Kue Leker and A Monkey Dancer

To find kue lekker on the street in Jakarta isn’t easy, only certain places that have this vendors, but for sure, it’s very easy to find them in Semarang and Solo (cities in Central Java). According to the vendor, Kue Leker is originally from Lamongan (a small city in East Java).

The cart is on the bicycle.

More or less, kue lekker is like crepes/thin pancake.

I’m not sure whether literally kue leker means “Yummy cake”.

In Indonesian language, kue means cake.
Well there’s no word “leker” in Indonesian language, however Indonesia was colonized by Dutch for about 300 years and lekker means yummy/delicious in Dutch. A big possibility that the word that the leker word refers to lekker? ;)

Same ingredients as crepes/pancake.

The mini pan rotates on the fire and the vendor has to spin it manually with a handle tool.

The fire under the mini pan

For topping, you can ask for sugar, chocolate or strawberry condensed milk, cheese, chocolate sprinkles or banana, it's your choice! *wink*

The local bananas.

Fold the kue leker.

In a plastic bag.

Not really recommended actually to put in a plastic bag because kue leker has crispy texture at the beginning when taken out directly from the mini pan, so the yummiest way to eat kue leker is right away :)

Doger Monyet
While I was waiting for the kue leker being made, I saw 4 men with a monkey walking into our direction.


They stopped directly across the kue leker vendor and started to let the monkey to do a performance. 2 men were in charge to play "music" ( hitting small drums), 1 man handled the monkey by pulling and pushing with a long chain then the other man started to walk around with a bowl in order to beg for some money from the people who were watching.

This performance called “Doger monyet” and has been performed more than 100 years in West Java.

Doger (in Sundanese - West Java language) means a female dancer; usually in a people's theater, and Monyet (in Indonesian language) means monkey.

Anyway, looking this kind of performance broke my heart. I feel so sorry for this little monkey that must work for these 4 healthy men.


I donated some money but then in my mind, I got a feeling that the monkey might not receive her "right" of the income share. Just imagine, how much money actually would be earned everyday from this kind of performance, not much that's for sure and need to be divided to those 4 men for their living :(

Good thing, I remembered that the kue leker vendor provides bananas for topping, so I asked him for a banana (of course, the banana wasn’t free).


Look how the little monkey enjoyed her banana. She must be feeling very hungry *sobs*

I wish I could give the little monkey a hug or at least a pat on her head.