Eat with bare hands? Eww..

Maybe that’s what foreigners think when they see us eat with bare hands.

Well, I can’t blame them. We do have difference methods of eating. And manners too.

Talk about manners, Indonesian don’t think eat with bare hands is rude. Even the rich eat with their bare hands. I mean, who would use spoon and fork when we eat fried fish?

Of course we have to make sure our hands clean before we touch our dine. We could do that in a water basin, or, this is what makes us more special, we could just wash our hands in a small bowl filled with water the restaurant served. We call it ‘kobokan’.

I had dinner once with my friend in a local food stall, and we decided to eat fried catfish. As we ate, a bunch of Koreans came and sat beside us. While they were waiting for their foods, I noticed that they were gazing the way we eat. I know, maybe we both looks like some psychotic because we were busy toring the catfish apart with our bare hands...

But it’s not like we Indonesian people don’t respect others manners. Outside, of course we don’t eat with bare hands. We eat with spoon and forks, or maybe chopsticks, for the sake of courtesy. So that people won’t confuse us with barbarians? ^ ^;

However, here in our country, eating with bare hands is common thing to do. I personally like to eat with bare hands. The food tastes much more delicious if I eat it with bare hands! You should try it too! ^ ^

But... I don’t know, some food maybe don’t suit for bare hands eating. I mean... you don’t want to grab some mash potatoes with hands, right? I’m getting sick by only imagining it.

Indonesian eat rice for every day food, so it suits the idea of bare hands eating. Then you should try to eat rice with bare hands, and feel the sensation!

And don’t forget to wash you hand first! ^ ^

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Sega Jamblang

Sega Jamblang with tasty side dishes (source)

One of my favorite local food is sega Jamblang. It’s not in Bahasa, it’s in local dialect. In Bahasa, it’s nasi Jamblang. In English, it’s Jamblang rice. Jamblang is an area where the food originally came from. It’s an area in Cirebon, a small city where I live right now.

So, what’s so special about this food?

Sega Jamblang is Cirebon’s pride. It’s not much, really. It’s just cooked rice with side dishes. But what’s so unique is, we eat the cooked rice not just with a plate, but with teak wood leaves as it’s pad.

That’s right, teak wood as those that commonly used for furenitures. The leaves are as big as adult’s palm, and the texture is kinda off and hairy. So I bet foreigners would think twice before actually eating with it. ^ ^

But for local people, it doesn’t even matter. Personally, I found it kinda... exotic? ^ ^

Yeah anyways, I love eating sega Jamblang. Not mentioning, the side dishes are tasty! There are omelette (although the looks doesn’t even close to the common ones), fried tempe, blekutak (shrimps cooked with its ink), tofu soup, potato satay, scallop satay, croquette, and many more. But my favorite is, the sambal or chili paste. It contains so much chili but it doesn’t taste spicy. On the contrary, it tastes sweet.

However, the side dishes are not nicely arranged on the table. They’re served in a big bowl and for newbies(?) it might seems a little bit messy. But the good thing is, we can take whatever we want from the bowl, and just confess it later at the payment time, after we finished eating.

Yeah, you can take as much as you want and confess less, but it’s only for you criminals. LOL

As I tell you stories about sega Jamblang, I’m getting hungry.

Okay. I think I’m having sega Jamblang for lunch! V^o^V

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