Attempts at making the local food and drink

So far, so unsuccessful. Not bad, just a little bit bland. I’ve tried cooking a tempe curry, a fish curry, a long bean dish, fried noodles and rice, and some sambal. The sambal was great, really sweet and spicy and very easy to make. The curries have involved making pastes (similar to the stuff that Thai curries use), which have smelled really good, but not translated into a tasty end product. Not sure if the pastes are to blame, or what I do to them afterwards. The fried noodles and rice have been pretty good, but then all I do is fill them full of kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), and that makes anything taste good.

I’ve also tried making juices/smoothies, and, damn it, it isn’t as simple as throwing a load of fruit into a blender. I started by not peeling or deseeding the fruit. That was a mistake, which I knew even as I was doing it; the results were very fibrous and full of ball bearing like pips. Before anyone scoffs too loudly, I only did this with fruit that can sometimes have edible skin, such as guava.

I’ve now taken to peeling and deseeding the fruit, but the results are only marginally better. In search of an answer I took to observing and questioning the local juice makers. The solution is as unsurprising as it is obvious: loads (and loads) of sugar. So much for the natural sweetness of nature’s bounty!

What to drink (non-booze)

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.