THE ABC OF BANDUNG: Aroma Coffee, Batagor & Ciwalk!

By: Andri Suryo

Get ready to explore one of Indonesia’s most bustling cities: Bandung! Bandung is the capital city of west Java, the Indonesian answer to Paris or as we like to call it ‘Parijs Van Java!’

Bandung is not the most tourist friendly city out there, as public transport is hard to figure out and information and facilities are haphazard to say the least. Yet, there is plenty to explore. If you're in Bandung for just a day, nothing beats these fundamental principles of Bandung, THE ABC OF BANDUNG!

Pyongyang Restaurant Kuala Lumpur: Dishing up Dollars for North Korea?

By: Diana van Oort

The Pyongyang restaurant Kuala Lumpur is a nice, clean, banquet style restaurant with the friendliest waitresses I encountered so far in Kuala Lumpur. The menu is diverse: from dishes I never heard of ― or I don’t want to eat like dog meat or shark fin soup ― to nicely barbequed meat dishes and tasty side dishes. Nothing much to talk about, or is there?

Before I visited the place, my mind wandered: this could be the ideal location for a spy novel and in my mind I saw North and South Korean diplomats striking deals. Questions also arose: what is a North Korean restaurant doing so close to the South Korean embassy and do I want to spend money in a restaurant where (part of) the proceeds go to the North Korean government, infamous for its seclusion and human rights violations.

Bali’s Galungan food

By: Mila Shwaiko

I was born on the day before Galungan, the most important religious festival in the Balinese calendar, which marks the ten-day period when deified ancestors descend to inhabit their former homes. I’ve always had a love for, and strong attachment, to food— especially Balinese food. This is something that everyone in the compound where I grew up knows and delights in teasing me about.

According to Gung Rai—a close neighbour who has known me since my birth and who has never treated me as anything but another of her own children—it’s pantas (only right) that I’m this way. “It’s fitting that a child whose oton [ceremony held 210 days after a child’s birth and marked every 210 days thereafter] is on Penampahan Galungan loves food so much, because it’s the day when it all gets prepared and cooked,” she says.

Frankly, I think my passion for Balinese food has little to do with the day of my birth and everything to do with Gung Rai’s cooking. I used to get up each day at about 6am and go straight to her kitchen. It was a dark, warm space, with bamboo and rattan workbenches, dominated by a large mud-brick fireplace. Every surface near the fire was covered in a fine layer of soot, even the masses of cobwebs high in the rafters. By this time of the day, she’d already have been to market and be half way though preparing the day’s meal. She would give me a plate of freshly steamed rice for breakfast as I sat and watched her at work.

The food would be cooked in big, soot-blackened pots, balanced on the top of the fireplace. I’d poke the embers and feed the new fire with coconut husks. I loved to make the flames flare up and the sparks jump; I probably made a complete nuisance out of myself, but she never minded or paid me any negative attention. In later years, the packed dirt floor was replaced with white shiny tiles; a fridge appeared and the wood fire was replaced by a gas stove. But the family made a unanimous decision that the food didn’t taste nearly as good as it had before, so a new fireplace was built in the empty space behind the old one. The shiny new kitchen seems to get used less each year.

Myanmar’s food

By: Keith Lyons

After decades of isolation, Myanmar is opening up to the rest of the world. Virtually unknown outside South-East Asia, Myanmar's cuisine is now being discovered by an increasing number of visitors, as well as those fortunate to have a rare Burmese restaurant in their city. So is Burmese food just rice and curry? Is it true they don't just drink tea, but also eat it? Are Myanmar dishes too simple, spicy, oily or sweet?

For starters, if you look on a map you will see that Myanmar is located between three gastronomic superpowers: India, China and Thailand. As you would expect, there are Indian, Chinese and South-East Asian influences on the food you find in Myanmar, but Burmese cuisine is quite distinctive, and not just curry and rice.

Sure, steamed white rice is the foundation of many meals, but travelers to Myanmar are often impressed with the variety of food available not just across the country, but at each meal. Let me explain. When you order a curry, hearty salad or noodle dish, you'll get a spread of accompaniments: pickled vegetables, fermented beans, fried shrimps, onion and chilli, raw fresh vegetables and dips, fresh herbs like mint and pennywort, and a paste made from salted fish or shrimps called ngapi. In fact ngapi is more than a condiment, being the base for many mains, salads and soups. Also often served free with many meals is a simple black pepper soup.

A Gado-Gado Recipe while Dreaming about a Mansion

By: Jacobus E. Lato

Gado-Gado is an Indonesian vegetable dish served with peanut sauce on top. It is often sold and enjoyed on the street. One night, several months ago, one of my friends told me a story while we were passing an up-and-coming area in Surabaya. “Jack, do you see that big house over there.” I looked towards the pointed direction. “It is owned by a gado-gado seller, who used to sell his food near the front yard of the house before. But now he is the owner of the house.”

I remembered vividly coming here with friends several years ago, patiently waiting in line to savor the seller’s excellent gado-gado. Hundreds of customers must have thought the same thing, because now the owner, Markus Maturo, hasn’t only bought this mansion, but also currently leads 6 automotive factories! If a similar from rags to riches experience awaits you after making gado-gado remains to be seen, but one thing for sure: Gado-Gado is a healthy, crunchy and delicious dish any time of day!

A Malaysian Christmas Spread: Green Apple Chutney

By: Erna Dyanty

Every year in December, the streets will be covered with shades of red, green and white. Everything seems warmer even when you’re in the cold. Kids come up with a wish list, dad’s figuring out the wiring for the lights and mom is listing out her shopping list for the kitchen. Christmas is that time of the year where everyone comes together under the tree for presents and at the dining table for a major end of the year feast.

While some of you may sit at home, dreaming of a white Christmas and a huge Turkey, we Malaysians wait for a sunny holiday and a feast with a spread of local goodness. Christmas in Malaysia, like any other festive season is celebrated by everyone! Whether you’re a Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or Atheist, we come together and just celebrate the year with thanks, a feast and of course the presents.

Tongseng Kambing: Spicy Goat in a Smooth but Fiery Curry

By: Aisah Wolfard

Tongseng Kambing is best enjoyed in the rainy season especially in the evening. Tongseng includes a lot of indonesian herbs and spices, giving this dish a lot of flavor. Kambing is the Indonesian word for goat. Many men in Indonesia believe eating kambing will give them more power and energy (yes, also between the sheets;-).

Regardless of any benefits to masculinity, Tongseng Kambing is a smooth but fiery dish that will appease any rumbling stomach. The coconut milk makes it creamy, while the spice paste adds heat, an irresistible dish altogether. Cooking tongseng kambing is easier than it seems, once you have all the ingredients, so let’s give it a try.

You can replace the goat with mutton or even beef if desired.

Baso Recipe: Indonesian Soup with Meatballs the Size of Tennisballs!

By: Aisah Wolfard

One of the most popular streetfood dishes is baso. When the baso seller walks through the neighborhood, people flock to his stall to order a spicy broth filled with a variety of meatballs. The baso meatballs come in all shapes and sizes. The original meatballs were the size of ping pong balls, but due to popular demand they now sometimes come as big as tennisballs.

Best of all, baso is easy to make and instantly gratifying! This baso recipe teaches you how to make the meatballs and the broth. Spice things up with diced spring onion, bawang goreng (fried onions), sambal, soy sauce and so on!

Filipino meals: Isa pa (One more), please!

By: Joan Mae Soco-Bantayan

Filipinos are food lovers! They take regular meals thrice a day; one in the morning (around 8:00 am), another at noon (12:00 nn), and one more for dinner. Aside from that, they have in-between meals and snacks which they call merienda. The country’s staple food is rice, so expect having rice every meal if you plan to dine in local style.

So, if you’re on the road to Philippines, be sure to open your palette and get ready for a gastronomic romance with the country.

Dapoer Aisah: Soto Betawi Recipe

By: Aisah Wolfard

The perfect cure against the cold is soto betawi, a hot bowl of beef soup to warm you up! Soto in Indonesian means soup with extra ingredients. It comes in many shapes and forms, for example Soto Ayam (chicken soup) and Soto Madura (soup from the island of Madura).

The soup that we’ll make today is called Betawi, referring to  Batavia or, as the capital is known now: Jakarta. The Betawi are the original inhabitants of Jakarta and surroundings and have their own culture, language and cuisine. Indonesian style Soto Betawi will probably not be that appetizing to foreigners because it includes beef offals. So in this foreigner friendly version, we will only use the meat. Smell the herbs and spices, free yourself from a runny nose and savor this Soto Betawi!