Tempe

Tempe (source)

I remembered a few years ago I’ve ever heard that there were some people from foreign country came to Indonesia specially just to learn how to make tempe. At that time I laughed at that news because I thought it was ‘silly’.

Do people in foreign countries not know what ‘tempe’ is? ‘Tempe’ is a food from soy-bean. The basic ingredient is the same as tofu and soy-sauce. If in foreign
countries they’re familiar with tofu and soy-sauce, why is there no tempe?

However, it turned out that several times I went abroad and spent some time living abroad, I’ve never found tempe in those countries. Except in an Indonesian restaurant, of course. But I was also very rare. Most of the menus in Indonesian restaurant in foreign countries are those which ingredients easy to get or easy to make or of the basic ingredient should be imported from Indonesia, it should be the one that could last pretty long such as ‘terasi’ (shrimp paste).

The making process of tempe needs to be in a particular temperature and humidity. After so, the tempe also need to be kept in a place with particular temperature and humidity that is easy to get in a tropical area such as Indonesia. Maybe that’s why tempe is very rare abroad, moreover in four-seasons countries because the weather and climate there are not suitable for the making process.

It’s a bit sorry for that because tempe is very delicious and high nutrition. Apparently this cheap and common food in Indonesia could also be a precious thing abroad. I don’t know I should be happy or sorry with this fact.

(FK)

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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