food, food and more food

Perhaps I shouldn't blog when I’m hungry, since it seems that too many of my posts lately have been food related. Can you take one more?

Eating the local food is just the first of many adjustments necessary to living in a foreign, underdeveloped country. So here's my confession - we’ve not learned to love Indonesian food yet. There are several reasons why.

A primary one is the gastronomic “adjustment” the body has to make during the first few weeks/months of living in a third world country. We were informed ahead of time about the food/water/sanitation issues we would face and have made every effort to minimize their impact (thank you Pepto Bismol, Immodium, Pearls, Mega Acidophilus and Levaquin!)

dishes being washed on sidewalk outside a restaurant

A second reason we’ve not yet learned to really appreciate the local cuisine requires another confession. Neither of us is a really what I'd call an “adventuresome” eater. Specifically, we’re squeamish about eyeballs, whiskers, feet, heads and other animal parts that are easily identifiable but unwelcome on our plates. So we tend to play it safe (ok, ok, call us picky!) And thirdly, given that we are without a driver in the evenings, going out to eat at night is just way more trouble than it’s worth. Still, we manage to eat out occasionally so I will talk about that.

Ronnie ordered fried chicken - this was his plate

Dining out here is cheap (by American standards). A large pizza and fruity drink might be $5-6 US. This includes an occasional service charge; tipping is not expected. While this sounds cheap to us, it's not to many Indonesians. Dadang (driver) eats his lunch each day for 10,000 rupiah from the roadside stalls - that's about $1 per meal. Rice, as you would expect, often plays a major role in meals. In restaurants, however, fries can sometimes be substituted.

Nasi goreng (fried rice) is usually very good, although it can sometimes be quite fishy tasting. It is often served with a fried egg on top. The photo below is Nasi Goreng Ayam (fried rice with chicken) and it's the best I've found so far.

I've even learned to make fried rice since being here. It's messy so I cook outside in the wok on the dirty kitchen cook top. I've discovered that the trick to good fried rice is to use cold (at least one day old) rice.

nasi goreng ayam

dumplings with character - Bao Dim Sum at local mall

On the weekends we have ventured out a number of times, always with a recommendation. The standard fare if you’re not going for Indonesian cuisine is pretty much fried chicken served with mixed vegetables and French fries (all from frozen). Nothing to write home about. We have found one pizza place that we like (owned by an Indonesian who has lived in NYC). Overall however, most of our dining out adventures until late have been so-so at best.

As I've mentioned in other posts, we don’t eat off the roadside carts because of the bacteria factor. Even our driver had some serious stomach issues yesterday likely because of something he ate off a cart. The locals eat food (rice, noodles, vegetables) cooked in non-potable tap water. It surprised us to learn this and while we were eating with an American couple we’ve met here, I was pondering aloud why the Indonesians don’t get sick eating food prepared in unsanitary water. The husband casually quipped between bites “it’s because they already have the tapeworm.” That struck us both as pretty funny, but I suppose that our digestive systems can eventually adapt to wherever and however food is prepared.

honeydew, avocado with chocolate and strawberry drinks

But the really enjoyable thing about Indonesian restaurants, even if the food isn’t so great, is that they always offer a large variety of drinks on the menu. These are all non-alcoholic, very delicious and very cheap – usually around $1.50 US. There is usually a long list of fresh fruit based drinks (honeydew, strawberry, blueberry, mango, pineapple, etc) There are also the milk based ones with ice cream, chocolate, coffee, etc. and then there are some that would take some getting used to, such as avocado with chocolate. Often these drinks are a lot more enjoyable than the meal itself! But they are also served over-the-top sweet so I have learned to order them with the sugar on the side (gula di sisi) which comes as a clear simple syrup. We are never sure if the ice is safe (made with bottled water).

Warung Sate Senta

I’m excited that we’ve recently discovered an Indonesian restaurant that serves its chicken sate sans skin (Indonesians apparently love to eat chicken fat) and I’ve eaten there twice in the last week. The nasi goreng (fried rice) is usually a safe bet as well, so if we’re ordering Indonesian this is our standard meal. Of course there are many other Asian cuisines in the city as well. Pictured below is a truly delicious meal we ate at Queens, a very old Chinese (family style) restaurant. The entire menu was in Chinese and we were the only non-Chinese in the entire restaurant, but fortunately our waiter spoke some English so we were able to blow off the menu and just tell him what we wanted. 

Queen's Chinese sweet n' sour chicken

my current favorite - chicken sate with peanut sauce

As our systems adjust and other opportunities present themselves, I’m sure we’ll adopt some favorite foods and restaurants. But in the meantime, we’re eating most of our meals in and making some pretty decent fare using our “campground cooking” style.