I don’t usually group someone with another person when running Jakarta walking tour. But, Johanna, a guest from France, let me run a tour with ‘additional’ guest, Susan, who came from Washington DC. What happened next? They both surprised me.
Témpé” and “Peté” are Their Favorite
Johanna, who has a plan to travel across Indonesia in three weeks, loves ‘peté’. Peté is a local fruit that usually paired with sambal (chili sauce). It has a bitter (a little bit) and a crunchy taste, because you can eat it directly, freshly, without being cooked first. What made me surprised is…. peté for some people, including me, is a food that we must avoid, so I was laughing when Johanna said, “I like it!”
If you eat ‘peté’ too much, then your urine will smell soooo bad for one or two days after you ate it. Even if you already flush your toilet a couple times, the smell is still there, lingering inside your toilet. That’s why when someone eat ‘peté’, some other people will feel ‘eeeeww..’ and imagining about bad smell in the toilet, lol..
And, how was Susan? Did she like ‘peté’ too? Unfortunately, she was not there when Johanna tried peté at Padang Restaurant. She already back in the hotel after one day strolling around Jakarta Chinatown and Jakarta Old Town area with us. In our walking tour, Susan said, “I like témpé, we have it on the (United) State, but we don’t cook it in as tasty a way!”
So…what’s came to my mind is Susan should eat ‘témpé’ when we had lunch together. Oh, wait, I didn’t wait until lunch to let Susan and Johanna taste local foods.
We ate coconut milk popsicles, called ‘és potong’.
We tried fish cake, called ‘pémpék’.
And so on…
I should say thank you for my friend, Meta, who joined the tour, also Susan and Johanna, to let me understand customs and habits in their own country. Thank you and see you when I see you! 😀