food or fossil

I just checked on Jane's blog, she's my housemate in Melbourne as i mentioned before. Jane is writing about recipes for vegetarian. Looking at her blog makes me wants to write something about food.

I was born as partly Bataknese and partly Manadonese and partly Sundanese and partly Palembangnese. Those are 4 ethnics from total hundreds in Indonesia according to Suku bangsa di Indonesia by Wikipedia. That was East meets West. So where were we? Yea, being born as part of those ethnics, my tongue is used to eat varies kind of food. Name it, from sweet/sour/hot/spicy/bitter/nasty-looking food to great-presentation food.

Some Manadonese food are similar to Thai food and some are Dutch influenced, Sundanese similar to Vietnamese, Palembangnese to Japanese. But not all. That was only my opinion from my experiences. But talking about Bataknese food, though i'm actually more Bataknese than the rest, i would honestly say that i don't really know their cuisine. Sorry bout that. Also, being born and grew up in Indonesia's capital city, Jakarta, i got the chance to try on food from (almost) all over the world. So, i won't easily say "yuuck", "ewwww", and "there's no way i'm gonna eat that thing". But not refers to nasty raw meat.

Getting used to eat and cook western food for the last 1 year (i'm talking as an Asian :P), i got used to eat food with 'friendly-presentation' (Except when i cooked some Indonesian food, those are 'not really nice looking' food for some of my friends, haha). So, getting used to it, made me a bit hesitant to eat my home-cooking when I got back to Jakarta, i had a moment where i lost my appetite looking at the food. What a joke! I sometimes couldn't understand Emma, my other housemate, who's very/too picky on eating. But now, i'm with her.

Exactly! that's a fish lips.



To give you the whole story:

I can guarantee you guys, this cooking is soo yummy, especially with hot steam rice. Haha, i smell contradiction already. Well anyways, it's called Ikan Woku (Woku fish, Manadonese). Ingredients are:

• lemon grass
  
• shallots
• bird eye chili
• lime leaves
• spring onion
• lemon basil
• turmeric
• turmeric leaves
• tomato
• ginger

See, it has 10 spices in it :) It's rich and healthy indeed. You can substitute fish with chicken. That would be Ayam Woku (Ayam = chicken). I love it better with chicken. But of course, Ayam Woku won't look this nasty ;)

On that day, Mum didn't forget to make dessert. She made Stove Guava. I don't know what's Stove stand for. So, it's boiled guava with sugar and cinnamon stick. And rum at the end after we fridge them. How does it taste? Classic. Cinnamon syrup and Rum goes well together. Especially when it's cold.

Errr.. to me, it looks a bit like sink wrecked boats.
Or more like fossils?

That was the dessert.
Does that look refreshing?
Where is the "Come, i'm 100% sugar. Have me!" invitation?

So yea, i had my shock moment with my home-food. But, all good now. Like i said, they all yummm. Trust me.

Culinary is a very big business in big cities in Indonesia, even in the world. The thing is, Indonesian has to develope the cooking technique and presentation to make them looks more 'civilised' not like a 'primitive' cooking.

And Mum.. your cooking is yummm. Seriously!