Surabaya street jingles: Bakpao Mega Jaya

Above photo: A Bakpao Mega Jaya vendor. Credit: Bryan Barcelona on X.

Every year I usually follow my wife back to her hometown of Surabaya, Indonesia for about a week to spend time with my mother-in-law.

The time in Surabaya is quite laid back, mostly just chilling in the house and going to nice local restaurants or eateries that my mother-in-law will plan for. One of the songs or jingles that became stuck in my head during my time in Surabaya is by Bakpao Mega Jaya as I would hear the cart go past the house:

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The song goes:** **“Coba-cobalah, bakpao yang halal, bakpao Mega Jaya enak rasanya. Halal, lho!” Translation: “Try it, the halal bakpao, Mega Jaya’s bakpao, is delicious. It’s halal, you know!”

Source: https://mojok.co/terminal/bakpao-mega-jaya-bakpao-legendaris-dengan-jingle-yang-unik/amp/

What is Bakpao?

Bakpao means “meat bun” (肉包) in the Chinese Hokkien dialect, so it is used directly in the same name and format in the Indonesian context. Usually the meat filling is made of pork meat but because Indonesia is a predominantly Muslim country, there are local variants of bakpao made of chicken or beef fillings. In the case of Bakpao Mega Jaya, the lyrics in the jingle reassures customers that the product is halal (twice) and delicious.

I do not know Bahasa Indonesia but the jingle has stuck in my head, even when I am back in Singapore! Talk about good mindshare and my curiosity about the jingle is also why I wrote this post.

According to this blog post from June 2025, a Bakpao Mega Jaya employee named Mas Subri explained that the business was started in 2012 with a vision to provide delicious, halal, and affordable bakpao for everyone. The business initially started in Surakarta (Solo) and its surrounding areas but now has expanded to other cities such as Surabaya (where I heard the catchy jingle).

Bakpao Mega Jaya’s bakpao flavours include: chicken, chocolate, strawberry, and green bean. Besides steamed bakpao, they also sell fried bakpao. I guess this is like the Chinese mantou (another type of bun, usually with no filling) which has steamed and deep fried versions (for dipping into chilli crab sauce from Singapore).

Jingles and memory

Speaking of jingles, another memorable childhood jingle when I was growing up in Singapore in the 1990s comes to mind:

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The song had a cute cartoon chicken flying from Japan to Singapore (looking back now, it is quite amusing for a chicken to able to fly this far), which then explored landmarks in the country such as Sentosa Island and even the Sir Stamford Raffles statue ‘turning’ his head to look at the Myojo chicken.

In the fast moving world of social media today, catchy songs or jingles related to products or brands appear to be outdated or irrelevant but they somehow managed to be etched in my memory, sometimes even from decades back. Nostalgia is at play here and nostalgia helps in brand building, and that eventually translates to sales and creating business.

Thanks for reading! Can you recall any catchy jingles or songs from the past where you grew up?

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