A few months back, I was skyping my good friend and informant on Islamic culture, Zohaib. Zohaib, who lived in both Pakistan and the US, gives me some of the best advice on cultural difference. Today's warning: The second Eid. Zohaib warns me of a strange and sometimes vomit-inducing holiday where animals are slaughtered on the street and in mosques. "I don't know how it is in Indonesia," Zohaib warns, "but it makes a lot of foreigners sick in Pakistan." Curious, I asked a few Indonesian friends and they confirmed what Zohaib told me. "Makes foreigners sick! It makes me sick! Too much blood," one friend mentioned. I guess its a good thing I don't have an uneasy stomach.
As the day approached, livestock pins popped up every few miles. A lot of times children were looking at the animals with their parents, which made them seem like petting zoos--petting zoos with an ending fit for Ted Nugent.
Then came the day--I was surprised at how little blood I actually saw (The fact I woke up around 2 pm, after the sacrifice had happened, might have had something to do with it) I ended up going over to my friend Agung's house to make sate (the national dish) from the meat slaughtered that morning. At fist, I was given the job of cutting the meat into grillable cubes. Clumsy me, I knocked over a piece of liver into a bag on the floor and Agung's mom had to fish it out. While Agung's mom had washed the meat earlier, no one washed it after. I'm pretty sure this is a cultural difference and not me not realizing I was supposed to wash something (I hope at least haha). Next, I put the flavored cubes onto skewers. This, I was able to do without a hitch.
Then came the Grilling. If you are American, you've probably been to a few summer barbeques. Remember that large charcoal grill? You or one of your parents would light it, close the top until the charcoal glows red, then watch your steak, ribs, or tin-foiled veggies until they are done. Indonesian grilling is a bit more labor intensive: you crouch over tiny floor grills and fan the charcoal until it turns red. When I mean fan, I MEAN FAN: you vigorously flap around whatever piece of plywood or cardboard you have at your disposal and you don't stop until you think its done, realize its not, and then start fanning again. That process is a whole lot more exhausting compared to the American grills with lids that do the same thing. Next, you put the raw sate on, cook it until it's brown on the outside, cover it in more sauce and repeat. After an hour or so of preparing this meal, you finally get to eat it! It was a quite tasty treat and I was able to make some new friends even if it gave me horrible food poisoning the next day.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Kerupuk Blogger
Ever noticed how British people seem to call anything "pudding?" "Pudding" for them can be anything from your iconic tapioca pudding to black and white pudding, which is actually sausage, or spotted dick, which is more like fruit cake. Well Indonesians have a similarly all-encompassing food word: Kerupuk. The word "Kerupuk" refers to a cracker or chip, and while it doesn't quite cover as much as "pudding" does for the British, it covers everything from styrofoamy white things that look like funnel cake, to tiny star-shaped chips with colorful edges. You have certain types with noodles, others with porridge, and some you just snack on when you are bored.
Anyway, I thought Kerupuk would be a good subject to start off my entry on Indonesian food. My favorite Kerupuk is something you often see in Thai restaurants in the US. In the US, you are served these pastel colored chips in a basket as you sit down at a booth in your favorite, air conditioned Thai restaurant. They feel kind of greasy, and when you put one on your tongue, and it sticks to it like its gripping your taste buds with little hands. When you ask the waiter what you are eating, he responds "shrimp chips." funny. They don't taste fishy.
In Indonesia, however, you get these when you sit in an open air Rumah Makan, which is a food stall plus benches, a table, and a tarp around the place to shield you from the sun and advertise their food. This time you get these chips sprinkled on top of your chicken porridge or gado-gado (salad with peanut sauce). If you want more, the seller will give you an aluminum box full of slightly stale ones. As you scoop some porridge out with a chip, they make a satisfying crackle. Out of the noise, mostly honking from motor cycles and whistles from angkot,you hear a little mew next to your feet...it's a stray cat looking for scraps.
At a Rumah Makan or warung (food stall) you'll probably see another common type of Kerupuk is the styrofoamy white ones I mentioned before. These look a little like someone took minature versions of the pool noodles you played with as a kid, but curly-cued and glued together to form an oval. A an undipped bite can sometimes taste like pool noodle too. You usually eat these with soup or noodle-soup. My first experience with these was not pleasant: My host family told me "Try Kerupuk!" I sunk my teeth into a dry one and thought is this really food?. Four months since, I can't eat a spicy noodle soup with out a few of these to soaked up the broth and extinguish the burn.
The last type is one I came across in Tegal:Kerupuk Tahu These are fiberous brown domes of crunchy fried tofu that look a little bit like a cross between quisp and shredded wheat. These are my least favorite type and have definitely contributed to my mounting hatred of tofu. Imagine your average shredded wheat cereal, but instead of being sweet and mild, it's salty and tastes strongly of tofu.I first tried this when my family was snacking around a coffee table when someone offered me one of these. I can't remember my initial reaction to the taste, but I do remember coughing. I'd made the mistake of breathing in while chewing and ended up with a throatful of spikey tofu bits. Since then, I've been a bit more savvy about eating them--or avoiding eating them. Every time someone comes over from Tegal, they offer me these little crackers. I end up taking a bite and hiding the rest until I can get a chance to toss it.
Images of Kerupuk: http://www.google.co.id/images?q=kerupuk&um=1&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=677&tbs=isch:1,isz:m&source=lnt&sa=X&ei=5KgQTbG0A87NrQefvqC9Cw&ved=0CAgQpwU
Anyway, I thought Kerupuk would be a good subject to start off my entry on Indonesian food. My favorite Kerupuk is something you often see in Thai restaurants in the US. In the US, you are served these pastel colored chips in a basket as you sit down at a booth in your favorite, air conditioned Thai restaurant. They feel kind of greasy, and when you put one on your tongue, and it sticks to it like its gripping your taste buds with little hands. When you ask the waiter what you are eating, he responds "shrimp chips." funny. They don't taste fishy.
In Indonesia, however, you get these when you sit in an open air Rumah Makan, which is a food stall plus benches, a table, and a tarp around the place to shield you from the sun and advertise their food. This time you get these chips sprinkled on top of your chicken porridge or gado-gado (salad with peanut sauce). If you want more, the seller will give you an aluminum box full of slightly stale ones. As you scoop some porridge out with a chip, they make a satisfying crackle. Out of the noise, mostly honking from motor cycles and whistles from angkot,you hear a little mew next to your feet...it's a stray cat looking for scraps.
At a Rumah Makan or warung (food stall) you'll probably see another common type of Kerupuk is the styrofoamy white ones I mentioned before. These look a little like someone took minature versions of the pool noodles you played with as a kid, but curly-cued and glued together to form an oval. A an undipped bite can sometimes taste like pool noodle too. You usually eat these with soup or noodle-soup. My first experience with these was not pleasant: My host family told me "Try Kerupuk!" I sunk my teeth into a dry one and thought is this really food?. Four months since, I can't eat a spicy noodle soup with out a few of these to soaked up the broth and extinguish the burn.
The last type is one I came across in Tegal:Kerupuk Tahu These are fiberous brown domes of crunchy fried tofu that look a little bit like a cross between quisp and shredded wheat. These are my least favorite type and have definitely contributed to my mounting hatred of tofu. Imagine your average shredded wheat cereal, but instead of being sweet and mild, it's salty and tastes strongly of tofu.I first tried this when my family was snacking around a coffee table when someone offered me one of these. I can't remember my initial reaction to the taste, but I do remember coughing. I'd made the mistake of breathing in while chewing and ended up with a throatful of spikey tofu bits. Since then, I've been a bit more savvy about eating them--or avoiding eating them. Every time someone comes over from Tegal, they offer me these little crackers. I end up taking a bite and hiding the rest until I can get a chance to toss it.
Images of Kerupuk: http://www.google.co.id/images?q=kerupuk&um=1&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=677&tbs=isch:1,isz:m&source=lnt&sa=X&ei=5KgQTbG0A87NrQefvqC9Cw&ved=0CAgQpwU
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
On the Kereta Api
Some of you who have been on Canadian Rail find Amtrak, for lack of a better word, bad. After all, its not as clean, fast, pretty, or comfortable. It's just not worth the time when you can fly. However, if you rode Indonesian rail, you might rethink Amtrak. "A train in Indonesia is almost like a train in India" Agung told me days before I took economy class to Gunung Padang. Although I've never been on a train in India, I can imagine Agung is right (although no one was riding on the roof). When I boarded at the Ciroyom Station, it was still empty enough to grab a seat on a bench. Two little girls were singing for money, a man was selling snake fruit out of a cart, and a woman wearing bright make up was selling bread out of a basket on her head. The benches were narrow, unpadded, and only lined side on the train. The windows were small and high, which didn't really didn't affect us at the time, but did so later while snapping high-speed photos.
Then came the crowds. I few stops in, people poured in. The benches filled up, and people started standing, sitting on the floor, and just trying their best to occupy what free space there was. There was smoking, sleeping and guitar-playing. There were so many people blocking windows that our car got dark. I also got a sense we were with a lower social class than I usually meet at school or in the malls. Train tickets are very cheap, cheap enough to give poorer people a chance to travel.
About halfway through the trip, we hit some beautiful scenery--rice paddies and mountains--all the green was quite a change from the rusty-red roofs seen all over Bandung. I had to get some photos of this, so I stuck part of my camera out the window to get a few shots...I will attempt to post them here.
Then came the crowds. I few stops in, people poured in. The benches filled up, and people started standing, sitting on the floor, and just trying their best to occupy what free space there was. There was smoking, sleeping and guitar-playing. There were so many people blocking windows that our car got dark. I also got a sense we were with a lower social class than I usually meet at school or in the malls. Train tickets are very cheap, cheap enough to give poorer people a chance to travel.
About halfway through the trip, we hit some beautiful scenery--rice paddies and mountains--all the green was quite a change from the rusty-red roofs seen all over Bandung. I had to get some photos of this, so I stuck part of my camera out the window to get a few shots...I will attempt to post them here.
My Heart Belongs to Griya
Well I thought since I spend so much time here, I should write about my favorite place to go in Bandung--The grocery store. In Michigan, I grew up with high-ceilinged, large-parking-lotted suburban grocery stores in the strip malls that ran along 40-mile-an-hour roads. On the most densely populated island in the world, grocery shopping is a little different. Most grocery stores are little convenience stores like Indomaret. Others, like Griya or Yogya are much larger, but are very cramped, have a larger selection but still quite small compared to American Walmarts, Kmarts, or even Michigan's own Busch's. The largest grocery stores are found in malls. These ones have some of the widest aisles I have ever seen and are big enough to get lost in...at least for a little while. Every mall seems to have their own grocery store with strange escalators built to take carts to the parking lot.
Then there is Griya Arcamanik--my neighborhood grocery store. Since Griya is only a short walk from my house across one of the less-busy streets in Bandung, it was the first place I learned to get to by myself. Since then, I've spent quite a lot of time there. Griya is more cramped and busy than any of the other stores I have been to, the aisles are much too small for carts, so this is a basket-only store. Off to one side: colorful tropical produce in crazy shapes, off to the other: rows of snacks, noodles, drinks and any other processed food items that probably won't give me food poisoning. Upstairs (yes there is an upstairs) is where they keep all the things you don't want to eat like, shampoo, clothing and washing machine soap. Surprisingly enough, they even have a small dressing room with a cloth curtain that sways every time someone passes. I'm afraid that when I am changing someone will run by and cause the curtain to fly open.
The first time I stepped into Griya, it was like an amusement park of food and I was finally tall enough to ride all the rides. The food was colorful, strange, sweet and cheap! I had no parents telling me I shouldn't get too many sweets and the food was so cheap that my two sagging, overfull bags cost only $10! After that, I visited Griya as if a doctor had prescribed a visit a day. I bought spikey pink and green dragon fruit, lugged pounds of juicy, yellow markisa, avoided smelly durian, and puzzled whether to buy green or yellow mangoes in the produce selection. Next, I'd move on to the candy section, shoving candies and chips like Silverqueen, Beng Beng, Choky, Mister Potato, and Yupie into my basket. If you know how much of a Tea addict I am, you'll know how excited I was when I found the bottled tea sectioned. I'm used to a small choice between Sweet Leaf and Arizona in the United States, but in Tea-loving Indonesia, I could buy Teh Kotak, Teh Botol, Frestea, Fruitea, Nutea and Tebs....*passes out from listing my selection*
Upstairs was less exciting. While I was happy to find clothes that cost less than $10, I was a little annoyed that I couldn't seem to find any lotion that didn't turn my skin white. Do ALL Indonesian women really want to look white? Don't some of them like their skin color? After a long search I finally found a bottle of green tea antioxidant lotion without skin whitener. I wasn't so lucky with face moisturizer. The bottle I thought didn't have any whitening agents turned out to have a white tint to it (can you even have a tint to something that is already white?)
Now that I've lived here for several months I've gotten used to Griya, and when I used to smile at my $10 grocery bill, now I am frustrated that I have to fork over THAT MUCH MONEY! I now know how to get around people, (using the sundanese word "punten") but get annoyed that I have to, and the exotic selection of fruit seems so small, without my favorite fruit, Manggis (Mangosteen). Any questions, just leave them in the comment section.
Then there is Griya Arcamanik--my neighborhood grocery store. Since Griya is only a short walk from my house across one of the less-busy streets in Bandung, it was the first place I learned to get to by myself. Since then, I've spent quite a lot of time there. Griya is more cramped and busy than any of the other stores I have been to, the aisles are much too small for carts, so this is a basket-only store. Off to one side: colorful tropical produce in crazy shapes, off to the other: rows of snacks, noodles, drinks and any other processed food items that probably won't give me food poisoning. Upstairs (yes there is an upstairs) is where they keep all the things you don't want to eat like, shampoo, clothing and washing machine soap. Surprisingly enough, they even have a small dressing room with a cloth curtain that sways every time someone passes. I'm afraid that when I am changing someone will run by and cause the curtain to fly open.
The first time I stepped into Griya, it was like an amusement park of food and I was finally tall enough to ride all the rides. The food was colorful, strange, sweet and cheap! I had no parents telling me I shouldn't get too many sweets and the food was so cheap that my two sagging, overfull bags cost only $10! After that, I visited Griya as if a doctor had prescribed a visit a day. I bought spikey pink and green dragon fruit, lugged pounds of juicy, yellow markisa, avoided smelly durian, and puzzled whether to buy green or yellow mangoes in the produce selection. Next, I'd move on to the candy section, shoving candies and chips like Silverqueen, Beng Beng, Choky, Mister Potato, and Yupie into my basket. If you know how much of a Tea addict I am, you'll know how excited I was when I found the bottled tea sectioned. I'm used to a small choice between Sweet Leaf and Arizona in the United States, but in Tea-loving Indonesia, I could buy Teh Kotak, Teh Botol, Frestea, Fruitea, Nutea and Tebs....*passes out from listing my selection*
Upstairs was less exciting. While I was happy to find clothes that cost less than $10, I was a little annoyed that I couldn't seem to find any lotion that didn't turn my skin white. Do ALL Indonesian women really want to look white? Don't some of them like their skin color? After a long search I finally found a bottle of green tea antioxidant lotion without skin whitener. I wasn't so lucky with face moisturizer. The bottle I thought didn't have any whitening agents turned out to have a white tint to it (can you even have a tint to something that is already white?)
Now that I've lived here for several months I've gotten used to Griya, and when I used to smile at my $10 grocery bill, now I am frustrated that I have to fork over THAT MUCH MONEY! I now know how to get around people, (using the sundanese word "punten") but get annoyed that I have to, and the exotic selection of fruit seems so small, without my favorite fruit, Manggis (Mangosteen). Any questions, just leave them in the comment section.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Indonesian Halloween
Halloween is a North American thing. The countries that love it the most all seem to be the US, Canada, and Mexico. Indonesia is not one of them. The only traces of Halloween were a display of Halloween-themed shirts,and an advertisement for a costume party in Jakarta. Anyway, on the the 30th and 31st I had some non-Halloween-related plans. I wanted to go to a Festival celebrating Bali. I went to both the auditions, and the real show, where I saw a costume cooler any mascot costume I have even seen. He came out wearing a mask and dancing the traditional way with shaking hands, but midway through the show he started doing the moon walk. That night I made it my goal (which is yet unfulfilled) to wear that costume because it was just so cool. Anyway, let me get back to my Halloween story.
So I had just come back to ITB after the Bali festival auditions with Agung, and we were planning on seeing the Sherina concert. when I mention that Halloween is tomorrow and that I miss wearing the costumes. Agung points out that there are lots of costumes with his Southern Sulawesi culture club. So we end up turning around and heading into the tiny room for Unit South Sulawesi. Agung picks me out a shiny red shirt with golden embellishments, two golden cuff-bracelets (unfortunately we couldn't find two cuff bracelets that matched), and an uncomfortable statue-of-liberty-type golden crown. He then pulls out a red shirt with a flat-topped hat that is apparently "slavewear". Now remember how Indonesians don't celebrate Halloween? Well, that meant that we were the only ones wearing costumes. We decided to go to a restaurant in Upper Dago (which is at a higher elevation and is beautiful at night since you can look down at all the lights in Bandung). We were being quite crazy and to fit that crazy mood, we cranked up the craziest music on the radio: Radio Dangdut (Dangdut is sort of a cheesy-type of Indonesian pop music with lots of Arabic and Indian influence). When we stopped at a convenience store to buy candy and drinks, I got many more stares than normal. People must have been thinking, "LOOK! a bule! She must be crazy, she's wearing Indonesian clothes!" I just smiled, and laughed with Agung about the situation. At the restaurant, I was able to get mashed potatoes for the first time since I moved here. On the way home I ended up screaming "hello" out the window to all passers-by. While I wasn't able to do any of these things on Halloween, I ended up getting my costume fix for the year on the 30th.
So I had just come back to ITB after the Bali festival auditions with Agung, and we were planning on seeing the Sherina concert. when I mention that Halloween is tomorrow and that I miss wearing the costumes. Agung points out that there are lots of costumes with his Southern Sulawesi culture club. So we end up turning around and heading into the tiny room for Unit South Sulawesi. Agung picks me out a shiny red shirt with golden embellishments, two golden cuff-bracelets (unfortunately we couldn't find two cuff bracelets that matched), and an uncomfortable statue-of-liberty-type golden crown. He then pulls out a red shirt with a flat-topped hat that is apparently "slavewear". Now remember how Indonesians don't celebrate Halloween? Well, that meant that we were the only ones wearing costumes. We decided to go to a restaurant in Upper Dago (which is at a higher elevation and is beautiful at night since you can look down at all the lights in Bandung). We were being quite crazy and to fit that crazy mood, we cranked up the craziest music on the radio: Radio Dangdut (Dangdut is sort of a cheesy-type of Indonesian pop music with lots of Arabic and Indian influence). When we stopped at a convenience store to buy candy and drinks, I got many more stares than normal. People must have been thinking, "LOOK! a bule! She must be crazy, she's wearing Indonesian clothes!" I just smiled, and laughed with Agung about the situation. At the restaurant, I was able to get mashed potatoes for the first time since I moved here. On the way home I ended up screaming "hello" out the window to all passers-by. While I wasn't able to do any of these things on Halloween, I ended up getting my costume fix for the year on the 30th.
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