Jakarta : Eating out is the norm in this part of Asia. It is a kind of habit across Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia. From breakfast to dinner with a lunch in between, locals, especially office goers and workers, prefer picking up freshly cooked meals of their choice from vendors, shacks, push carts and shops across cities. The meals get packed in plastic bags, the kind in which our vegetable vendors deliver veggies to us.
Although the nation is experiencing rampant use of plastic bags, its streets and roads are devoid of plastic litter. Where it goes I don’t know. But you definitely do not see it on the streets or in drains choking them. Roads and streets in and around busy local markets are free of litter even in the morning, before municipal workers troop in to clear garbage kept in plastic bags.
Unfortunately in India we leave tons of litter on footpaths, streets, in the drains and markets assuming it will be cleared by a municipal worker.
Casteism is so deeply ingrained in our DNA that we feel sweeper is duty bound to clear the civic mess left behind by us, the privileged lot.
Manu-Smriti penned in Sanskrit anywhere between 2000 to 2500 years ago by Manu and hammered down the Indian brains since then simply refuses to yield ground to the norms of the developed world.
A fine mix of vegetables (including leafy greens), fried tofu, meats, boiled eggs, fish with an option of sticky rice or noodles completes the meal. Fried fish, beef curries, fried chicken, chicken curries are all time favourites. Grilled chicken, fish, steaks and chicken and beef satay are eternal favourites. Especially in the evening aroma wafting from the grills is intoxicating.
Locals are frugal eaters and for guys like us — healthy eaters not gluttons — portions (size of the dish) are very small. While placing the order a guy like me learns to multiply portions at least by three times quite quickly. May be that is why obese men and women are a rare sight.
Snacking is popular. There is a large variety of fried rice and yeast-dough fritters, fried ripe bananas, fried tofu, gado gado made of fried tofu and tempe (fragmented soya beans). Choice of sweet and salty rice and dough cakes baked and fried are a rage.
Ready to use pastes of ginger, garlic, onion, green chillies, red chillies and peanut and peanut-jaggery powder can be picked up from the market.
Shops sell brown and white chicken eggs, duck eggs which have light blue shells and quail eggs. You can buy them by their weight.
Coffee drinking is common while tea is light and free of milk. Indonesia is not a nation of milk drinkers. It is a land of large size green coconuts and people use its milk for cooking. Majority of gravies are coconut milk based. All vegetable markets have coconut vendors making fresh coconut milk with the help of a grinder on the spot. Each coconut yields more than half a litre of water but surprisingly people prefer to drink bottled water.
1. Street vendors at 6.30 am ready with breakfast.
2. A coconut vendor ready to prepare coconut milk.
3. A vegetable shop also sells a large variety of rice and yeast-dough fritters.
4. Stall selling gado gado wrapped in banana leaf, tofu and fritters.
5. Stall selling eggs of (R to L) ducks, chicken, quail and chicken.
6. Fresh ginger, garlic, onion, chillies and peanut paste stall.
7. Grinding peanut and ginger powder for popular Indonesian chutney.
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