If you’re going to go local, then you need to wash down your nasi goreng with a bottle of teh botol. It’s the local brand of iced tea, and quite nice, though packed with sugar.
The coffee is certainly an experience. There are no new fangled western innovations like filters, the coffee grounds are poured into a glass and topped up with hot water from a thermos. You wait until the grounds have settled at the bottom and then drink, leaving a few mill of water so that you don’t drink the grounds themselves. It’s really nice, if a bit on the gritty side.
Another coffee experience is coffee lewak, reputedly the most expensive coffee in the world. The coffee beans are eaten by a jungle cat, digested, and crapped out. The coffee is then brewed from these beans. Apparently the jungle cat only eats the best beans, therefore only the best beans get brewed for your coffee. Anyway, the coffee costs about £10 (a bewilderingly high amount for a coffee, especially in Indonesia), and is nice. Not much else, just nice.
There are fresh fruit juice stalls everywhere, providing a plentiful supply of Vitamin C, and sugar. One of my favourites is young coconut; there are several versions, the most interesting being the whole young coconut with its top macheted off, and a straw put it- simple and effective. Another notable drink I’ve come across is a combination of avocado and chocolate. I can’t comment any further, I’ve yet to pluck up the courage to try it. I’ve also recently had a grass based drink, involving ice, grass and some sort of jelly. It tasted of grass.
I've tried the avocado "Juice"...it's like a meal, it's so heavy! Not at all thirst quenching as it's too thick to be and is made with condensed milk or something. It's quite nice but I wouldn't have it again unless I felt like having it instead of a meal or something. Hefty drink!
ReplyDeleteHave you come across green forest drink? It's green too but I've no idea what is in it, I've had it once. There's no jelly in it. I think it has some grass in it, part of the flavour reminds me of the wheatgrass I used to have in the green juice I used to make myself.
One thing I'm missing here is salad! I need to make more effort to get hold of it sometimes.