Food, My New Love

So my new love comes in many different forms, but is usually dripping with palm oil, unfortunately. I would like to take the opportunity to write about some of my favorite foods in Indonesia, and Yoyga.

I have very rarely had a good, non-greasy Nasi Goreng (fried rice), in fact, sometimes I have had a Nasi Goreng a la grease, which consists of a few grains of rice and some cabbage floating in tablespoons of oil. The only way to even attempt eating this is to hold your spoon of rice at an angle and wait for excess grease to drip off the side before sticking the gooey mess in your mouth. That’s why, when I found a place DIRECTLY ACROSS FROM MY SCHOOL to eat good nasi goreng, I was almost ecstatic. This place also has air conditioning and delicious drinks, such as a lemon squash, which consists of lemon or lime juice, palm sugar, ice and soda water, which you can mix to your discretion. Delicious! They also have es teler, which is an icey drink with chunks of jackfruit, durian, avocado, rambutan all with a sweet, juicy base of something sugary. But I’ve discovered that I like es campur better (which just means mixed ice) because it has a coconut milk base and other delicious chunks of fruit, coconut, and rice flour dessert items. Yum.

The teachers at my school always bring back oleh-oleh from various trips around Java, Oleh-oleh is like a little present from a trip, expected and highly coveted even after a very short outing, sometimes after a trip to the grocery store! (My guards asked for oleh-oleh after seeing me carry in a bag of groceries, then suggested that I should get some chocolate the next time.) One of the English teachers brought deep-fried tofu to share and I had a piece. It tasted very good but as I was eating a 5-inch squirt of oil escaped while I ate a 2-inch piece! Luckily no one saw that or when I surreptitiously washed my grease-soaked fingers.

Indonesia is the birthplace of tempeh and it figures because I have never had more delicious tempeh. I’ve had it with Gudeg, a dish native to Yogya. This meal consists of chicken cooked in an unripe jackfruit curry with coconut milk and sugar and chilies. Yum.

The other night some friends and I ate a restaurant here that had 4 rooms, each with it’s own music style. We chose the gamelan room. This restaurant had delicious Indian fusion meals served with chutneys in small banana-leaf pouches and delicious banana lassis. Imagine eating all this delicious and well-presented food while listening to soft, Javanese gamelan in a beautiful open restaurant.