A Wonderful Life

Eating is a part of our daily life. People work hard to fulfill this daily need. Indonesia is a very vast country. It has so many different tribes so that there are so many different kinds of food and eating habit. Indonesian will never say that they eat when they only have bread, pizza or chips. They really need rice to eat. Ah so it is better we talk about rice first.
Rice is the main food for the people. When they are very poor...I mean they are not able to afford to have more than rice they can make rice into special food. There are many ways people cook rice. Before Indonesian were introduced to the rice cooker, they cooked rice traditionally. A lot of people say the taste of rice which is cooked traditionally is hm... hm very yummy...he he he I mean delicious. Ah ... not to make you all curious. Indonesian are picky in cooking. Let's see... Even they cook rice they say it is better to use fire made from hard wood. It keeps the heat stay the same... wait I have a picture of my neighbour in my hometown who still keeps this tradition...



more than about the source of the heat. They say the old fashioned tools to cook is also preferable. in the pict above, my neighbour used a little modern pan to steam the mid done rice. the old fashioned one is made of bamboo. It is called Kukusan. people can find it now but it is not easy to use and to clean.




Kukusan is on the right. When I was searching for the right picture of Kukusan, I stumbled on an article where I found the picture above about a little possible history of the term Kukusan. Here is the link:
http://adambalic.typepad.com/the_art_and_mystery_of_fo/historical_recipes/

These are steps to cook traditional rice. We call all the process of cooking rice NGLIWET:
1. You have to make sure the rice is clean.
2. Wash the rice twice
3. Put in the rice into boiling water.
traditionally they use their fingers to get the right measurement of water and rice.for example
a kilogram of rice, the water is about 5 centimeters from the surface of the rice.
4. You have to stir it while you are boiling it. make sure the fire is not too hot because it can
burn the rice or the rice will not completely be done until the inside of the rice.
5. After the water is gone, lift the pan. close the pan not to make the steam out because the steam
will make the rice inside soft.
6. Prepare a pan with enough water and put the KUKUSAN like you see above and wait until the water
boils for a moment to make sure the KUKUSAN hot enough.
7. To make the taste of the rice better you can put in PANDAN leaves. Then Put the rice in the KUKUSAN.
Close it with something that will not let the steam out of it.
8. After about ...hm hm at least 45 minutes, the rice is done and ready to serve.





That is one of some ways to cook rice...rice ... rice.....

Next... Ater they have rice, what they think is vegetables or what to eat with rice. There are many kinds of vegetables here... so many. somtimes if we go to a different place we will find or know some vetetables that we don't know before. Just try to mention: kangkoong, cabage, long bean, spinach, the leaves of papaya, the leaves of sweet potato, bitter gourd, mushroom, soy sprouts, ....so many....
maybe I need a different blog about it... he he he. the simples way to cook them is to make fried vegetables. The main ingridients of fried vegetables in my hometown or the way I cook are:
1. Red Onion
2. Garlic
3. Chilis...the hot one
4. Tomatoes
5. sugar ( white or brown)
6. salt
7. ketchup

You might add them prawn or beef but I don't like it because you will lose the taste of the vegetables.

That is enough for what people call Eating. But if the people have more money they will have something more to eat with the rice and vegetables. In Surabaya People always have something as to eat with them.
sometimes they go as the partner.