not just any lemonade

the perfect refreshing drink for a sunny afternoon:



es jeruk nipis, not just any lemonade



the second best drink that comes from indonesia (next to coffee) is lemonade. but not just any lemonade, lemonade made from tiny limes, called jeruk nipis, seen in the images below. something about these limes gives the lemonade an amazing flavor, and it is oh so refreshing!



hard to come by in canada, but you can often find these tiny limes in asian grocery stores, slightly overpriced. i was stoked to find that a vietnamese store near my house sells them! along with my favorite cartons of coconut milk (surprisingly hard to find preservative free coconut milk here).

k-meals: french food bliss in jogjakarta (aka 3 days of creme brulee)

traveling to indonesia, i expected to eat my share (and more) of amazing indonesian food. the city of jogjakarta let me down in that way. gorgeous city as it is, i enjoyed very little of their traditional food. instead, i happened upon french food, and a creme brulee that lured me back 3 days in a row.

but this story of love & creme brulee has a bittersweet aspect to it. the day my sister and i randomly found this restaurant, i took some beautiful photos, and i was excited about them (i'm a modest person, excitement about my own work that i admit to publicly doesn't come often). and then i accidentally deleted all of them. its kind of pathetic to admit to, but my grief was such that you would have thought i had gone through a painful loss.

but i got over it, and i dragged my sister back so i could take more photos (and eat more creme brulee and drink more coffee) i will briefly divulge my thoughts on the restaurant, and then i will let the photos below do the rest of the talking.


from what the very friendly servers at k-meals told me, i think this restaurant has only been open for a few months. there are a few owners, but one of the owners is also the head chef there. the kitchen is visible and the friendly french chef will greet you (& welcome you back) and if there's a lull in the kitchen later, he comes by your table to ask about your meal.

you can tell that these people love their food - each plate is beautifully presented. even the simple dessert of ice cream is garnished in a way that makes it look like a complicated, high-class dessert. you can find out a bit more about k-meals on their website.

the menu is in french & english. they seem to have a special of the day that wasn't on the menu, but otherwise they specialise in wood-fired pizza (tasty). the drinks we had (orange juice and some weird mint & green tea creamy concoction) were so-so, but the coffee was quite delicious. but if you do go, make sure you specify that you want kopi java. the second day i ordered the same coffee from the menu, but i got an americano, and although it was lovely, the java coffee is just so much better. and if you're in java, drink coffee from java for goodness sake.

but the best part of k-meals is their desserts. the creme brulee uses vanilla beans from java, so you know its good, fresh stuff. the top layer of sugar is thick & crusty & yummy and the inside is creamy but not too sweet. i came back for this stuff 3 times, ok? it was good. the $3 canadian i paid for it didn't hurt either. the other dessert i tried was the kappuccino mousse "chocolate mousse in a cappuccino way" :) it was perfect. twice.

soto ayam

soto ayam is a yellow, spicy chicken soup served with thin noodles (vermicilli) and a variety of other toppings. the broth is flavorful and quite tangy, from the lemongrass and lime leaves used.

while i was in indonesia last week, i was shown how to properly make it. i've made it before back in canada, but i used a pre-made paste, so that doesn't really count. the process is quite time-consuming, so this is not a meal you would cook very often. maybe more of a special occasion or for when guests come over. the lady who taught me says she never makes it just for her and her husband.





ingredients to go into the paste:
- turmeric (kunyit)
- ginger (jahe)
- red onion (bawang merah)
- garlic (bawang putih)
- candlenut (kemiri)



blend the paste with some water. fry the paste with a few stalks of lemongrass (serai) and lime leaves (daun jeruk).



add water to the fried paste and boil the chicken in the soup. once the chicken is cooked, remove, drain, fry, and shred. keep the soup.

now for the soup toppings:



1. slice potatoes really thin, and deep fry.








2. deep fry emping (a chip made from a dried, smashed nut)

3. chop up cabbage:



4. soak bean sprouts (tauge) in water

5. soak the vermicilli in water

6. chop up green onion (daun bawang)

7. boil eggs, peel and chop:



8. slice little limes (jeruk nipis) - hard to find these in canada

9. chop up celery leaves

10. put fried shallots in a bowl

11. chilli paste (i don't use this, i'm a wimp when it comes to spice)

put noodles, and everything else in your bowl and ladle soup on top. ta da!

eating seafood on top of the sea

eating seafood on top of the sea

setting: (because sometimes your surroundings when you are eating affect your eating experience) indonesia. ruralish – outskirts of the city. seaside. platform on top of the sea – not floating, but on stilts.

i wouldn’t normally say ‘i LOVE seafood, i’ll eat ANYTHING seafood.’ but sometimes in life, when you are served a table FULL of food that is only (save for one plate of vegetables (sayur) and one bowl of kimchee, you eat, almost literally, EVERYTHING seafood.



for the first time in my life, i willingly ate something new and foreign to me. i don’t even know what it is called. i’m pretty sure we were all calling it ‘the thing that comes out of the shell.’ the plate of shells looked like a decorative piece, not something for ingesting into my body. luckily someone at our table had eaten it before and knew what to do. step one: take a toothpick, and insert it into the shell’s opening. step two: poke the thing inside the shell with the toothpick and gingerly, carefully pull it out. step three: eat the weird squishy-looking substance that you just pulled out of the shell. apparently there was a sauce for dipping but most of us noticed that after the meal was finished. but i was creative and started dipping it into the chilli-crab sauce. i can even proudly say: “i ate more of the shell things than my dad.” actually, i can do better than that. i can say: “i was braver than my dad, because he didn’t even TRY any.” hah! take that, world. i’m pretty sure my dad has eaten monkey brains before. or pig intestines or something - both things i would avoid at all costs. i would probably even risk offending someone before i would eat either of those (sad to say but its true). BUT, this time, i tried something my dad didn’t want to try. i feel pretty good about that. (insert smug face here.)

the best part of the meal was the chili crab. sadly, those crabs were pretty small, and i only was able to eat one leg, since there were others at the table who ate a liiittle bit more than their share. ah well. kids will be kids i guess. i’m also a very amateur crab leg cracker. i didn’t know how to bite that sucker properly. so i was pretty slow at eating it. sigh.



we also ate fried fish, prawns, deepfried battered squid. the prawns were served whole, shell, head, and all. i never knew that some people ate those things whole. i’m a bit of a wimp and i left the head (i gave it to someone else) and the shell behind. if i want something crunchy to eat, i will eat chips, thank you. i’m a texture person. i’m surprised i ate 3 of those shell things.





the next best part of the meal was the coconut drink. seriously. in terms of aesthetics alone, the coconut makes the perfect drink. luckily it tastes good too. and it’s fun, because you get to scrape the coconut flesh out of the coconut once finished drinking. so out of the whole deal you get: refreshment, fun, and good looks.



all in all, it was a good evening. except for the shortage of chili crab. :)