MUSIC]

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