Those who watch 'How I Met Your Mother' must be familiar with "have you met Ted" sentence. This will led into an awkward situation where Ted met a strange woman who's (forcedly) introduced by Barney. If I was on that situation, I can imagine myself being amazingly doing something stupid, or maybe saying and acting wacky. Then how, if that situation was when you're meeting a food. Imagined one special food coming right to you, what would you have on your mind?
Then, have you met caviar? Briefly, I would say that I'm not a person who will able to encounter a situation on meeting caviar. Please, caviar would be a person who came from a rich, classy, or maybe a royal family - who might be owned an island in some exotic country. Now, who am I? Not literally a girl, but not yet a woman (as Britney said), who cannot even stand when she saw a hot, oily, crispy gorengan. Short information, gorengan is the most wonderful creature in this world. For Indonesian, they must be familiar with this. For those who don’t know, the easiest to explain is all ingredient you can mention, deep fried in a batter with lots of oil. How on earth I would able to meet caviar then? Caviar is way beyond my reach. I felt so distant with caviar, especially caviar didn't come from Indonesia. But, I guess caviar already been to Indonesia several times, maybe there's some caviar who already stayed in Indonesia. However, again, I might never met them. When caviar stay in Indonesia, they must be in Jakarta, largely in a luxurious neighbourhood - e.g. in Kemang, Senopati, Menteng, or Pondok Indah (the only neighbourhood that came right away in my mind). My money wouldn't brave enough to brought me to meet them. Even caviar's friends, if I dare enough to imagined, they would wear every brands that exist in Pacific Place Mall - the place that makes me small, even though I know I'm big enough to be recognize. Caviar's friends also might rides the expensive and rare cars which you never heard before. So basically, everything caviar's friends owned and wore, they were all expensive. I knew I would never be friend with them. Not to mention, caviar's family. What strikingly came to my unusual mind is a royal or a wealthy family. They were really hard to meet in person - only on rare occasion you can meet them. They also might had a huge business which their fortune could be pass into uncountable generations. Living in this wealthy family, caviar would be grew up where caviar asked or pointed to anything caviar wants, caviar would get it. Never forget, they probably owned an enormous hideous house far outside the city. Just in case you get bored with all my descriptions, let me sum it into short sentence, caviar is a rich person. Nevertheless, I'm not going to refuse if there's a moment where I can meet caviar personally. It will be an honoured. Until those days to come, I'm trying to get know caviar bit by bit through the almighty Google. Looking forward to meeting you, caviar. p.s. I'm writing this to imagined how to write about food, by imagining it as a person. I know it's not necessary to explain this, but however I just want to make it clear (if only my writing is clear enough)
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What was the next most nerve wrecking moment after being on an airplane? Going to a new restaurant.
As a person who self proclaimed herself as a serious eater, going to a new restaurant is really a nerve wrecking moment. I'm a person who prefer to go to my regular restaurants - a restaurant that's already took my heart away. Just ask my friends, even they feel nervous to ask me to have meals at some new place. We would be ended up in some place that we already visit for like hundred of times. In the end we would be get sick of that place. There's so much thought going on in my head when I decided to be more adventurous. When I'm in the adventurous mode, I'm going through the millennials path - which means I'm going check on every little details on the restaurant I'll be going to on my smartphone. However, when the adventurous mode gone too far, or I might say when it's an unexpected decision. I don't have enough time to search for the details and there it goes the doubting moment comes. "What kind of restaurant is that" // "Why was the owner chose that name?" // "Will the food has good taste?" // "Do they have clean toilet?" // "Is it going to be expensive?" // "Do they play good songs?" // "Will the interior match the food?" I might be a bit annoying after the meals, if it didn't satisfied me. While E!Channel have a reality show called "It takes Guts to be Gutierrez", for me, it takes guts to eat outside my comfort zone. But, sometimes it also hard when your favorite restaurant, that already took your heart away, closed down or suddenly the food gone bad. I probably feel sad or devastated. Finding the new one that suits you might be a tough job. It was like you've been so comfort with someone, you're falling in love with them, but however that person betrayed you or left you behind. Sad? Then it's hard to open your empty space for the new one. You're wondering who that was, was it good or not, are you going to be upset after one visit or not, and in the end, is it going to suits your preference or not? It takes time whether to have the new restaurants that took your palate away or find the person whose more addictive than a package of MSG. Then, what you need next is the guts to be more adventurous and open with the new ones. Either way, you will just stuck in the old rotten ones that already left you behind. Even if sometimes you might be encounter with several bad choices that made you as devastated as when you mistaken eating a galangal in your beef rendang (only Indonesian or an avid rendang fans can relate this). Just be brave and patience, even if you'll find some galangal in the way. It’s a wonderful Saturday night, where people can be relaxed and having a free time before we were going back to work on Monday. You basically find something outside your regular activity to do on Saturday - it could be going on trip to the beach, zoo, amusement park, or getting free air conditioner at the malls. Saturday also means a very perfect day to have meals with your long-lost friends or if you're lucky enough to have a partner, you can do it with them. But, there's exist the new population in our mother earth, they are millennials. Having a meals wouldn't be the same if you did it with the all mighty millennials. Does eating with millennials has to be that different?
Before we're having a meals with the population of millennials, planning a meals itself might be a big task. First thing first, finding the perfect restaurant. How on earth we would know a restaurant good or not without a smartphone? Is it possible to ask a human for that information? I'd might guess it is actually possible. We can just text or call them and just ask "do you know any good place to eat?". If you meet a human who gave you an excellent recommendation, fits your budget, and everybody agrees on it - the next thing is just start your engine and go to the chosen place. After you arrived at the location, next thing you have to do is, sit down, relax, order some food, and enjoy it while having a warm conversation with the loved one. Such a beautiful moment. Anyway, it doesn't last that long, until the millennials invade our society. Enjoying meals would be a long journey, but it doesn't mean having meals on the weekend became a horrible experience. It's just more adventurous than before. Don't you ever dare trying to keep up with the millennials if you're not a daring type of person. For all the human out there who doesn't know anything how to eat with millennials, let me give you a basic guide.
You can follow all this step to keep up with the uprising millennials population. Either way, you can skip all the steps and enjoy your food. Bon Appétit. This is a story about a girl who regretted what happened when she was just three years old - the time when she barely knows nothing about life, all she knows that life is beautiful. Until the day she visited the cursed drinking place. Since that day, every little food that caught her eyes, became so tempting. People used to called her cute; by having a pink chubby cheek, a healthy thighs and arms, which represent her as a healthy kids. However, this doesn't mean anything for her, especially at her age, which almost hit the quarter life phase. At that very age, the effect of demonic drinks still affected her life. It all begins on one fine afternoon. She's just doing the same routine she always did; take a bath, dress nicely, and play outside with anyone she might meet. However, something fishy happened, which she never realized it until she gets older. Her grandmother asked her to picked the best dress she got and made her to use some face powder (in wild ways). With the best dress and the white face (thanks to the powder), her grandmother took her out by rickshaw. Let me rephrase it, it was really a beautiful afternoon; the sky was blue, the clouds passing by smoothly, and the sun shines calmly. The girl never expect anything, remember she was just three years old, all she thought was her grandmother just wanted to go out with her. Time passes as they were on the rickshaw. It might be just 15 minutes after they departed, but somehow her grandmother stop by in this tiny little place. Or she might said the-tiny-cursed-drinking-place. Most of people she knows, they said that place was like an exorcist place, where crying and screaming are the only thing you heard. At this place, you will also find wall of fame, where they hang all the shoes that left by the kids who possessed by the drinks. The three years old girl who came by her grandmother, she would never knew that she might be on the wall of fame. The process of getting possessed by the drinks happened so fast (this might be what makes her forgot the entire experience). The girl came in with her grandmother, they waited to get turn, finally they turn, suddenly the grandmother held the girl tightly, and someone came with brownish cloth, pouring the-brown-demonic-fluid. In a flash, the crying and screaming explode. This when the possessed thing happened. Since that day, food would never be the same anymore. The three years old girl, now already in her mid 20s. And that is me. That was the story about me getting fatter. Possessed by the demonic drinks. It's common for parents or the elderly took their kids to the cursed place to get their kids the demonic drinks. The drinks it's actually a traditional drink, in Indonesian we called it jamu. The place itself called Jamu Kerkop, was not cursed and they don't serve any demonic drinks, they are only served traditional drinks for kids whose very hard to eat. Personally, I didn't remember the taste of the drinks, but someone said it was terrible, it was extremely bitter. No wonder many kids acted like they were possessed and left their shoes on the wall of fame. These days, some parents still took their kids to Jamu Kerkop to make them eat. Or, the worst part is, Jamu Kerkop used by parents to threatened their kids to eat. God bless Jamu Kerkop. The after effect of the traditional drink is the kids would be very easy to eat, they would go crazy. Still, this effect didn't apply to every kids, but I know people who get the same effect as mine. Those who knows me, I don't have the shape like the underwear-angels, but my shape was more like a pear. I never have the slim type of body and I never had a bad relationship with food. There were times I would like to blame Jamu Kerkop for making me like this. The demonic drinks made me hard to refuse all the food that close by my nose. Maybe I should just worked out rather than blaming Jamu Kerkop. From my experience with Jamu Kerkop, what doesn't kill you, literally makes you fat (alibi for being lazy). Drinking an instant coffee might be a huge crime, if you did it right now. Also, if it's possible, someone might added "do not drink an instant coffee" sentence into The Ten Commandments. The misery life of an instant coffee has just begun, I guess, should we blame it to the fancy-philosophical-coffee-shops? The coffee shops which decorated with all warm colors; such as using woods materials, yellowish lightings, classic chairs, along with some jazz or hip music. This doesn't stop there, they also offers you that you cannot found on an instant coffee, which is the story. "this coffee grounds planted in the precise heights of a beautiful mountains which has a sustainable environment by a skilled farmers there - which made the coffee beans grew very well." By visiting this type of coffee shops, you're not only drinking a coffee, but also you get the experience of tasting the story behind it. How romantic was that? Even so, this is not only stop there, you thought you can ordered anything you want at this kind of coffee shop? No. In order to look you're someone who really appreciate the authenticity or the finest taste of each coffee grounds, you should ordered "the single origin" coffee. You don't like it because it taste so bitter? You want to added a sugar? Then just get yourself out and ordered something sweet from Starbucks. Don't you ever dare to dream to be in the same position as the-coffee-snob-caste. Yes, Starbucks turned into a mediocre coffee shops, especially for the-coffee-snob-caste. The-coffee-snob-caste would prefer the fancy coffee shops which might cost you more or the same price as Starbucks. But, hey, the fancy coffee shops makes you look even more fancier than the coffee shops itself!
Do I sound very cynical? To be honest, I'm saying that way about "the-coffee-snob-caste" just because, I am a coffee snob. I craved for a good taste of coffee. I'm at situation on knowing which coffee taste good or not, but it based on my taste preference. I really enjoyed a good single origin coffee, which has a bit sour, bitter, and earthy taste at the same time. Sounds like I'm an expert, right? Or, I sounds snobbish? Anyway, in order to fullfilled my hunger of good taste of coffee, I liked to be adventurous with the fancy also hipster coffee shops. I sometimes wonder why some coffee shops became such a huge discussion. Not to mention, become a huge discussion means become an object to put on your social media - with all the hashtags #handsinframe #coffee #sunday. However, sadly, not all the fancy coffee shops has a good coffee. Sometimes, they were all just so so, even Starbucks has better taste, or the sinful instant coffee has better taste. Then again, drinking a cup of coffee, it's not only mean put in the fluid inside your body or tasting it the flavors. Having a cup of coffee for the millenials means everything, but everything means more when it represents on your image on social media. The right angle when you take a picture of your coffee might represents that you're a good photographer. The other way, when you only had a so so quality of picture, but you put a very philosophical captions, it means you're an intelligent person. Cool right? Nevertheless, I do enjoy the image that I had when someone acknowledge my preference of coffee is good, I suddenly feels like I'm a fancy person. Kidding. But, I do proud with that sometimes. Do you feel proud? For the first writing, I would like to write on the experience of eating alone. Personally, I'm the type of person who would find the quietest place to eat when I'm alone. The other way I would do, I'll prefer to take away the food, and eat it later. I somehow reject the idea of eating alone, just imagine the moment when you amused by one dish, but you have no one to share with. In this context, it could be your friends, family, or your partner, anyone. Sharing the taste of the food and having conversation while you were eating are the two important things for me. As a person, it doesn't mean that I never been in a situation that I had to eat alone. Since, I have work to do in Jakarta, it made me to cope with the situation of eating alone - because most of my friends are working from 9AM to 5PM, then the only time I had a chance to eat with them is dinner. So, what happened when I had to eat alone? The first thing is I make myself busy by looking at my cellphone, reading some books, or pretending to take notes, acting like I'm on brainstorming mode. By "acting busy", people would think that I came to eat lunch/dinner while doing some work. I came to this decision of "acting busy" while having meals, based on my own experience watching other people who eat alone. When I hang-out with my friends, treat ourselves with good food, enjoying stories (or mostly gossiping), we tend to made a comment of other people who came alone to a restaurant. There are two most common phrases we use: "Eh, liat deh tuh orang sendirian, kasian amat makan sendirian" ("Hey, look at that person, he/she's alone, poor him/her had to eat alone") OR "Itu orang makan sendirian malam minggu gini, pasti jomblo deh" ("That person eats alone on this saturday night, he/she must be single") Yes, I know, it's bad to make such a comment like that to other people, but we're just a human, who likes to gossiping (pardon me). By those comments, I sometimes reflect on myself when I eat alone, or I might say insecure, of other people who saw me eating alone. Did they have the same thought like I did? Did they found me pity? However, the question now is, are we really eating alone in this era? I might called it as the miracle of internet. We're always connected with internet, who doesn't? With the assistance of internet, it helps us to uploaded our meals onto our social media, also it provides us to chat with our friends or anyone while we're eating. How easy was that? We don't have to be in the exact place to eat and have conversation - we can use our social media, just upload your picture and you'll interact with your friends who leave a comment on your post. Don't like posting on social media? Try to use chatting application on your cellphone, like what I did, I share my experience during lunch or dinner with my friends, it happened almost everytime I eat alone (thank God they my friends can handle this). What if you got bored interacting through social media and your chatting application, but you're still want to share something while you were eating? Then, try to watch online eating channel. It's a common secret that I'm an avid K-pop fans, not only for the music, it's already spread into every parts of Korean culture. By this reason, I've been watching and reading several articles also videos of "Meok-bang". The rough translation of meok-bang is an eating broadcast (excuse me if I'm wrong). From my short observation on meok-bang, I found it very exciting. How could it be not exciting when your job is eating and talking in front of the camera, connecting with other people - but the most important thing is you get money from it. Just imagine that. These people who worked that way, called as "BJ" (Broadcast Jockey). As a BJ you're not only eating and talking, you obligated to interacting with all of the people who watch your show live. By conversing with them, they will appreciate you with their "virtual money", which shape as a balloon. What a beautiful life, when you only had to stay at home and eat, but you earn money from that.
It looks very enchanting to work as a BJ, but what does the benefit from the spectators side? Again, from my short research process, the people who watch the show live, they felt happy by it, it makes them less lonely when they had meals. They can chat with all the strangers across the globe, ordered some food from home, then conversing through the live broadcast. Having this new (for me) way of eating together but not really together in physical, made me thinking is it still necessary to having meals together? I mean, having meals together just because you don't want to feel lonely. Is it still looked odd for someone who eats alone? Greetings. Those who already knew my blog, I used to have a personal blog specialized on food. Everything about food, starting from sharing recipes, reviews on instant noodles, and also shares some romantic memories inspired by one dish. However, I haven't updated that blog since the time I went to Freiburg, which means almost 2 years ago.
In just (almost) one month left, we're going to meet another new year, this means another resolution. So, here I present to you one of my resolution, having personal blog (again) about food, and this time I'm trying to write it down in English. I know, I know, those who have the "grammar-nazi-radar" must be very eager to correct my grammar. Even so, I'm trying to be open with all the critics, about my grammar or the content of my writings. Again, those who knew me personally, or happened to know me on Facebook - I am very passionate about food, and it represent on "Bakudapan Food Study Group" (http://bakudapan.com), a group that initiated by me and my friends. For those who questioning, "why does it has to be food study group?", I have two answers; 1. in Indonesia, we don't have anyplace (far as I know) that concern discussing issues on food, in cultural, social, or art, 2. we chose "study group", because we wanted to learn and discuss issues on food from various perspective. Now, we're on the process on finishing our last topic, hopefully it will be done by January 2016. My hidden motivation making this blog, other than my passion about food and get inspired by Bakudapan is, I want to take a master degree on Food Studies. For that reason, I trained myself with this blog to write and discuss various issues on food. I also hope this blog will encourage me to continue writing about food. Inspired by my activity with all my friends in Bakudapan, I wanted to start my personal food-blog again, and I named it "Pengudap" means, a person who like to eat snacks. By this introduction, I present you "Pengudap". |
AuthorA food researcher and serious eater. Archives |