This kind of meal has become my standby - good old Indomie, which you can actually buy in Australia (I even found some in my small country town a few years ago!!). They are basically 2-minute noodles, but along with the seasoning they come with kecap manis and sambal (sweet soy sauce and chilli sauce) as well as a little packet of fried onions to sprinkle over the top. I make them into a more complete meal by cooking them with carrots and greens (usually kangkung or another type of greenery), and adding bean sprouts right at the end. A new dish to add to my list of comfort food, and so easy to make! If you do want to make your 2minute noodles more interesting, it's worth trying to get a packet of fried onions - they use a small variety, not regular brown onions - and I've found them before in Asian supermarkets near home.
I've mentioned baso before (meatball soup) but have since learnt more about it. The word 'baso' (or bakso in other parts of Indonesia) actually refers to the meatballs, not the soup. Below is the baso komplit (no prizes for guessing the meaning of komplit!) which had regular beef baso, baso ayam (chicken), baso goreng (fried) and one more that I've forgotten! Also in the picture is the free dessert one of the others got with their meal - containing cubes of white bread, ice cream, chocolate sprinkles, fresh coconut at strawberry syrup!!!
This is lotek - from the gado-gado family (which is basically a vegetable salad with peanut suace, but has variations across Indonesia) with blanched kangkung, bean sprouts, string beans, cabbage etc. plus peanut sauce. Also krupuk (prawn crackers). I haven't found a good translation of kangkung yet (I have never seen it in Australia) but it's an asian green which is very good!
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More kangkung! I needed some vegetables, so ordered kangkung spesial - which contained kangkung, quail eggs, beef, garlic, chill and tomato. Aside from having to pick out the larger pieces of chilli, I really enjoyed this. I'm getting better at spicy food - this was just on the right side of the line between 'tasty' and 'my mouth is on fire!'
Pempek has been a great discovery - it has a great story behind the if you want to check out wikipedia - it's made from fish and tapioca. This one is pempek kapal selam (submarine pempek!!!) with a whole egg inside, which is fried and then served with a runny sauce called kuah cuko (made from palm sugar, chilli pepper, garlic, vinegar, salt added to boiling water). I found the sauce a bit spicy, but not so much I couldn't enjoy the pempek, which doesn't have a very strong taste, but the texture is chewy and the whole thing just works.
Pempek is used in a wide variety of ways, and comes in lots of different shapes. This is lenggang - an omelette made with slices of pempek and also served with kuah cuko.
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Soto ayam - comfort food! There are variations on this in different regions, but chicken soup will always be a good bet. To eat this, you spoon some of the meat/veggies onto the rice, then eat. Chill optional ;-)
Another kind of soup is soto Bandung - made with beef, daikon radish and kacang - which I thought meant peanut, but obviously applies to a variety of nuts and beans. Again, this is eaten by combining the solid parts of the soup with rice.
Now this soup is really yummy - sorry mum and dad, it even rivals your slow cooked veggie soup! It's called sop buntut (ox tail soup), although it's made from beef tails, not ox. We had the original version - with gorgeous meat falling of the bones into a tasty broth with veggies - and sop buntut goreng - where the meat is fried with a slightly sweet sauce and served fired oxtail, served with the veggie soup.
Whew! Nearly there. I'll finish with something to make you laugh: a 30cm hot dog. Ridiculous, I know. Hotdogs are actually fairly common here, usually called 'sosis' (say it out loud!) and often cooked in different ways, not just in a bread roll. I have trouble calling them sausages, or real food, though!
This is lotek - from the gado-gado family (which is basically a vegetable salad with peanut suace, but has variations across Indonesia) with blanched kangkung, bean sprouts, string beans, cabbage etc. plus peanut sauce. Also krupuk (prawn crackers). I haven't found a good translation of kangkung yet (I have never seen it in Australia) but it's an asian green which is very good!
.JPG)
More kangkung! I needed some vegetables, so ordered kangkung spesial - which contained kangkung, quail eggs, beef, garlic, chill and tomato. Aside from having to pick out the larger pieces of chilli, I really enjoyed this. I'm getting better at spicy food - this was just on the right side of the line between 'tasty' and 'my mouth is on fire!'
Pempek has been a great discovery - it has a great story behind the if you want to check out wikipedia - it's made from fish and tapioca. This one is pempek kapal selam (submarine pempek!!!) with a whole egg inside, which is fried and then served with a runny sauce called kuah cuko (made from palm sugar, chilli pepper, garlic, vinegar, salt added to boiling water). I found the sauce a bit spicy, but not so much I couldn't enjoy the pempek, which doesn't have a very strong taste, but the texture is chewy and the whole thing just works.
Pempek is used in a wide variety of ways, and comes in lots of different shapes. This is lenggang - an omelette made with slices of pempek and also served with kuah cuko.
.JPG)
Soto ayam - comfort food! There are variations on this in different regions, but chicken soup will always be a good bet. To eat this, you spoon some of the meat/veggies onto the rice, then eat. Chill optional ;-)
Another kind of soup is soto Bandung - made with beef, daikon radish and kacang - which I thought meant peanut, but obviously applies to a variety of nuts and beans. Again, this is eaten by combining the solid parts of the soup with rice.
Now this soup is really yummy - sorry mum and dad, it even rivals your slow cooked veggie soup! It's called sop buntut (ox tail soup), although it's made from beef tails, not ox. We had the original version - with gorgeous meat falling of the bones into a tasty broth with veggies - and sop buntut goreng - where the meat is fried with a slightly sweet sauce and served fired oxtail, served with the veggie soup.
Whew! Nearly there. I'll finish with something to make you laugh: a 30cm hot dog. Ridiculous, I know. Hotdogs are actually fairly common here, usually called 'sosis' (say it out loud!) and often cooked in different ways, not just in a bread roll. I have trouble calling them sausages, or real food, though!
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