Indonesian Food

Fresh grilled red snapper surrounded with all the trimmings, a la Padang. In this moderately fancy restaurant on the beach with a great sunset view, this fish costs about $5.

An assortment of delicious Padang dishes

Indonesia is known for it’s great food. Sate, fried chicken and Nasi Goreng tops the list of staple food groups and mobile stands line almost every courner selling one or the other. Padang is also known for it’s great food. Famous for the barrage of small bowls or plates that a single server brings to the table, lined all the way up his or her arms, filled with different items. Fish, chicken, beef, veggies, sauces and cassava chips overwhelm the palate as you strain to try a little of everything. Problem with this though, is that you pay for what you eat. Meaning, if you eat any little bit of it, you pay for the whole thing. This can quickly add up the rupiahs on the bill with a table of curious foreigners.

As for less well-known street food items, I have come to recognize a few.

Martabak: This “Indian food” is more of an experience to watch being prepared than it is to eat. It is made on a base of light dough, tossed around expertly against the tabletop until it is so thin that you can see through it. Then it gets folded into a square and a runny but chunky meaty-vegetable sauce is added in a heaping mess. This is spread out, and the dough is folder over the sauce to make a nice package of goodness. This is grilled with the help of a huge tub of margarine for ten minutes, chopped into twelve bite sized pieces and served with an onion/chili soy sauce to either dip into or pour over your delicious martabak package.

Skotang: Indonesia’s answer to eggnog. This sweet egg-based drink is a late night favorite for street food. To a cup of raw egg, add a table-spoon of condensed milk, a handful of crouton-sized chunks of dry bread, a teaspoon of various spices, including but not limited to, cinnamon and ginger, a heap of tapioca balls and a handful of roasted peanuts. Froth until fluffy and add steaming hot water. I will admit, it sounds awful, but is actually pretty good, but by the end of the cup the tummy starts to turn just a bit.

I am finding that eating out at local restaurants is actually cheaper than buying food at the market. Why this is, I cannot tell, but it suits me just fine, well, most of the time. I frequent one particular restaurant, owned by two middle-aged women, that has four things on the menu to eat and eight different things to drink. The food: Nasi Goreng, Mie Goreng (fried noodles), Spaghetti (think ketchup on soggy noodles), and Kwetiau (Chinese egg noodle stir-fry). The Nasi and Mie are great and cost about a dollar. But, just because it is not on the menu doesn’t mean that they don’t arrange special meals to let us try dishes not usually made in restaurants. One day last week, the lady asked us if we had tried Rendang and was aghast to be told that we hadn’t. She invited us to come three days later to try it the way that she cooked it. The reason we were to come three days later, we found out, was because it takes three days to cook Rendang. Her special twist to this delicious dish of unknown ingredients was to cook it with duck instead of the normal beef. The meal was fantastic and afterward, she would not let us pay for it, as it was her treat to introduce us to local food.

Overall, the food is great. I miss a few staples from back home, but I am learning to replace them with new staples in true Indonesian style. Although, I don’t think I will ever be able to eat spicy fried rice for breakfast as do most locals.

Until next time,

Teron