The food.

I love food. Cooking is one of my favorite hobbies, and I enjoy trying different foods and recipes. Few things make me happier than the grocery store, I scout out restaurants when I travel and I could spend hours (and hundreds of dollars) in a kitchen store. Even if you don’t know me personally, you can imagine how excited I was about the food possibilities on this trip, and I wasn’t disappointed. I took photos of everything served my way, and by the end of the trip, my new friends were sharing recipes and scribbling down the names of foods for me to bring home. Mostly, it was wonderful.

I’ll start with the coffee. You don’t go to Sumatra without having the coffee. It’s hard for me to explain how amazing the coffee was, but I’m going to try. It was richer, darker and thicker than anything I’ve ever tasted here. Robust is a great word for it. It wasn’t bitter, nor did it leave any sort of aftertaste. It was flavorful and delicious. I couldn’t get enough of it. Nothing I’ve had since returning home has come close to the coffee I had while traveling. I feel completely spoiled now. I’ve always enjoyed coffee, but now, it’s grown into a full-fledged love affair. I was able to bring a couple of bags of beans home. I guess I’ll plan my next visit when I run out. 😉

I don’t actually like coconut, but I do enjoy coconut milk so I was open to trying coconut water — especially when I learned I could drink it straight from the coconut itself. It was wonderful and flavorful. It wasn’t overpowering, but had a simple sweetness to it. With the help of a translator, I learned about the aging process and when it’s best to open the coconut for water. Apparently, you can also find this in the States on beach vacations, but this was a new taste to me. I wish I could go crack open a coconut now and drink from it. I also scooped out a portion of the coconut used to make shavings. At this stage in the coconut’s life, it didn’t have the same gritty texture as shaved coconut, and I enjoyed it. I’ll raise my glass of coconut water and toast to trying new things. Now, how long does it take to drive to the beach from here?

A staple on any island is fish, and I learned I prefer mine without bones. I only tried one type of fish while we were there. You can see it here. The flavor was exquisite, but this little guy’s bone structure was so small, I couldn’t enjoy him for the chicklets of bones I had to pick out of my teeth. I decided to pass on the other fish options during the trip, but you can see some of them here. I don’t mind the whole fish lying in front of me, but the open-mouth fried catfish (see previous photo link) was something I couldn’t wrap my brain around eating. I’m told it was delicious, but I wasn’t brave enough for the adventure. Maybe next time. The sauces were my favorite part of the food adventure. I wish I could’ve bottled and brought them home. Such bold flavors full of spice and contrasts. Some things were fire hot, but mostly, they were rich and danced on my tongue. I’m horrible with adjectives, but everything felt alive when I tasted it — like fireworks exploding. I didn’t try a sauce that was bad. The sauces below and a peanut sauce we had another night were my favorites. Exquisite mixtures. The meat was fairly standard, but I did try goat for the first time (see previous photo link). It was comparable to pork. The most common question I’ve been asked is whether I ate dog or cat meat. While is it commonly served in the area, we never had the choice or opportunity to taste it. There’s always next time though…

Easily, the most interesting thing I tried included fermentation. Its name is tapai, and it was essentially a rice mixture soaked in a banana leaf over a period of time. Unfortunately, I didn’t ask detailed questions, so I have no idea what it was mixed with or for how long. It was different, but quite tasty. It’s comparable to a tart red wine flavor, and the rice wasn’t especially soft, but it was somewhat sticky. Tapai, along with resep kue lapis, were the most interesting foods based on appearance alone. Each having a unique taste, I enjoyed both. Most sweet things such as this rice and onde-onde (the round pastry balls in the photo below) are made with palm sugar, which comes from the sap of a sugar palm or coconut palm tree. I’d never eaten this type of sugar before, but it required far less insulin than something similar I’d eat in the States made with processed sugar. I was intrigued because I gave more insulin for the rice than anything else I ate — even the sweet stuff and the sauces. I’m interested in trying it for baking.

I’ll end this post with the dessert. Yes, I said the dessert. I never did find the name for this gem, but we’ll just call it “the best fried banana chocolate cheese thing I’ve ever had.” Check the photo below to understand. It starts with a sliced banana, coated and dropped into a fryer. Then they drizzle something I think was a form of evaporated milk over the fried banana slices, then they add the chocolate sauce. Lastly, they sprinkle shredded white Cheddar cheese for it to melt over the top. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Bananas, chocolate and cheese? Together? But trust me y’all, my Southern taste buds were amazed. The smell rivaled that of a funnel cake, but the taste was far greater. We enjoyed this dessert close to the end of our trip, and I only bolused a small amount. The carbs in the batter and the sugar in the chocolate were the only parts to cause a second guess. My blood sugar didn’t spike, and I brought home some batter mix to attempt this in my own kitchen. I’ll keep you posted.

There were other things we tried and far too many tastes to explain in a blog. There was a bottled tea that was amazing and lemang, which is rice soaked in coconut milk. It was delicious and sweet and by far, my favorite rice we ate. There were soft, tofu/rice wafers with a salty taste I couldn’t stop eating I expected them to be crispy at first bite, but they were somewhat chewy. Tofu was a main staple, and rice was in absolute abundance. We were spoiled by our host family in what they offered. My taste buds may never recover. Of course, there was also legit sushi in Japan. (Airport sushi in Japan is still better than any sushi here. I’m just saying.) And fortunately, I found the spice aisle at the local market so I can experiment in my own kitchen. Let me know when you want to come for dinner!