Bluntly Fresh Morning Overture

Lunar New Year is celebrated in various ways all over the world. Today I want to share a special kind of food Chinese Indonesians have in the 15th day of Lunar New Year (Cap Go Meh). The name is "Lontong Cap Go Meh". Whatever stereotype you have for Chinese food, Lontong Cap Go Meh will surprise you because it has no typical Chinese food's characteristic. The reason is because the food is not Chinese in origin, rather, it's actually a fusion of some Indonesian cuisine combined in one.

The composition may differ according to the place. In Semarang (Central Java) for example, it is consisted of Lontong, Opor Ayam, Lodeh Terong, Telur Pindang, Satai Abing, and Sambal Docang. While Chinese Indonesians in the capital of Jakarta enjoy their Lontong with Sayur Labu/Pepaya, Telur Pindang, and sprinkles of Bubuk Kedelai on top of them.

Chinese Indonesians choose the food which have symbolic meanings of "prosperity", longevity", "safety", and/or "happiness".
Wishing you all a prosperous year!

Ga Tam Uop Nuong

Me and my friends love to try out different kinds of cuisines. We live in Bandung, a town with cool climate about 3 hours from Indonesia’s capital Jakarta. It’s not a metropolitan like the capital, but we are happy to say that we can always have a taste of international cuisine.

Banh Cuon Ga

After Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean and Thai, we decided to visit this Vietnamese restaurant. Neither one of us had the experience of eating Vietnamese food, so we didn’t know what to expect. This is kind of sad, as we live in the same region and our countries are partners in ASEAN.

It took us quite a while before we ordered, because we have to ask the waitress about the food first. At last (to our waitress’ relief I’m sure), Bayou ordered Banh Cuo Ga and Ga Tam Uop Nuong, I ordered Goi Cuan Rau and Thit Bo Bam Xao La Hung, Julian ordered Pho Bo, and Mel ordered Mien Cua. For the drinks, we ordered Lemongrass Tea and Mint Tea.

Mien Cua

You know what? All of us enjoyed our meal! Although the names sounds foreign and the way they use the ingredients are a bit unusual for us, the tastes really fit our taste. Regardless if they were good examples of real Vietnamese food or not, they were spicy and hot, it suits our Indonesian palate well.

Pho Bo

Maybe this experience is not such a big deal for most people, but somehow I think these kinds of small, personal and trivial things that could bring us feel closer together.