Background

As a coastal city, Cirebon’s main industry is fishery. Its products include Terasi (shrimp paste), petis krupuk udang (shrimp crackers) and various salted fish. Cirebon is famous for its good quality salted fishes, such as jambal roti, juhi (salted cuttlefish), rebon and ebi (dried small shrimp).

These products are often sought by visitors, especially Indonesian domestic tourists and visitors from other cities, as oleh-oleh (food souvenirs/gift).

Alternatively, it could be derived from the Sundanese words “ci” (water or river) and “rebon” (“shrimp”).

Being on the border of Sundanese (i.e., West Java) and Javanese (i.e., Central Java) cultural regions, many of Cirebon’s residents speak a dialect that is a mix of Sundanese and Javanese, known as Jawareh. It is thought that the word “Cirebon” derives from the Javanese word, caruban, meaning “mixed”: a reference to the city’s mix of Sundanese, Javanese, Chinese, and Arabic cultural elements.

Idea & Concept

Sembilan Udang (i.e Nine Shrimp) is shrimp paste products originated from Cirebon, a port city on the north coast of the Indonesian island of Java.

Mega Mendung is a batik textiles from Cirebon, especially Cirebon batik with vivid colors with motifs and patterns, that demonstrate Chinese and local influences, are well known. Chinese influences can be seen in Cirebon’s culture, most notably the Cirebon batik Mega mendung pattern that resembles Chinese cloud imagery.