Delicious Foods, Heavenly Drinks
There is another way to very delicious eating and drinking, by far more delicious than what is served, offered in restaurants and eateries. I insist that the most delicious foods and freshest drinks can be the most ordinary, even bitter foods and drinks as well.
Eating warm ketela (cassava), ubi (yam) or ground nuts roasted in the ashes of a campfire can be very delicious eating. Or one should walk or cycle leisurely in the evening and drop by somewhere to buy tahu pong (Soybean-cake) while hearing its gentle sizzle, the peaceful buzz of the burner and eat it warm from the frying pan. Or you should also buy roasted corn, watch the glowing cinders, breathe the appetizing roasted flavor, hear the lively spluttering and popping in the fire, then eat the corn slowly, sitting or squatting in the flickering surroundings of vendors, on the side walk.
Hear the lonely whistle of the kue putu vendor at night, eat the “rice-cake” warm on a leaf, or drink warm sekoteng (ginger-like drink). Perhaps you wouldn’t hear the kecapi (harp-like instrument) sounds today. Hearing its soft plucked strings, the sounds of chirping crickets, the hooting owl in the open air at night would be even a greater delight than listening stiffly in concert halls. Sitting at ease, eating or drinking at ease, accompanied by nature’s sounds, a fire-fly, undisturbed by debts, guests, appointments, glaring city-lights, beneath a starry sky, one would forget all the arts, philosophy and dinners.
Drink cool water from the kendi (earthen water vessel). Call the mbok pecel, the middle-aged woman -vendor, who carries a broad tray of cooked vegetables on her head like a sombrero. Eat pecel served on banana-leaf with your fingers sitting on the steps - never sit on chairs, unless you can nestle yourself comfortably by drawing your feet up on to the seat -, sit on the floor as children, kampong (village) and Japanese people do, or sit on the grass or perch on a boulder on the bank of a stream when you’re picnicking.
The nicest. freshest, strongest drink you could get at the roadside in the shade of a tree from a charming jamu vendor. She is as fresh as a mountain-breeze and carries her basket in a slendang (shawl) on her back, with bottles of bitter-sweet-hot drinks, serving her customer on her knees with a grace, no geisha or stewardess could ever rival.
An artist painted the most delicious food and coolest drink just as common folk-food served on a leaf and a cool squirted drink from the kendi (earthen vessel). It is served to a squatting man by a lovely Bali-woman sitting behind her low table as food-stand on the sidewalk.
Omar Khayam, the Persian poet, needed a loaf of bread and a jug of wine when his lover was with him. Though in a wilderness, he’d dine as in paradise.
Such are the delicacies that far surpass the most delicious, expensive foods and drinks offered in the most famous restaurants, the grandest feasts and I’d say even the banquets of kings.
Rich flavors of eating in the open air, the foretaste of watching, attending, breathing, hearing the food being prepared and cooked. Tastes of eating at leisure, ease and privacy, free from worries and sickness. There’s sweetness in sharing one’s food with a lover.
Subtle tastes, rich flavors, exquisite sweetness no cook, no appetizer or ingredient ever could add, turning the most ordinary foods and drinks into the most delicious foods and heavenly drinks.
They are within the purse of all and for anyone to enjoy. Yet, money can’t buy them, for each one of us would have to depend upon his, her own “recipe”.
There is another way to very delicious eating and drinking, by far more delicious than what is served, offered in restaurants and eateries. I insist that the most delicious foods and freshest drinks can be the most ordinary, even bitter foods and drinks as well.
Eating warm ketela (cassava), ubi (yam) or ground nuts roasted in the ashes of a campfire can be very delicious eating. Or one should walk or cycle leisurely in the evening and drop by somewhere to buy tahu pong (Soybean-cake) while hearing its gentle sizzle, the peaceful buzz of the burner and eat it warm from the frying pan. Or you should also buy roasted corn, watch the glowing cinders, breathe the appetizing roasted flavor, hear the lively spluttering and popping in the fire, then eat the corn slowly, sitting or squatting in the flickering surroundings of vendors, on the side walk.
Hear the lonely whistle of the kue putu vendor at night, eat the “rice-cake” warm on a leaf, or drink warm sekoteng (ginger-like drink). Perhaps you wouldn’t hear the kecapi (harp-like instrument) sounds today. Hearing its soft plucked strings, the sounds of chirping crickets, the hooting owl in the open air at night would be even a greater delight than listening stiffly in concert halls. Sitting at ease, eating or drinking at ease, accompanied by nature’s sounds, a fire-fly, undisturbed by debts, guests, appointments, glaring city-lights, beneath a starry sky, one would forget all the arts, philosophy and dinners.
Drink cool water from the kendi (earthen water vessel). Call the mbok pecel, the middle-aged woman -vendor, who carries a broad tray of cooked vegetables on her head like a sombrero. Eat pecel served on banana-leaf with your fingers sitting on the steps - never sit on chairs, unless you can nestle yourself comfortably by drawing your feet up on to the seat -, sit on the floor as children, kampong (village) and Japanese people do, or sit on the grass or perch on a boulder on the bank of a stream when you’re picnicking.
The nicest. freshest, strongest drink you could get at the roadside in the shade of a tree from a charming jamu vendor. She is as fresh as a mountain-breeze and carries her basket in a slendang (shawl) on her back, with bottles of bitter-sweet-hot drinks, serving her customer on her knees with a grace, no geisha or stewardess could ever rival.
An artist painted the most delicious food and coolest drink just as common folk-food served on a leaf and a cool squirted drink from the kendi (earthen vessel). It is served to a squatting man by a lovely Bali-woman sitting behind her low table as food-stand on the sidewalk.
Omar Khayam, the Persian poet, needed a loaf of bread and a jug of wine when his lover was with him. Though in a wilderness, he’d dine as in paradise.
Such are the delicacies that far surpass the most delicious, expensive foods and drinks offered in the most famous restaurants, the grandest feasts and I’d say even the banquets of kings.
Rich flavors of eating in the open air, the foretaste of watching, attending, breathing, hearing the food being prepared and cooked. Tastes of eating at leisure, ease and privacy, free from worries and sickness. There’s sweetness in sharing one’s food with a lover.
Subtle tastes, rich flavors, exquisite sweetness no cook, no appetizer or ingredient ever could add, turning the most ordinary foods and drinks into the most delicious foods and heavenly drinks.
They are within the purse of all and for anyone to enjoy. Yet, money can’t buy them, for each one of us would have to depend upon his, her own “recipe”.
The Jakarta Post, May 27, 1986
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