Foods of Indonesia

We've had the opportunity to eat/try a few interesting options in culinary arts. Our first was dog meat at a dinner in Jakarta soon after our arrival. Sister Kusumarmanto cooked dog meat at the request of one of the missionary couples (not us). It tasted a bit like chicken--just kidding. It was the texture of beef, but was prepared in a spicy sauce.

Sister Kusumarmanto and I at the couple's conference.

Our next food adventure was at the first zone conference in Surabaya. After the conference President Groberg always takes the missionaries to lunch at a buffet near the church. There we had the opportunity to try chicken feet.  Actually, we only nibbled on the coating--not brave at all.

Elders in back row: Mulyono, Rondonuwu, Hernandez, Jameson,..., Quinn, Go, Widodo, Tjoe, ..., Damavandi, Marsudi.
Sisters are Suryono and Blake. Elder and Sister Seiter, Pres. and Sister Groberg, Elder and Sister Jerry and Nadene Kepler. 

When we started visiting the members of the Surabaya First Branch, Sister Martoya and her daughter Maria fed us fried snails. They're not bad! 

After the Young Single Adult conference in the mountains east of Solo, Rhama took us to a specialty restaurant that serves porcupine and squirrel. We tried the porcupine in two different forms and really enjoyed it! Maybe we'll have to take up raising porcupines--or maybe not.

While visiting a member in Blitar, about 2 hours west and a little south of Malang, we were invited to go to lunch at a restaurant that had Chinese food. Personally, we can't distinguish between the Asian foods. They all have rice and many interesting ingredients that we can't name. Unfortunately, we like all the foods quite well and have put on some weight. We do draw the line when it comes to rice two times a day and two days in a row. Meity, an inactive member in Blitar, gave us 4 black eggs as we were leaving, along with some unusual fruit. I'm not even going to begin to catalog the interesting fruits that are found here. The black eggs, we are told, are very old. The green ones are sold hard cooked in salt brine, from what we can understand. We added both to corned beef for some very delicious sandwiches. 

Our latest culinary adventure was at a restaurant south and east of Malang while we were out visiting members who live more than an hour from the church. We stopped for a very late lunch and much needed bathroom stop. Here we ordered some quail eggs since we often see them for sale in the grocery stores and have never tasted them.

The fish is tilapia, quail eggs top right and a dish of vegetables
top left. The little brown thing with the fish is made from
shredded cassava, sweetened and fried. Great meal!