Jakarta Delicacies for the Daring Diner

By: Hush Petersen, first published in Jakarta Expat

It’s hard to put your finger on what makes Ben Hil (short for Bendungan Hilir), right at the heart of the city, the go-to spot for street food. Maybe it’s the atmosphere—the perpetually wet streets, the howl of the bemo, the ubiquitous banci whose Adam’s apple bobs as she points her chin at you and asks for money with those do-the-right-thing-or-else eyes.

But like nowhere else in the city Ben Hil provides long-time residents and tourists alike with a long list of food haunts like nowhere else in Jakarta. So here, in no particular order, are a few impeachable favourites. Did yours make the list?

Have the Guts to Eat from the Street

By: Hush Petersen, first published in Jakarta Expat

There are two kinds of people in Jakarta: the ones that eat street food and the ones that don’t.

The ones that do boast about late-night haunts, one-of-a-kind stalls and meals so good you’d sell your mother for another bite.

The ones that don’t eat street food are, well…forgettable. If the fact that you might get sick stops you from doing anything—eating, travelling, enjoying life— your sense of adventure is the least of your worries.

Jakarta knows food like no other city in the world. And like no other population in the world every Jakartan has their favourite street food stalls. Not only that, but for different dishes there are different locations.

“Oh, if you want nasi uduk you have to go to Palang Merah… if you want mie aceh you have to go to Ben Hil…or Blok S for bakso…”

Sure there’s no air conditioning and sometimes the rats get a little too close to your toes. But it’s not an adventure worth telling if there aren’t any dragons. And that’s the most beautiful thing about Jakarta, one night you can eat a plate of nasi campur for 88 cents under some tawny single-bulb tent decorated with nothing but blue plastic stools and the next night, if you’re wallet is up to it you can head over to Hotel Kempinski’s Casa D’Oro complete with linen table cloths and a seven course degustation menu and then stare down a jaw-dropping bill at the end of the night. It’s your call.

The Rinjani [Rubbish] Trail: How Lombok’s Majestic Rinjani is Covered in Mountains of Litter!

By: Hush Petersen, published in Jakarta Expat

The naturalist John Muir is credited with a quote most mountain climbers have memorised and tend to recite after a few beers or moments of beauty and sheer awe. Climb to the top of Rinjani in Lombok and you might hear a few of the brave souls who left camp at 2am to make the sunrise summit mumble it to themselves during the euphoria that comes with the 3,726-metre accomplishment.

Society speaks and all men listen, mountains speak and wise men listen.”

If Rinjani herself could speak, she would beg for help. If only the men in charge of caring for her would listen.

With tens of thousands of locals and foreigners alike flocking to Lombok every year bent on conquering the brutal three-day trek up the 3,726-metre summit, officials, trek organisers and skeleton clean-up crews can't seem to keep up with the purple packs of empty Kukubima forgotten along the trails and the streamers of used toilet paper strewn like tinsel through the high grass mere metres off the beaten path.