Indonesia: Eats & Drinks

Spicy and sweet are the favorite flavors of the Indonesians. If you don't ask for no sugar in your coffee or tea it's dripping with sweetness and spicy chili sauce accompanies most savory dishes. Good thing we like to eat rice, as nasi is the staple of most Indonesian cuisine. Nasi campur (pictured) is a favorite street food of ours. Street vendors, usually older Indo ladies, cook up home made individual dishes of fried tofu, vegetables (cucumber, green beans, spinach like greens), chicken and beef and you choose which items you want over steamed rice. It's wrapped in a brown paper, tied with a rubber band and eaten with the right hand (left is used for bathroom business). Nasi goreng is a fried rice dish with chopped carrots and cabbage and topped with a fried egg and shrimp crackers. Indos tend to eat when they are hungry so they eat alone, unlike Westerners who enjoy eating together as a means to bring people together socially. Warungs (Indo restaurants) now dot the cities for tourists more than the locals and in many places serve Brazilian, Chinese and Aussie food as well.

A giant banana pancake is a breakfast favorite and served with fresh fruit such as pineapple and papaya. Super sour yogurt chock full of acidophilus is a treat to have on top of fruit drizzled with a bit of honey. Jaffels are another breakfast and lunch item which is 2 pieces of sweet white bread put in a sandwich press like a panini and filled with savory items like cheese, tomato and avocado or sweet such as bananas and honey. The bread is smothered in butter so it gets crispy and delicious like toast.

Bintang is the beer of choice! A pilsner, it comes in a 22 oz. bottle. Since it is so warm outside, you have to drink it fast. Arak is the local spirit derived from palm trees and usually mixed with fruit juices. All fruit juice is the fruit thrown into the blender, nothing packaged. Lassi is another popular drink that is fruit and yogurt blended together.

The diet staples we are missing is anything with whole grains and good wine! :)