A vegetarian can eat like a king in Indonesia. Besides satay, a skewer meat dish, most of the local food is naturally veggie. This is Nasi Pecel, a regular breakfast jam of mine. Featured: rice, boiled vegetables, bean sprouts, peanut sauce. Usually comes with tempe (not pictured) and crispy wonton type things (I had to request the peanut variety, one time I got one with a bunch of tiny fish heads : X ).
GADO GADO. Lunch jam. Salad consisting of some kind of mushy root vegetable, bean sprouts, boiled egg, these compressed rice balls, tofu, peanut sauce. 4/5 stars.
Fried cassava w/ bbq and chili sauce and some c0's. Copped before a repeat viewing of Batman at the local (only) movie theater. When I saw Chronicles of Narnia with my host family I had fries w/ "blueberry sauce", which was actually blue mayonnaise. Would not eat again. Blue mayo: 1/5 stars. Cassava: 3/5 (good movie snack).
THE WORKS. My students threw me a big going away party yesterday and brought a smorgasbord of Indonesian treats. This gem has tempe goreng (fried tempe, TEMPE is an Indonesian innovation and the world thanks them), tofu, rice, mie goreng (fried noodles), sambeng goreng (a spicy mix of stir fried onions, garlic, chilis and tempe), pecel (boiled veggies), bean sprouts, and of course peanut sauce. Served in a piece of brown paper, street food style. 5/5 stars. Fully backed.
And the grand finale...
TERANG BULAN. A little background. Indonesians love cheese. But only in the context of dessert. When I first arrived at the Surabaya airport I stopped in the Dunkin Donuts there out of curiosity and was appalled to find donuts half covered with chocolate frosting, half with shredded cheese. A few weeks later my host family gave me this stuff. Terang bulan means "full moon" in Indonesian. It was described as "cheese chocolate cake." I tried it and was surprised to find that it was pretty good. I tried not to think about what was in it. I bought the fam a few boxes last night as a going away gift for our last dinner together, and watched it get made at the one and only Jointland. It is basically a cake with shredded cheese, CHOCOLATE SPRINKLES, and condensed milk. Still good though. π/5 stars.
And now some final flicks from Malang.
Going away party with the students. Special shout out to the bboys and punx in attendance.
One last rager with the host 'rents. The other day I was visiting with a friend from Surabaya who'd come to Malang for the day. I apologetically told her I had to return home by 10 to be respectful to my family because they probably wanted to go to sleep. I walked in and immediately got handed a BOTTLE of Johnny Walker Red and received instructions to pre-game because they were all going out to a club. This was a Tuesday night. I'll miss them.
12-year-old host bud Edo. Peace brother.
I'm out for the airport. See you in Bali.
Josh
1 comment:
What exactly makes the mayonniase blue?
Post a Comment