The Food Post

Now I know this has been what my friends and family have been wondering about the most...the food! Most of the time I try foods without even knowing what they are and, for the most part, things are delicious! To me there are just a few general characteristics of Indonesian food in Jogja that are important to know:

1. There is rice at every single meal. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner can all have rice. You can have rice with your noodle soup. Not everyone in Indonesia eats rice, but the island of Java does. Some other islands eat corn or potatoes as their main starch. 
2. Snacks are always served. If you go to visit someone, there is usually a tray of small snacks or an individual snack box waiting for you. Everyone is very generous with food. 
3. Breakfast for Indonesians is the same as dinner to Americans. You can have chicken, rice and broccoli for breakfast and that is totally normal. 
4. On the island of Java, they love their sugar. Sweet things are ten times sweeter here than they are in the U.S. 
5. There is a ton of fried food and it's amazing. 
6. Finally, hot chili sauce is served with almost every meal. It's extremely delicious in small doses. 

Below are some of the food pictures I've taken. Enjoy them and be very jealous! 

This KFC sign shows two things about Indonesian food: they eat dinner for breakfast and there is rice at every meal. In case you can't tell that is fried chicken, rice, and scrambled eggs. 

This is probably my favorite dish so far. It's called "Mie Ayam", or chicken noodles. It has chicken wontons on top as well. This cost me 95 cents.  

Another delicious dish called "Soto". It's rice noodles with vegetables and chicken. 

This is the typical lunch spread at work. From left to right we have Soto, fried tempeh, chili sauce, limes, and papaya. At work we always have tempeh, which is a soy product, and fresh fruit. The lunch is prepared by a cook and everyone sits and eats together.  

This is "krupuk", a type of cracker here. It comes in many flavors including prawn, which I am not a fan of.  On the street you will see vendors with giant trash bags full of krupuk to sell. 

This is our breakfast spread at the AUA house where we also have a cook.  There is rice, fried chicken, egg noodles, vegetables, and sweet tempeh. Nothing like an American breakfast and it's very odd to eat in the morning. 

A beautiful street cart selling fresh fruit with chili sauce on it called "rujak".  Spicy and sweet at the same time! 

Baskets of snake fruit. An example of some of the unusual fruit here. 

This is iced tea with sugar at the bottom. Way too much for me!

An example of the snacks you are presented when you go somewhere for a meeting. 

Delicious fried noodles with chicken.