White bread, brown bread.
Some folks eat to live whilst others live to eat. I'm not obsessed with food though I did once try a macrobiotic diet. I wondered why the food seemed so minimal. In Thailand, I ate fried grasshoppers which, until I was told what I was snacking on, I thought very tasty. Here in Jakarta I've dined on snake
satay, which, of course, tasted like chicken.
A few years back, a Brit-Aussie acquaintance visited us and we got to discussing our street parade of meals-on-wheels. On occasion, perhaps when 'er indoors is out, I'll have a
nasi goreng (fried rice). Our visitor asked if I didn't suffer from stomach problems; he would only dine at the 'best' restaurants, preferably in 5 star hotels. Strange question, I replied, because his guts, unlike mine, had never got acclimatised to life here.
As I commented on 20th April, I won't traipse across town for food; I rely on local services. I regularly buy bread and cakes from the passing converted
becaks (pedicabs) and have learned to recognize who has the best
gambang, which is akin to gingerbread but without the ginger. I also like
kismis, which is a flirtatious variant on a Chelsea bun.
However, I'm not a great fan of the bread; invariably white and even more so as the local populace like it with the crusts shaved off. Why? Where's the goodness? And what do they do with the breadcrumbs? I fear that Indonesian bakers are going down the same homogeneous path as the
British bread industry.
So, here's a reader survey question I'd really like an
answer to and I promise to publish the results.
Where is the best brown bread in Jakarta?
And back in Britain, it's my sister's birthday today. Happy birthday, Sue.
Please send me a slice of your cake.
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