The Transformation of Uncle Ba’i Through ‘Sei’

Gasper Tiran, a former meat peddler and an elementary school dropout, has popularized his roasted pork called sei.

KOMPAS/FRANSISKUS PATI HERIN

Gasper Tiran

The fire burning under a rectangle-shaped wood stove, atop which pieces of pork roasted on the grill on Wednesday (25/8/2021). From the side of the stove, Gasper Tiran, 50, covered the meat with the leaves of the kesambi tree (Schleichera oleosa). Gasper, a former meat peddler and an elementary school dropout, has popularized his roasted pork called sei.

Gasper, who goes by Om (uncle) Ba’i, hails from Baun village in West Amarasi district, Kupang regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). Born into a disadvantaged family, he did not finish primary school in the 1980s. His six siblings shared the same fate as school dropouts.

He started working for pig and cattle slaughterers, offering to sell the fresh meat for them. Gasper hung the meat from a wooden pole, carrying it across his shoulders and peddling the meat from hamlet to hamlet. He earned a commission from the meat he sold. After saving up for years, he bought cattle and became a slaughterer. According to his calculations, he would earn bigger profits this way. His capital increased, and he could afford to buy two pigs at a time.

However, business was not always smooth. One day in February 1997, he purchased two pigs for Rp 800,000, on credit as usual. He was determined to settle his debt with the seller the following day, so he had to work hard to sell the meat. But by the evening, he had sold only a few pieces of meat, earning far below his capital.

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He took the meat home and hung it up. Om Ba’i looked at the hanging pieces of meat and thought of the debt he had to repay. Suddenly, he remembered a dream he had.

“In [that] dream, I heard a voice whispering to me, telling me to roast the meat. The voice whispered a detailed process. I’m convinced this whispering voice was God’s. God knows I’m poor,” he recounted.

Om Ba’i was taken aback by his recollection and woke his wife to start preparing the meat right away. He squeezed the meat to drain the blood, and then seasoned it with salt and a variety of spices. He collected the wood of the kesambi, or Malay lac tree, for the fire and its leaves to cover the meat while it cooked.

KOMPAS/FRANSISKUS PATI HERIN

Gasper Tiran

‘Kesambi’ wood

The people who passed in front of Om Ba’i’s house enjoyed the smell of the cooking meat. They stopped by to buy the roasted pork. Some bought more than 5 kilograms. Om Ba’i made Rp 1.8 million from selling the pork. He settled his Rp 800,000 debt and kept the rest as his profit. That marked the beginning of his sei business.

In the culture of the ethnic Timorese, from which Om Ba’i hails, meat is processed in this way only for beef and venison. They call it seik, but the process is different. To make seik, the meat is smoked until it becomes very dry, whereas Om Ba’i had pioneered a business that sold roasted pork named sei.

Om Ba’i decided to switch from peddling fresh meat to selling sei. He experimented with spices to create a special spice blend that made the best sei. The meat is soft, with a piquant flavor and distinct aroma. He roasts the meat over a fire of kesambi wood and covers the meat with kesambi leaves during the roasting process, which contributes to the flavor.

The flavorful sei of Om Ba’i became known as far as the provincial capital of Kupang, around 25 kilometers from Baun. Every weekend, the residents of Kupang flocked to Om Ba’I’s house to savor his sei. Culinary entrepreneurs in Kupang began to look at sei as a new business venture.

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At first, they bought sei directly from Om Ba’ to resell in the city. As the product offered good business prospects, many entrepreneurs started making the product themselves. Over the span of a decade, dozens of eateries in Kupang started making and selling sei, increasing the popularity of the roasted pork.

Nevertheless, the residents of Kupang generally felt unsatisfied until they tasted Om Ba’I’s sei with his special spice blend. Visitors from other regions who want to try sei are also advised to head to Baun village. Om Ba’i limits the sale of his sei to a maximum 1 kg per person.

“We can do business, but we still maintain our Timorese culture [of] sharing a portion together. Nobody who has a lot of money may buy up as large a quantity as they can. We do not allow it,” said Om Ba’i, who likes to chew betel leaves with areca nuts.

KOMPAS/FRANSISKUS PATI HERIN

Se\'i meat processing at Om Ba\'i stall in Baun Village, West Amarasi, Kupang Regency, East Nusa Tenggara on Wednesday (25/8/2021).

Om Ba’i has not opened any branches of his sei business, so sei lovers have to visit him. He produces hundreds of kilograms of sei on weekends that sell out. Om Ba’i has recruited several local villagers to help develop his business by slaughtering cattle and serving customers. He now employs a total of 28 people.

Today, orders come from cities across Indonesia as well as overseas. On 23 Aug., he shipped his product to Singapore. The meat is packaged in airtight plastic bags to prevent the growth of bacteria. This way, the meat lasts longer, for up to three days. When refrigerated, it can last several months.

Government policy

The constraint today is the lack of government attention to animal disease control in NTT.

Om Ba’i now coordinates with a food testing laboratory in Jakarta, which makes it easier to ship his sei to a number of countries. Furthermore, he has trademarked his product with the Law and Human Rights Ministry. Om Ba’i hopes the government continues to increase its support for sei in Indonesia.

While he realizes that his sei business does not fall under a national priority program, many regions in Indonesia depend on swine breeding as a livelihood. In NTT, the swine business is very profitable. Om Ba’i buys pigs from local breeders for the meat he uses to produce his sei.

“The constraint today is the lack of government attention to animal disease control in NTT,” Om Ba’i said.

The director of the Circle of Imagine Society Timor (CIS Timor), Haris Oematan, speaking during a meeting at Om Ba’i’s sei production facility, said that Om Ba’i had become an important figure in the growth of the sei business. Sei, a traditional Timorese technique for processing meat, had entered restaurants to increase the appetite of urbanites. The sei processing technique had also gone global.

For more than 20 years, Om Ba’i, an elementary school dropout, continued to experiment with spices to create a superior spice blend, and he has become irreplaceable in the sei business. It is no exaggeration that Haris, also a native Timorese, has dubbed him the “professor of Timorese sei”. Om Ba’i has metamorphosed completely from a meat peddler into a sei innovator.

Gasper Tiran

Born: Baun, 28 Feb. 1971

Education: Elementary school (withdrawn)

Wife: Gat F. Tiran

This article was translated by Aris Prawira.