Foodyssey 2017: Indonesia
I was very fortunate and hungry to try different foods this summer. Short and sweet (and savoury), here is an odyssey, a photographic amateur food porn listicle - a foodyssey of the 33 most memorable flavours that summer.
Gado-gado (Ubud, Bali, Indonesia)
I make a mean gado-gado, pictured really blurry above. The only thing to cook is the sweet peanut sauce that coats all the fresh chopped vegetables (I used spinach, cabbage, tomato, and protein sources egg, tofu and shrimp chips). Below is one from a Bali restaurant.
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My travelling partner Michele and I only had gado-gado at the beginning of our trip. When we went from Bali to Bogor it was hard to find a competitively-priced restaurant that served it and we thought it unwise to risk eating uncooked vegetables from a street cart. (By the end of the course, close to half of the 19 people in our field course had experienced some sort of food-borne illness.)
Nasi Gudeg (Jogjakarta, Indonesia)
My all-time favourite Indonesian dish is nasi gudeg. "Nasi" means rice or describes rice-based dishes. "Gudeg" I used to know the translation of a couple months ago; I'm pretty sure it means "jackfruit". The city Jogjakarta and environs in central Java is the home of this regional dish. While gado-gado is universally Indonesian but variant in ingredients and flavour, akin to curry in India, adobo in Philippines and spaghetti in North America, the regional dish of nasi gudeg is not even widespread enough to have been present in the pan-Indonesian restaurant in Bali International Airport. It's typically been served with cooked pork rinds (much like Quebecois oreilles de porc or Filipino chicharon, except soft rather than fried), an egg, and a meat that I want to say is duck but can't be certain. The caramelized jackfruit, marinated in spices and juices, tastes like sweet meat. It could be vegan, but in maritime Southeast Asia you know it's a given there will be meat with every meal.
Chicken Ayam (Bogor, Indonesia)
I wish I could bring you the photos of the sizzling skewers of chicken glistening in peanut sauce and sesame oil. Oh, how the hot plates seethed when the servers clattered this piping hot meal before us. Plain rice was the only canvas needed on which to frame this culinary art; anything more flavourful would have dulled the blend of juicy chicken, spiced and sweet peanut sauce and tangy, nutty dipping sauce. The portion sizes of each skewer was dainty barbeque, but in flavour it was packed with a punch.
Ramadan Ramen place (Bogor, Indonesia)
When Ramadan started in Bogor, Indonesia in late May/early June, my friends and I went to the ramen place in a second-floor food court on Bar Street nearly every day. Almost all the vendors would lock up their ingredients and draw curtains over their stores and carts out of respect for the daytime fasting. The ramen place was our hangout during this time, always ready with bowls of comfort and carbs.
Coconuts, Avocado Chocolate Shakes, Mango Shakes, and Cirsak Juice
Michele and I drank these every couple days in Bali and some more in Bogor, Jogjakarta and Labuan Bajo. Mango shakes were a staple of my time in Bogor; great with fried rice and fried noodles. Also deliciously refreshing but not pictured is cirsak juice and freshly macheted young coconut.
Fresh Market Fish (Labuan Bajo, Indonesia and Bangkok, Thailand)
Michele and I enjoyed some daily caught seafood after the fried noodle and rice dishes of West Java. These fish meals typically cost $5 CAD each with bargaining. Tasty with lemon and pepper sauce and crunchy salt frosting the scales.
Cinnamon from a tea plantation (Gunung Mas, Indonesia)
Nibble nibble. One of my profs is in the background.
White tea (Gunung Mas, Indonesia)
The tea plantation gave us samples that made my insides feel very clean after I drank it. This is apparently one of the most expensive teas in the world. The gift shop sold them for $100 per 345g, but the tour guide living on the plantation sold my other prof a 1 kilo bag for $50. Always go through the back roads.
