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DINING OUT / WHAT TO EAT

Indonesian foods is perhaps less well-known than its Asian counterparts in China, Japan or Thailand, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worthy international acclaim. In fact, Indonesian cuisine is so varied that travelers can be assured of finding at least one dish that becomes a lifelong favourite. The country’s strategic and historic location astride the Asian and Pacific trade routes has resulted in mixture of influences evident in many aspects of Indonesian life and culture and particularly in the archipelago’s culinary treassures.

Dining Indonesian style is quite an exotic experience. You can tell from which part of Indonesia the dish come from by the way its served and taste. For example, fried fish or chicken if they have plenty of thick red chilli sauce or are cooked in coconut milk giving it an orangy colour are likely to come from West Sumatra. West Javanese food are usually accompanied by raw vegetable and sambal ( chilli sauce with shrimp paste) served on a stone or clay crusher called cobek. If you detected mild sweetness its most likely to come from Central Java. Some of Indonesian delicious dishes :

• Bubur ayam : Rice porridge topped with delicious chicken bits, fried scallion, sliced cakwei (Chinese fried dough) and thinly sliced celery. Its normally serve for breakfast. · Nasi goreng : Fried rice uses sauteed blend of chilli, garlic, onion, and soy sauce as ingredient. It’s sometime decorated with fried egg and slices of cucumber and tomato. It’s another breakfast dish.
  
• Satay : It is made either of chicken, beef or mutton cut into small cubes pierced into skewers and then grilled on charcoal fire. The sauce made of a blend of chilli, garlic, crushed fried peanut and mixed in with soya sauce. The sauce is poured over chicken or beef satay. Mutton satay is usually served with just spicy soy sauce and garnished with cucumber pickles.
  
• Soto : This is a tasty Indonesian soup. The soup base had yellowish colour while the contents depned on what it’s called. Soto ayam (chicken) contains chicken bits, beansprout, vermicelli, thinly sliced cabbage with thinly sliced fried potato added on top. Soto daging (beef) or soto jeroan (intestine) use the same spices but are served without vegetables. In some part of Indonesia, soup are mixed with coconut milk to make it thicker and spicier.
  
• Gado-gado : The famous gado-gado or the Indonesia vegetable salad is generally well liked by foreign visitors. The type of vegetables varies depending on the taste.
  
• Empal & Bacem : Empal is Indonesian fried beef steak. Boiled with a mixture of coriander, onion, garlic, tamarind, palm sugar and bay leave, then sliced and fried. It has a deliciously distinguished taste. To make Bacem(soyabean cake), the same ingredient is used and the cooking method the same. These are famous Javanese dishes.
  
• Rendang : This West Sumatra speciality is similar to Indian curry minus the tangy ingredients and is cooked until it is dry and tender. Rendang is served in all Padang restaurants.
  
• Gorengan : Gorengan means fries and usually they are pisang (banana).
  
• Nasi Uduk : This is made of rice boiled in coconut milk spiced with corriander, salt and daun salam (similar to bay leave) and then steamed. Usually nasi uduk is served with fried chicken, empal or bacem and garnished with sliced cucumber and daun kemangi (a kind of parsley with certain aromatic smell).
  
• Asinan Betawi : This dish contains lectuce, fried tofu (soyabean cake), fried potato and sliced cucumber mixed with salty, sweet and chilli hot dressing. It is said that having it while you suffer from cold, will help to unblock your stuffy nose. · Kerak telor : It is made of over-night soaked rice mixed in beaten egg and fried in into the shape of an omelete, which is then stuffed with a spoon of spicy dry-fried shredded coconut and folded.
  
• Ketoprak : Ketoprak is usually had for breakfast and sold by cart vendors, It contains rice cake, fried tofu, beansprout, vermicelly and served with peanut sauce similar to gado-gado. Soybean sauce and rice crackers is added on top. Chinese , other asian and western foods can also be found with variety and plentyful in Indonesia.
  

Indonesian has a great variety of fruits with different shape, taste and smell. Some are seasonal, so give them a try whenever possible. Some of the fruits are :

• Belimbing or star fruit : Yellow colour, juicy and crisp, when you slice it the pieces resemble star. Some can be really fresh and sweet but if you are unlucky you can get the real sour ones.
• Duku : The famous duku comes from Palembang, South Sumatra. It is about the size of cherry, has soft skin and the colour is pale brown close to yellow, To open, squeeze it between your thumb and forefinger. The segmented meat inside has a clear colour and taste sweet.
• Durian/duren : Durian is slightly larger than coconut. It has green or yellowish colour with spikes decorating its outer skin. The clusters of meat enclosing the seeds is yellow and firm but soft. What distinguishes it from other fruits is its smell. Some say it smell like hell but taste like heaven. Some sort of chemistry will tie a person with durian, you either like it or die from the smell.
• Jambu Air : There are 3 varieties of jambu air with different colours and tastes but they are all shaped similar to a pear with inward bent petals on top. The red are the smallest, has plenty of juice and freshly sweet. The green are cruchier and less watery. The white one you seldom see them, perhaps because people don’t sell them due to their sour taste.
  
• Jambu lutuk / Jambu biji or guava : This round or oval shaped fruit will turn from green to pale yellow when it ripes. The meat covers a bunch of tiny seeds in the core of the fruit. You don’t need to peel it. It taste similar to a ripe green Australia pear.
  
• Mangga or mango : Mangga comes in different types. The sweetest ones are called mangga harum manis, the skin is dark greenish when ripes and the meat is tender. Mangga golek has a longer shape and is lighter in colour. It is also sweet but has plenty of fibres. Mangga dermayu is rounder, light green, crunchy and has a mildly fresh sour taste to it. Mangga gedong is the smallest type, has orange colour skin and meat plenty of juice.
  
• Manggis or mangoesteen : It is believed that everybody will love this fruit. It is as big as a mandarin orange, with thick purple skin and full of sap. When you open it, the white clusters inside looks tempting, split out the seed inside the meat when you eat.
  
• Nangka or jack fruit : The biggest of all fruit, nangka has a rough skin with plenty of individual meats inside of one nangka. The meats are yellow rest among some sort of fibres.
  
• Rambutan : The name comes from rambut or hair, for sure this fruit is hairy as awig, smaller than lychee and has a similar taste.
  
• Semangka or watermelon. This green skined, round or oval shaped fruit is familiar to people around the world. The meat is either red or yellow, with a very refreshing taste. It is often served as juice.