I had just returned from paradise. A tropical and food paradise. Hence the long pause in my food blogging activity. Jeff and I flew back to our homeland, Indonesia, this past December. I took a break from cooking for about three weeks and we ate out almost every single day. In those days we didn’t eat out, our parents and relatives sent food for us! Our families spoiled us with both home-cooked and street food. Ah…the beauty of returning home.
What else can I tell you here about our culinary travel while visiting our families? Ooo yeah, seafood! The plentiful, never ending seafood! Tons of different kinds. The place is heaven for serious seafood enthusiasts such as yours truly.
In this first blog entry in 2013, I wanted to display a few original dishes from the motherland. Since most of my cooking is heavily influenced by Indonesian taste, especially East Javanese and West Sumatran, I thought I’d share images of the real deal, our favorites, and some street food. They will also serve as my cooking inspiration later on.
Street food: Bubur MaduraKupang Lontong and Sate Kerang. Kupang Lontong is East Javanese traditional and favorite food. (Kupang Lontong is small shellfish with rice cake in a broth cooked with shrimp paste.)Street food: the sweet Bubur Madura (made of rice flour and drizzled with melted palm sugar.)A big time favorite: Nasi Campur (vegetable, hard boiled egg, and Javanese beef steak over white rice)Fried rice and its friendsTraditional tea drink with ginger, lemongrass, lemon, and honey (Ubud, Bali)Roti Bakar or Toast with fruit jamFried tofu with vegetable fillingBeef Soto SellerNasi Madura or Madurese Rice (white rice topped with fried tempeh, beef, vegetable stir fry, hard boiled egg, and a VERY spicy sambal or chili paste)Durian fruit – not my favoriteSalak fruit“To die for”: Grilled prawns“To die for”: Sambal Pencit (young mango in chili paste, a condiment)“To die for”: Grilled seafood (Baronang fish) with the spicy condiments. (Asia Baru Restaurant, Surabaya)A big time favorite: Nasi Pecel (white rice topped with peanut crackers, vegetables, over easy egg, and peanut sauce).Jogjakarta’s Nasi Kucing or cat’s rice (the name refers to the very small portion. I guess cats eat very little). It’s got rice with sambal, fish, and tempeh. Padang, West Sumatra’s cuisine style. All sorts of delicious things…another addition to my “to die for” list.My favorite breakfast menu: Bubur Ayam (chicken porridge topped with fried shallots, green onion, sambal, and a little bit of soy sauce).Fresh fish from the oceanBig clamsFresh SquidRujak Buah (fruit salad with peanut, chili pepper, and palm sugar dressing)More Padang-style cuisineEggplant and everything else in spicy saucePempek Palembang (fish cake served with cucumber cuts, yellow noodle, and vinegar-y sauce)Pempek Palembang (fish cake served with cucumber cuts, yellow noodle, and vinegar-y sauce)
[…] What else can I tell you about my hometown? Ah, yes, Surabaya is a city with good eats. This is the place to be for delicious East Javanese cuisine like sate klopo, sate Madura, soto ayam, and soto Madura. And of course, my must-haves: the thick, spicy, and fragrant petis-based (shrimp paste) dishes: rujak, lontong balap, tahu campur, kupang lontong, sate kerang, and oh so many other. An adjective I’d use to describe East Javanese cuisine would be the same word I’d use to depict its people: bold! The flavors “kick” the taste bud, as my sister-in-law puts it. (Read more about the cuisine and our culinary travel in my: Eating Out in Indonesia.) […]
[…] rice. It is simply to die for, as my sister would say. This sambal and the grilled seafood are my must-haves when I return to my homeland. Here’s what the condiment looks like. Whenever I look at this picture, I experience a […]
A Story Book for Tori 
Everything looks so amazing!! I’m hungry…
[…] What else can I tell you about my hometown? Ah, yes, Surabaya is a city with good eats. This is the place to be for delicious East Javanese cuisine like sate klopo, sate Madura, soto ayam, and soto Madura. And of course, my must-haves: the thick, spicy, and fragrant petis-based (shrimp paste) dishes: rujak, lontong balap, tahu campur, kupang lontong, sate kerang, and oh so many other. An adjective I’d use to describe East Javanese cuisine would be the same word I’d use to depict its people: bold! The flavors “kick” the taste bud, as my sister-in-law puts it. (Read more about the cuisine and our culinary travel in my: Eating Out in Indonesia.) […]
[…] rice. It is simply to die for, as my sister would say. This sambal and the grilled seafood are my must-haves when I return to my homeland. Here’s what the condiment looks like. Whenever I look at this picture, I experience a […]