Sometimes living here has felt like making spice paste… hard work but overall worth the effort. (random segue I know :p)
So I’m back in Jakarta for a few days before flying out to Malaysia (if I don’t fly out soon, they’ll kick me out because my visa will be canceled). I don’t have a home here anymore, so it’s very different from when I arrived with 40 kg of luggage in September 2008 and went straight into the loving arms of a very posh hotel and straight into working on a newspaper that didn’t actually exist yet back then.
It’s nice to be back. I’d much rather the sofa of a good friend for a bed than a hotel and that’s one of the best things about visiting a place that used to be your home — seeing the friends and people who made you fall in love with the place and that make you (and will continue to make you) miss it like hell.
But this time, I very much feel like a visitor, just passing through. And I’m ok with that.
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Konro at Daeng Tata
I was first introduced to Mamink Daeng Tata by one of my coworkers, who promised me the best ribs ever. We went with a group of work people one Saturday night to the resto on Casablanca in Tebet, and we were wowed by the Sulawesi-style ribs, leading to much pride from our recommender :p
Amee and I went back tonight, and I was wowed by the ribs again. So tasty. The busyness of the restaurant was also a good indication that its no one hit wonder. I was also floored to see that this popular little eatery, which has three branches in the same area to account for the overflow of patrons it attracts, now offers WiFi internet. Too much awesome in one warung! They’re also on Facebook and have a blog. For an open air basic joint with old mobile phone promotion banners as tablecloths and toilet paper rolls for serviettes, that’s a pretty big leap forward.
The Tata Ribs (pictured left with the knife sticking out) are the house specialty… barbecued until gooey on the outside, served with fresh lemon and a mild peanut sauce. Just delicious. You need to use the sauces, they are extra good, especially the in-house sambal (chili sauce), which is unlike any others I have tried. The ribs are served with white rice, fried shallots and some ‘moisture’ to flavor the rice, which is a weak beef broth.
This time, Amee and I also got a Konro to share (pictured up the top), which is ribs in beef soup. The broth was one of the heartiest beef broths I have ever tasted, flavored by shallots, both of the fried and fresh varieties. The ribs were good, the meat being more tender, but the rib I got in the Konro was a bit too fatty for my liking, so the Tata Ribs are still my favorite. But it’s all delicious… and cheap. Also, for people who don’t cope with the superhot food, everything comes un-chili-fied, and then you spice it up to your liking with the sambal. Highly recommended!
The branch we went to was at Jalan Casablanca 33, Tebet, South Jakarta. A lot of taxi drivers and neighbors know the resto well, so it’s not hard to find. If one branch is full, the staff will direct you to one of their other nearby outlets.
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Every wire story describes Indonesia’s Papua province as being ‘restive’. Sure, it is, but I’m sure there’s other descriptors that can be used. But it’s always restive, restive, restive.
I was feeling restive myself tonight, because I am now unemployed and will be of no fixed address as of Tuesday as I take myself on to the road to try and travel and freelance and hopefully do some volunteer work too (if any NGOs get back to me…).
So I decided to go and try some food from the restive province at the food court at Pasaraya Blok M. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a while.
Kopi Susu has already written about the flavors more comprehensively than I can be bothered to this eve, but I will say that it was really tasty. I liked the robust flavor of the sour spicy fish stew, which definitely had a strong taste of lemongrass and some tumeric too.
The papeda side accompaniment was a bit of a puzzle though.
Made from sago, it looks like glue, tastes like bland and feels funny going down the throat. I didn’t dislike it, and it was fun to spin it around on the sticks and it helped balance out the fish stew, but it was definitely strange to eat. For some reason, it reminded me of a kid at primary school who used to eat the Clag Glue whenever we did craft.
I reckon you could easily use this stuff to make a good paper mache Easter bonnet. Maybe NSW state schools should switch to sago instead of Clag. I hope it’s more nutritionally sound?
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Writing this on my Blackberry so excuse the typos.
I decided I wanted, nay, needed to go swimming last night and it was rainy all day, so I stubbornly decided I needed to go to the only Fitness First pool that’s indoors… Far away in Taman Anggrek.
I impulsively jumped in a dodgy non-bluebird cab and off we went. The roads were so jammed up that we had to go the long way through back streets of dodgy West Jakarta kampungs.
I spent most of the ride staring out the windows in silence. When I’m not in a rush sometimes I don’t mind the traffic. There’s always something to look at in this town.
But I was getting bored. The driver took the chance to spark up a conversation while I watched a cockroach traverse the dirty car window.
“Don’t worry, nona, I’m only not taking the tollroad because of the traffic.”
“That’s ok, I know Pak. Always traffic.”
“Some people feel scared not to take a bluebird. Some foreigners only ride bluebird.”
“Ah, I’m not scared, pak, it’s ok.”
“You know what you should do is always remember the number on the door of the taxi, non. Even though the drivers have identity cards (on the dashboard) sometimes they are not theirs. If you have trouble, you can call for help and it makes it easier for the police to know what taxi you are on.”
“Thank you Pak.”
On the way home, it was my turn to give advice.
At first I was confused about what the driver was saying. I thought he wanted me to pay a toll but we hadn’t passed a tollroad. Then I realised he wanted me to teach him how to ask for a toll in English. He said he often had trouble if he picked foreigners up because they thought he was trying to rip them off on the toll.
So we went over and over the phrase ‘ you need to pay the toll now please.’
He said he was studying english. I asked him where he was learning and he said he just studied tv shows and love songs. We then discussed the differences between highways, tollroads and normal streets. I tried to teach him how to say ‘ the tollroad has a traffic jam’ but by then I was home.
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I went to Pasar Tanah Abang Blok A today, a giant fabric and textile market in Jakarta. I was going to buy some fabric to get some ultimate travel pants made, but basically the fabric shopping got a bit overwhelming and I ended up just buying more batik and then buying ready-made pants on sale at Debenhams later. lol
But there was a cool food court called ‘Tenabang’ on Level 8 of the building that had food from all over Indonesia that I had been tipped off on by a friend. It had kerak telor, a traditional Betawi (Jakarta’s people) snack, which is something I’ve wanted to try for aaaaages, except its hard to find.
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Sure, Aceh may be better known for the tight pants police, but the food is also rather fab.
I’ve scoffed down some mie Aceh at Meutia restaurant in Benhil before… fiery spicy tumeric laced fried noodles with a kick (the secret ingredient in some mie Aceh is reportedly ground marijuana seeds, I kid you not!). (ps… that’s not what is in the picture above, that’s some sort of shredded chicken and beansprout curry, not noodles)
But today I went back for lunch with dear friend Ella, who will pulang (go home) to Australia this week 
So, to drown our sorrows, we ordered the full spread, served Padang style in lots of little plates. You eat what you want, you don’t get charged for the dishes that you don’t touch.
In case you haven’t noticed, I am a bit shit when it comes to actually, ya know, finding out the names and ingredients of the food that I blog about. But I am a firm believer that a picture says a thousand words. Plus I’m lazy.
Little plates of beans, eggplant, nangka all tossed in spicy spicy sauce. Chicken, grilled in thick (wait for it… guess)… spicy spicy sauce! Mmm so good. Most of the curries are a little creamy with a kick, but not quite as tongue stabbing as some of the dishes in some Padang restaurants. But honestly, maybe they are, I have gotten very used to loads of chili after being here so long now.
They also do a mean Teh Tarik (ice sweet milk tea) at Meutia. Strong and just sweet enough. So yummy.
Meutia Restaurant is on Jalan Benhil Raya in Central Jakarta, just behind where that Jakarta-famous kepiting saus padang warung is at night time. It’s opposite Pasar Benhil on the right hand side of the road if you are coming from Jalan Sudirman. Sorry for not, ya know, finding out the actual address and phone number. It’s open for lunch and dinner, though the food starts to run out late. Very casual dining, and for a good price. We ate until we were stuffed and it cost us about Rp 65,000 each. It’s even cheaper if you just order mie aceh.
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I’ve been to lots of cities, many of them with reputations for romance. Paris, Rome, Florence… yadda yadda. I mostly just ate gelato or crepes there. But they definitely had the romantic vibe.
But after more than a year in Jakarta, I have to say that I have never met a city so publicly wrapped up in the idea of romantic love… even if it doesn’t have footpaths for lovers to wander along holding hands.
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It’s January 20. I haven’t written any resolutions yet or mused on 2009 or written about my hopes and dreams for the year ahead.
Probably cos this year got off to such a crazy start. New Years Eve was lovely and fun and spent with friends during the day and night, but since then I’ve had friends going though really bad times, shake ups in my office, dramas with meeting deadlines for important stuff that were completely out of my control, me going through some rather bad health that I’m still on the path to repairing and, as is the norm in Jakarta, pending farewells. As well as trying to figure out what I want to do in the future, that eternal question.
But, despite the new decade still having some trouble finding its feet, I’m excited about the year ahead. I’ve got raffle tickets in all over the place… grad school apps, job apps… and how this year turns out, and where I will be living by the end of it, will largely depend on them.
But I’m also planning to strike out as a ‘real’ freelancer for a while this year too, traveling and having the time to do some of the stories that I’m really interested in and seeing more of Indonesia and SE Asia. It will be the first time in forever for me that I’ve thrown aside the structure of school, university or a full time job (or a hellish combination of some of the above). Well it seems like forever… probably the four month university holiday I had in Europe was the other time. 2006 seems like a long time ago. I’m also planning to organize a volunteer placement somewhere along the way as I feel it is remiss that Indonesia has given me so much and I haven’t really taken the time yet to give something back in that way as well. There’s not just an indulgent purpose behind this so-called plan though… I do want to improve my journalism portfolio and I do want to increase coverage of some of the issues facing Indonesia. Though there will definitely be bumming on a beach time in there somewhere.
I have no idea where I am heading and I probably won’t have any idea until April or May what is in store for the second half of the year, so that’s kinda scary-cool.
As for wrap up of 2009? Well I think it was a year I will never forget, thanks to Indonesia. I mean that in a good way. I learned so much about news, life and people, some of it good and other things not so good. Saw some great places and had some fantastic times with good people. There were some dramas, but they are always fleeting and likely to be forgotten as quickly as all of the GRE vocab I tried to cram in during September. And as for work experience, well, earthquakes, terrorist bombings, terror raids and everything else teach you a lot very quickly.
So, may 2010 be as educative, interesting and enjoyable (I could live without the bombs and quakes though, thanks). Bring it on.
Photo: This post needed a photo but I haven’t been out shooting yet this year. This is an old one I hadn’t blogged of somewhere outside of Bukittinggi in West Sumatra, March 2009.
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