Friday, March 12, 2010

A digression about food!

I think about food a lot. I've got a whole list of things to enjoy when I come back to the states: sesame tofu, gelato, salsa, delicious sandwiches with things like sprouts, good cheese, etc etc. I dream about Thailand a lot; the food was fantastic.

Just look at that! Isn't it marvelous! Red curry with tofu, a coconut shake that almost makes you cry with joy. Seriously, the food in Thailand rocks. I was sad to go.

The thing is, food in Indonesia is not that good. It's sad, but true. Indonesians aren't much on spices or herbs, so there's nothing in the way of, well, subtle tastes.

There are a few basic rules with Indonesian cooking:
1. Deep fry everything, from tofu to bananas to whole fish.
2. Seasoning means garlic, salt, msg, or kecap manis (sweet soy sauce).
and most important of all...
3. No meal, breakfast included, is complete without rice.

Indonesians eat rice all the time. They believe you can't be healthy without eating rice. In January, the housekeeper here was on vacation, and a man was brought in to take care of the house. Whenever I cooked something, he would offer me rice. "No, thanks," I'd say. "I'm making spaghetti." But still he offered me rice. Surely I wanted rice with my spaghetti??

Indonesians are all conscious of the fact that rice is their staple grain. People ask me all the time what Americans eat. "Americans eat a lot of things," I tell them. "Well, Indonesians eat rice. What about Americans? Americans eat bread?" "Americans eat everything," I tell them patiently. "Bread, pasta, and, yes, rice." The weirdest thing is that people think that because I'm an American I don't eat rice. I've gotten some surprised reactions when I say that yes, of course I eat rice. Heck, I even like rice.

So, back on topic. Indonesia is a tropical country, full of fresh exotic fruits and stuff like that. Why shouldn't the food be good? Well, the food suffers from the same problem as many things in the country. It starts out ok, and then people do something weird and unnecessary to it, like putting mayo on top of a pizza. You're left thinking, why? Why on earth would you think that was worth doing?

Another example. Lots of people ride motorcycles here. Lots of people ride motorcycles past my house. Additionally, lots of people saw off their mufflers. As a result, motorcycles reach ungodly levels of noise. And it leaves outsiders like me wondering why anyone would ever want that. What are you hoping to attain, motorcycle drivers of Indonesia?

Back to food.

This is gado-gado, which I eat pretty often. It's an assortment of vegetables with peanut sauce, krupuk, and some kecap manis on top (don't worry--there's rice in there too). It's pretty good, generally. The glass you see there, full of murky green-brown stuff, is a drink called Es Cendol.

Es cendol is a sweet, cold drink that tastes exactly like a caramel apple. If you're very hot and thirsty, it's delicious. But they didn't stop at making a cold drink with a tasty flavor. No, the Indonesian iced beverage manufacturers decided to go one step further and add something unnecessary and unpleasant. In this case, green gummies kind of like worms, just the right size for sliding up your straw and slithering down your throat.

Who in their right mind would ruin a perfectly good drink like that? Where's the sense in that?


Well, that's the tragedy of living in Indonesia. You can't eat cha-chas all the time.

3 comments:

Bonnie K. Carenen said...

You have nailed it about Indonesian "cuisine"! There is no need for food here to taste so mediocre, but it does. And such strange gustatory sensibilities: like adding cheese to brownies! And chocolate to avocado shakes! And *fried* hard-boiled eggs! And krupuk, ever! Just...why??

Sas said...

You can definitely eat cha-chas all the time! And I WANT that coconut shake! Best drink EVER!

Anna said...

Haha I actually like the fried hard-boiled eggs sometimes. Depends on the sauce.

But I am firmly against cheese and chocolate. This is not good decision-making, people!