Street Food

How can I talk about visiting Indonesia without saying anything about their street hawkers and their food. At almost every street corner, along every main street, side street, any street, you can find food stalls selling a variety of deliciously tempting eats. You really must try them to appreciate the food culture that is uniquely Indonesian.

Nasi Uduk, just simply steamed rice with a selection of different vegetables piled on top, is usually available in the mornings. Many Indonesians start their day with Nasi Uduk. It is quite delicious, with the vegetables cooked with various spices.

 

Ketoprak is a mix of compressed rice, tauhu, potato and beehoon in a peanut based gravy topped with chopped cucumber, cabbage and keropok. It is slightly sweet because of the kechap and quite delicious.

 

 

Mie Ayam, something very similar to our wanton noodles, is simply noodle topped with minced chicken served with meatballs soup. You can add your own chilli sauce, kechap and a special sauce to taste. Makes a simple meal if you don't know what else to eat.

 

What I really enjoy eating is the cut fruits dipped in a spicy sauce and some salt. It is almost like fruit rojak, except that there is no prawn paste involved. The fruits are always so fresh and sweet, combined with the slightly pedas sauce, makes it a joy to eat. So refreshing and thirst quenching. Definitely a favourite of mine.

 

Another favourite of mine is the otak-otak bakar. It is small fish paste wrapped in banana leaves and cooked over a charcoal grill. Then it is eaten with a peanut gravy which is very similar to satay gravy, slightly sweet and spicy. Absolutely delicious.

 

 

You can also find stalls that sell fried foods, such as tapioca, spring rolls, tauhu, vegetable patties etc. These are very popular with the locals.

After all the great food ideas, you will certainly get thirsty. Drink stalls are everywhere. You can buy bottled water, sample nice cool coconut juice or sugarcane drink. But I would rather settle for an ice cold Es Cendol.

 

In this glass contains cendol, pulut hitam (black glutinous rice), fermented tapioca, avocado, coconut sugar syrup, shaved iced and topped with chocolate sauce. An absolutely delicious concoction. I simple love it!

Taman Mini / Monas

My friend and I wanted to visit Taman Mini Indonesia, the Beautiful Indonesia Miniature Park, so we tried to book a half day tour. But the hotel we stay at does not have the tour and so we decided to travel there on our own via the Busway.

We managed to find our way there, taking the TransJakarta busway to Kg Rambutan, then taking the mini van No. 40 to drop directly in front of the entrance to Taman Mini.

 

Taman Mini was not really what I had expected. It is not miniature at all. However, it was quite fun. They have the skylift which gives you a birdseye view of the entire park. Then there is a train ride around the park which brings you up close to the attractions.

We even had a fun ride in bumper cars, where we knocked each other over and over again. Been some time since I last played bumper cars. Then we cam across this beautiful chariot.

After spending half a day at Taman Mini, we returned to Jakarta and went to visit the famous National Monument, Monas.

I always love walking in the park where Monas is located. Always so may things happening there. So many little makeshift stalls selling souvenirs, t-shirts and toys. Cannot resist but to buy some to bring home as gifts.

Glodok and Pasar Tanah Abang

It is really quite easy to get around Jakarta and the surroundings. Their Busway system is confusing but quite efficient in getting you where you want to go. You just need to pay 3,500 rp and you can then transfer from one bus shelter to another via sheltered walkways without ever leaving the Busway system.

On this Sunday morning, there was some sort of walkathon going on. And the number of people involved, all along the road as far as the eyes can see.

We visited a few markets today. First there was the Pasar Tanah Abang which is within walking distance from our hotel, about 15 minutes slow walk. It is actually a building, almost like an old shopping mall, which sells clothes, men, women, children. But what is more interesting are the roadside stalls around the market.

 

 

There are stalls selling all kinds of fruits, shoes, toys, food, goats and even birds. However, the one thing they didn't have and which I was looking for, was keropok.

So we took the Busway to Glodok, which is supposed to be the "Chinatown" and searched there. Here the Pasar Glodok is even more interesting. The goods available here include Chinese medicine, Chinese artefacts, a whole selection of electronic goods, a wet market in the basement, all kinds of candies and biscuits and even rosewood furniture. I found what I was looking for, prawn keropok, fish keropok, emping keropok and even sugared dried prawns.

Once again, the streets surrounding the "pasar" were more interesting. It is a street market where you can get almost anything. Golden nail clippers, stuffed toys, traditional combs, pots and pans, slippers etc etc etc. Things I have not seen for a long time were also available there. It was definitely worth our time to travel there. All kinds of street food was also available. Unfortunately, I was too engrossed in looking and shopping that I did not take many photos of the place. Next time I will remember to photograph more to show you what I mean.

Weekend Getaway

I spent almost the entire day travelling, on an airplane, in a taxi and in a mini-van but mostly on the TransJakarta bus system. I flew into Jakarta on an early morning Air Asia flight and took a taxi from the airport to the hotel near Sarinah. The flight took about 1.5 hours and surprisingly the taxi took only 30 minutes to get me to the hotel.

The rest of the day, I spent travelling to visit my friend's family in Bogor. The journey was really long (about 3 hours) and took several transfers on the TransJakarta system. By the time we reached the house in the Ra Al Kompleks, it was almost 4pm. The one interesting fact is that the current Indonesian President has is residence just across the road from the kompleks, which is like an estate of government housing.

Along the way, there were so many roadside stalls selling my favourite fruit, I could not resist but to ask my friend to bring me out on his motorbike. We had a feast.

Followed by cooling off with some of the sweetest coconut juice I have ever tasted. No sugar syrup needed.

After that it was the trip back to Jakarta and the hotel. Being a Saturday night, the traffic jam was unbelievable. Took us more than 4 hours to get back.