Selamat makan!

I’m pretty sure my Indonesian mom’s favourite thing to say to me is, “Makan, makan!” (“Eat, eat!”). And while I’ve never really been a fan of rice, I have to admit that it’s grown on me in the last six weeks. This is probably a good thing since Indonesians don’t consider a meal (even breakfast) complete without a serving of nasi. Every family has a rice cooker full of rice on the counter at all times and I've actually had to explain myself here if I don’t eat rice with a meal (which isn’t very often).

Meals in Indonesia are enjoyed either with a spoon (and sometimes a fork if something tricky like noodles are involved) or else with your right hand, packing rice and pieces of meat and vegetables together in a little ball and popping it into your mouth. It sounds a lot easier to master than it really is. And while hanging out in a restaurant or cafe with friends is a favourite past time here, families don’t necessarily dine together in the house. My parents used to make it a point that we all sat down around the kitchen table for dinner together, but here it’s really common to eat separately at home. 

There really isn’t much of a difference between what’s on the menu for breakfast, lunch or dinner and sure, eating rice three times a day gets a little monotonous - but the variety of ingredients used in all of the accompanying dishes is more than enough to keep things interesting. Ginger, garlic, peanut sauce, soy sauce, coconut milk, and red or green chilies (in generous amounts) are main flavours and are usually mixed with eggs, tofu, chicken, beef, or fish and boiled vegetables. There’s usually a side of tempe (fried slabs of soybean loaf), tofu and krupuk (a crunchy snack that’s even sold in bags car-to-car on the evening drive home) on the table at my house, which comes in handy when my mouth starts to feel like it’s on fire.

Restaurants here vary from carts pulled behind a bicycle, to little shacks on the side of the road, to fancy Western-looking places with fountains and nice bathrooms. But regardless of the atmosphere, it’s usually pretty hard to find something on the menu for more than two or three dollars. Walk into any restaurant here and you’re almost guaranteed to find nasi goeng (fried rice with egg and chicken), mie goreng (fried noodles with meat and vegetables), and ayam goreng (friend chicken), all served with a generous serving of rice. Indonesians usually douse all of these dishes in sambal, a spicy red chili sauce, or Margit’s favourite, kecup manis (sweet soy sauce).

Freshly made sambal with fried egg, tofu and tempe. And of course, rice.

Other restaurant favourites:
Sate - Skewers of chicken, beef or goat, BBQed and served with peanut sauce
Bakso - Meatballs in chicken broth
Capcay - Vegetables in a thick Chinese sauce
Pecel - Vegetables in a peanut sauce
Pangsit - Noodle soup

And for dessert...
Pisang goreng - Grilled banana with chocolate, cheese and sweet condensed milk
Serabi - Indonesian pancake with your choice of toppings including chocolate, cheese, sweet milk, peanuts and strawberry sauce

Indonesians are pretty big fans of fast food and the Western chains have definitely figured that out. You can find KFC, A&W, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts in most cities, with slight changes to the menu. One of my favourite quotes from Zoe, the Puetro Rican intern here, about sums it up: If you can find rice in Pizza Hut, you can find rice anywhere. Soup, spaghetti, and fried chicken with a side of rice and scrambled eggs is on the menu board at McDonalds, and you have to special order at KFC if you want anything besides rice as a side.

Despite the climate, I haven’t been so impressed by the fresh fruit and vegetables I’ve found here (actually, raw vegetables are almost never served) but I definitely love the tropical fruit - papaya, jack fruit, snake fruit, durian, sirsat, guava, mango, and the best bananas I’ve ever tasted in my life. Fresh fruit juices are on the menu at every restaurant, usually for 40 or 50 cents, as is hot or iced sweet jasmine tea.

Being a coffee addict and living on an island synonymous with great coffee, I’ve found I actually have to seek out a good cup since most people prefer jasmine tea and places usually serve instant coffee rather than the good stuff. My host mom offers to make me a great cup of coffee once in a while, brewing it the traditional way (hot water poured over finely ground coffee beans and sweetening it with a ton of sugar). I still have kopi luwak on my list of things to drink (yes, I know what it’s made from and yes, I still want to try it). One cup of the “world’s most expensive coffee” here is equal to the cost of a large latte at Starbucks back home, so why not?

But all of this food blogging is making me hungry – lunch time! Selamat makan!