scentio ergo sum

about two weeks ago, i went to this place. i heard about this place for the first time on the same day. it was when i did ngaleut (a sundanese word, can be translated as “walking together with many people from a place to another”) with komunitas aleut for the first time. a friend (who has never ngaleut before, too) invited me to join the community, so there we were : in jalan gempol, bandung. it was just one of some destinations we visited that day.

someone senior in the community told us that in the past, all inhabitants of jalan gempol are employees who work in gedung sate. so i think the area was similar to tamansari area, yogyakarta, an area where all abdi dalem of keraton yogyakarta live.

after we ended our ngaleut activity in taman lansia, cilaki, i and my friend went back to jalan gempol to visit this toko roti gempol, the eldest bakery in town. we’re just curious about the taste of the bread(s) they sell. they sell some varians of breads, noodles, and drinks. i myself bought one portion of a sweet baked bread. the taste’s just so so. i mean, the taste is predictable, just similar to other baked breads  . and the price is rather expensive for me, since i am an ‘anak kosan’ and often buy similar bread in much cheaper price, haha. 

however, jalan gempol reminds me of two things. first, toko roti gempol reminds me of madre, a story written by dee in a book with the same title. the story is about an old bakery inherited to someone without much knowledge about his own family. and the second is muararajeun. it’s an area in bandung where i spent about my first five years in my life, and the neighbourhood’s similar to the one in jalan gempol.