Food for Thought

In my first days in Amurang, I would get fed up by how often teachers, neighbors and strangers wanted me to talk about food. Are you hungry? Did you have bread or rice for breakfast? Do you like Indonesian food? What kind of fish do you like--kelelawar, cakalang, mujair, nike? What kind of bananas do you like--king, shoe, milk, horn?

The truth was, food was just a blur then. All fish tasted the same, all bananas tasted the same (who even knew there were different types of bananas?) and every meal tasted like a slight variation on the white-rice-with-indeterminate-meat theme. There were only two flavors: spicy and fried. I ate everything, and I liked it fine, but it wasn't something I wanted to chat about.

One of the first things that struck me was how ugly an Indonesian plate of food looked. I drank glasses of coconut juice with what appeared to be flakes of skin floating on the surface; lumpy meat dishes made me want to invent words, Roald Dahl-style, like glopswosh or mulg; Obama's much-hyped bakso was several slick gray meatballs bobbing about in transclucent broth. Even a dish I liked right away, gado-gado, was a mound of pale vegetables slathered with a chunky brown sludge that reminded me of...well, I'm sure you can imagine. I'd been expecting to leave behind the luxury of American supermarkets and restaurants, but it didn't occur to me that an attractively presented meal was a luxury too.

Chicken--fried.

Fish--spicy.

Fruit salad--tasteless.

Then I tried pisang goreng--fried banana--and everything changed. A banana dipped in flour and sugar, fried in frighteningly bubbly oil, and served hot with grated cheese, chocolate sauce, chillies or alone may not sound like a treat, but baby, you have no idea what you're missing. Its outside is light and crunchy, and just greasy enough to make your lips taste soft and smooth. Its inside is sweet and fresh and perfect. I haven't met an ETA yet who hasn't fallen in love with pisang goreng. They're sold everywhere, from  roadside shacks to the classiest Balinese restuarants. Indonesians eat them frequently and at unexpected times, like for breakfast or as a pre-dinner snack.

For me, pisang goreng was the gateway to understanding Indonesian food. Not only did I learn to distinguish between the varieties of banana (king and milk are best; shoe is mealy, horn is bland), but I finally had a sincere and enthusiastic answer to the question, Do you like Indonesian food? Yes! Pisang goreng--despite its misshapen, warty looks--is my absolute favorite.

Humble but delicious pisang goreng.

One of my 12th graders drops a batter-soaked banana into oil.

After the fried banana breakthrough, I started noticing how interesting, and even beautiful, Indonesian food can be--it's all just so much more unpredictable than food in the States. There are the baskets of colorful vegetables at the downtown market, and the roadside fruit stands, with their bright melons and oranges that dangle like Christmas tree bulbs.

On a road in Makassar, South Sulawesi.

In Amurang's traditional outdoor market.

And there was the meal a lovely Indonesian family treated me to where they carefully included Western food, along with giant, grimacing fish, to make me feel comfortable.

Fresh-water fish from Lake Tondano and good ol' french fries.

One of the most remarkable things about local Minahasan culture is people's inclination to eat anything that moves. Snake, bat, rat and dog are the favorites. These foods are special, so you don't see them in your average mom-and-pop warung, but they've been offered to me at plenty of parties and weddings. So far I've only had the courage to try bat; I get physically and morally queasy when I think about eating dog with cute little Louisa May barking outside my door. But some friends and I did have the courage to visit the traditional animal market in Tomohon, about an hour from my town. We spent most of the time yelping, squealing, shrieking, and trying not to get spattered by pig blood. But what we saw was certainly food worth talking about. (Note: if you have a weak stomach, are a vegetarian and/or love dogs, some of these photos may be disturbing.)

Left to right: ETAs Melina and Nicole, bat, rat, two butchers, snake, me.

Holding a rat and trying not to puke or scream.

 

The market's most unsettling sight: dog meat on top of a cage of sedated dogs.

There is one Indonesian term for dog the animal--anjing--and another for dog the food--rintek wuuk or fine hair (but everyone just says RW).

While I still have to swallow my impatience every time a teacher asks if I've eaten breakfast, I've realized that maybe food fascinates Indonesians for good reason. They keep some dogs as pets and serve others at celebrations. They spend half an hour at lunch methodically picking out the bones of a fresh-water fish. And the fish they're eating was probably caught early that morning by their cousin or neighbor or cousin's neighbor. Indonesians are close to--and intimately, enthusiastically wrapped up in--food, in a way that I've never known. Ester, my closest Indonesian friend, explained it to me like this: "Other people eat to live. We live to eat."