We’re officially sick of eating. OK, that’s not quite true (well it’s not true at all) but boy did we feast this weekend! The resort we were at had wonderful food in buffet style, which we’ve decided is a great way to try lots of things. They tried to have “international” foods there, such as a lasagne which we did NOT eat, and Korean dishes. We went for the Indonesian fare, and tried such things as Soto Betawi (a great coconut-curry soup), various types of baked fish (which they do whole- watch out for scales, bones, and eyeballs), and yummy chicken dishes.
The fruit was amazing, we had pineapple like I’ve never tasted before. It was really sweet with none of the mushiness or acidic taste of Dole canned pineapple. There’s also a yellow melon, which tastes exactly like watermelon but is bright yellow.
They had a station for a traditional Dutch dessert, which consists of little fried dough balls with chocolate sauce and shredded cheese on top. I know it sounds gross but it’s pretty good.
At breakfast I tried what I though was a tiny doughnut with glaze and shredded coconut. Well the “glaze” turned out to be pure butter and the “coconut” was more shredded cheese. Hmmmm, a doughnut with butter and cheese, could they think of a less healthy treat?
We stopped at a restaurant on our way home for lunch, again a delicious buffet, but the people kept ordering up extra dishes, including some fish which tasted like it had just come from the water. We really don’t understand how the people here are not overweight, they ate a ton all weekend long. To give you an idea of how small they are, the size large at stores here is about a size six in the states!
Last but not least is the durian report. This very stinky tropical fruit is not allowed on buses and in most buildings because it is so fragrant. They’re super spiky, and you have to carefully pry them open and pull them into parts. Then there are hunks of flesh that you grab and eat with your hands. It’s hard to describe– very rich and creamy, kind of stringy like a mango, kind of sweet but not overly so, and almost milky in a way. Its flavor is completely unique, and we have been informed that most Westerners and many Indonesians can’t stand it. We’re not so sure how much we like it. Check out the new pictures for a look.
Oh and one last note, the Coke here tastes like Diet Coke and the Diet Coke tastes like regular Coke.
Author: tompepinsky
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Some culinary thoughts from the weekend
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Lido Lakes Resort and Convention Center
… A One-Stop Adventure Hotel …
Despite the shady title, our mini-vacation this weekend was refreshing, cool, and quite worth waylaying our plans of going shopping for goggles this weekend. Lido Lakes are two little lakes in the hills south of Jakarta, about sixty miles or so from the city center. You wouldn’t believe the difference between the weather there and the weather here, plus the difference in air quality. Although the humidity is still high, and the sun beats down enough in the middle of the day to make exercise outside a bit tough, the evenings are downright cool, and the breeze is amazing. In the evening, a long sleeve shirt might have even come in handy had we spent much time outside. Surrounding the complex were rice paddies and tons of teenagers on motorcycles. (Pictures to come, probably tomorrow.)
This place is meant for company retreats and has silly teamwork and trust-building activities available. Luckily, our group just ate, sat around, and ate some more, and from what we can tell got no work done. Some of the younger adults (not including us) played pool non-stop for around six hours, smoking cigarettes and drinking soda. It was fun, and the grounds were great. It was great to observe families, although we suspect that these folks represent the upper end of Jakarta’s upwardly-mobile young professionals. The adults actually seemed delighted to have their children around, even if they did pawn them off on the twenty-something secretaries for the majority of the day. The kids were really cute and did not have to resort to being obnoxious in order to get attention.
As a teaser for tomorrow’s posts, we will give a rundown of our food discoveries for the weekend, which include the infamous durian.
