Category: Food

Glutton in Yogyakarta and Solo

Nasi gudeg Jogja

Subtitle: Makan-makan in Indonesia

I love eating and food in Indonesia sure was good. I’m not sure how much weight I’ve gained during this trip. Hopefully, all the calorie intake has been canceled out by all the walking with my heavy backpack.

While we spent two nights in Solo, most of the eating was done in Yogyakarta. Here are some of the highlights of the food we ate.

Nasi Gudeg


Yogyakarta is famous for nasi gudeg which has cooked young jackfruit inside. (I had thought that the dark cubes of jackfruit was meat. I’m easy to bluff when it comes to food.)

We only had gudeg twice during this trip. The first was not as good as the last I had. The last dish was right before our plane back in a shop just around the corner of the road leading out of the airport. The dish was fragrant with coconut milk and the sides were really flavorful. Yummy!
Continue reading “Glutton in Yogyakarta and Solo” →

10 things I love about central Java, Indonesia

Finally, my one week trip in the two cities of central Java–Yogyakarta and Solo–has come to an end. These seven days seem longer than they are and that’s always a good thing to feel when you’re having fun.

While my memory of Jogja and Solo is fresh, here are 10 things I’ll miss after leaving Indonesia. Items are ranked in priority and each deserve their own blog post.

1. Food

Feast at Mie Nusantara

Food in Indonesia is cheap and good. Most noodle dishes that we had didn’t cost more than S$2. Their noodles are good and the rice dishes are yummy. I even had siomay which we thought were siewmai posing as meatballs.

Surprisingly, we had Peranakan food for two (three?) times during our trip. We accidentally stumbled upon Kedai Tiga Nyonya while being lost. The avocado juice there made me think I went to heaven. Those were the more expensive meals that we had.

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What does fugu tastes like?

The short answer to the question: Rubber.

Long answer: like rubber when raw but like silk when cooked.

I happened to have the chance to eat fugu during my trip to Japan. Before I tried it out, I imagined them to taste like salmon–melt in your mouth and smooth with OMEGA 3 fat.

So I decided during our Japan trip last October (has it been that long?!) that my mom and I will try fugu and hopefully not die from it.

We went to a shop in Osaka, a recommendation from a my super awesome Hong Kong-published guidebook which I borrowed from the library. (Yes, I’m not an anti-guidebook traveller because sometimes it saves time and energy.)

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Glutton in Kuala Lumpur

My motto is: “Live to eat.” I would say I have a good relationship with food despite what my mom says about the size of my thighs.

During my trip to Kuala Lumpur some weeks ago, I had the chance to indulge my appetite and my ever expanding waist with good food. Really good (and cheap) food.

Did you know, Malaysia was voted one of the Top 3 food destinations by Lonely Planet readers?

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Peeling Chinese water chestnuts easily

Did you know that you can peel water chestnuts easily with a fruit peeler? Well, I didn’t and only found out after I peeled at least 9 using my finger nails and a small knife.

This is how it all began. I was tasked to peel the water chestnuts for this Chinese New Year eve’s reunion dinner. My mom gave me instructions but I forgot them when she left.

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Munching through 7 of Lonely Planet’s Top 10 food destinations

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/blog/2011/12/15/food-travel-whats-your-favourite-destination/?affil=twit

Recently we asked our Twitter followers the question: which destinations have you (or will you) visit primarily for the food? As you would expect, hundreds of foodies replied with their favourite places to get their fill. The clear winner? Italy.

1. Italy

2. Thailand

3. Malaysia

4. Singapore

5. Japan

6. India

7. Spain

8. Vietnam

9. China

10. France

Guess what, I’ve been to 7 out of the Top 10. I’ll head over to Italy, Thailand and India soon (fingers crossed).

I love food and I live to eat.

Here are some of my favorite food I’ve nommed during my trips.

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What Mark Zuckerberg ate in Vietnam

http://jezebel.com/5871398/mark-zuckerbergs-amazing-race-luxury-vacation-revealed

The trip ended with more hiking, where Zuck didn’t even need to hunt down local wildlife to kill and eat, because his entire trip was restricted to the finest vegetarian fare in the 3rd world:

Dinners

Grilled Fillet With Coconut With Barbecue Sauce
Fried Tofu With Tomato Sauce
Fried Egg With Sapa Mushroom
Sapa trout carpaccio with shallot and lemon oil
Grilled pork and apple skewers with Sapa honey (Don’t touch that, Mark!)
Sapa mushroom risotto
Eggplant, tomato and onion gratin

Lunch
Cucumber Salad
Fried Shrimp vegetable
Fried Channa Maculata Fish
Potato with Cheese

Desserts
Baked pear and cinnamon crumble
Creme caramel
Gingerbread pudding
Rice pudding with Strawberry sauce

All this food talk is making me hungry! Good news is I’ll be in Vietnam twice next year, bad news is, I won’t be able to eat all that un-Vietnamese food the billionare CEO of Facebook ate.

NOM.