the food

it's time to reflect on food ;) makan, in indonesian :)

indonesian makan is really good!! but very very repetitive! in parts of the country it's fried rice for breakfast lunch and dinner, sometimes without anything but fried onion and chillis added to it! if you're lucky you might get a variation... fried noodles!

then if you are super lucky you get nasi campur. and nasi campur is usually a delight :) it's a plate of rice to which you add a bit of everything - the restaurants or food stals have a variety of bowls with vegetables, fried fish, fried and boiled eggs, tofu, tempe, meat, and always some sort of soup. you point at the ones you like and then enjoy the yummy meal :) in some parts of indonesia this can be really great!! in the poorer areas it's often just rice, a green vegetable and 2 fried eggs. the best nasi campur is in bali where you sometimes have 20 different bowls to choose from :) and you always get toasted peanuts on top :) and prawn chips :)

in sumatra, java and bali the food is really great and there is MUCH more choice! lots of vegetarian options and really different tastes :) in lombok in the touristy places the food was excellent and in the non touristy countryside it was the basic fried fare and somehow close to tetebatu a family managed to feed me 11 eggs in one day!!! (at some point of my life i didn't eat eggs remember?! so that was quite something!)

anyway, everywhere around here it's the kingdom of carbs!! as in the last 3 years i have not been eating much carbs at all... i see this as a way to even things out and find the balance for carbs! i know a certain chinese medicine doctor who'll be very happy to know i'm eating rice and noodles every day now :)

so far, ubud in bali is the place where you can find anything around here - from carrot cake with sugar topping to great sashimi and morning croissants and korean energy juices and spirulina cakes and lasagna and skippy peanut butter and illy coffee and great apple pie... and i have to say i miss it! i have been craving a sandwich for about a month now!! i dream of bread... dark rye bread... and if while in sumatra, java and bali i couldn't face the sight of another pancake... now that i've been in 2 islands where they don't know what pancakes are... i crave them! and somehow i even miss those displays of chocolate bars in british shops... hmm, would love a sneakers bar right now :) i haven't seen one in the whole trip!

i'm actually quite hungry at the moment so i'll stop writing about food and go eat some ;) :) padang makansar it will be!