Food fulfills your hunger, nourishes your body, and restores your stamina. Food tells story too. Throughout history, Indonesia has been involved in trade with many foreigners, such as India, the Middle East, China, and Europe. These contacts influence Indonesian cuisine and assimilate with local dishes.
Indian and Middle Eastern incorporate curried meat and vegetables, goat and lamb dishes, as well as yogurt based sauces. Though coconut milk has replaced the using of yogurt. Elements of Chinese cuisine can be seen in Shumai (dim sum), Bakpao (steam buns with various fillings), Bakmi (noodles), Bakso (meat balls), and Lumpia (shrimp roll). The Chinese originated dish, Fried Rice, has been adopted as Indonesian national dish. Europeans introduced cassava, potato, cauliflower, cabbage, peanuts, tomato, corn, and chili pepper to Indonesian cuisine.
These various dishes reflect the complex cultural history of people who live on the archipelago that make up the modern nation of Indonesia.
Story of Food
Kittens Rescue
My neighborhood is surrounded by stray cats. I like to take home sick kittens to treat their illness. Most kittens are overly ill and died few days later. My cat is the only kitten that grows to adulthood.
A kitten made a way to my house. It was raining. He was wet, cold, thin, and had droopy eyes. I wanted to adopt him but I don't have a space for two cats. So, I decided to nourish him before releasing him. I bath him everyday because he has thick layer of fleas. After a few days, his eyes are getting better but he's still thin.
This noon, when I checked how he was doing, his box was empty. The housemaid said, that he went to the veranda, jumped from the second floor, and escaped through the front gate.
Ramen Girl
Two weeks ago, Abby came to Tokyo to live with her boyfriend. After a brief reunion, her boyfriend left her. Broken hearted, Abby consoles herself at a small ramen shop near her apartment, where she finds her new life and love. This movie has a good morale. When you see a hardship ahead, that means your new life awaits you.
At first, I was irritated by Abby because of her ignorance of other people’s culture. Furthermore, she can’t understand Japanese after one year living in Tokyo. I started liking her when I saw her persistence in studying ramen cooking.
Okuribito
Daigo is a cellist of an orchestra. He returned to his hometown to search for a new job after the dissolution of the orchestra. He landed himself on a bizarre job as a postmortem caretaker. He disliked his job, but eventually came to love his new profession, when he found fulfillment. He restores the cold dead bodies to their beauty. He assists the family of the deceased to have one last beautiful moment to cherish. The most important thing in funeral is, not to mourn the departure of the deceased, but to celebrate the deceased life.
A couple years ago, my grandfather died just a few days before my birthday because of heart attack. My maternal relatives don't have the custom to call a postmortem caretaker. I was terrified when my mom told me to kiss my grandfather's cheek. I was close with him when I was a child. Even though I became distant with him in my teenage years, I will celebrate the memories I had with him.
Forever.
My Association with My Religion
I studied in a christian school all my life. Christian teachings were like my daily bread. My christian teacher taught about how superior christian faith is, Christians are the chosen ones, how pathetic an atheist is, and claimed that atheists always repent to christian faith on their deathbed. I didn't realized how prejudice these teachings were.
For a brief moment, I assisted a Sunday school at a local church in my hometown. TThe teacher told her pupils that dinosaurs didn't exist because they were not in the bible. Of course, they aren't there because at the time when the bible was written, dinosaurs hadn't been discovered yet.
A Christian believes in a self prophecy. What comes out of one's mouth impact one's life. I call it a tell-a-lie prophecy. What's the point of telling anybody, that you have something you don't currently have.
A Christian is self centered. I have a Buddhist roommate. My Christian roommate mocked her behind her back, saying that my Buddhist roommate is praying to a false god and everytime she lights her incense, she invites bad spirits.
Christianity is part of the identity I grew up with, but I don't want any association with those I mentioned above.
Palaeocontact
Yesterday, I watched a video from History Channel on Youtube. It unfolds evidences, the theory supporters explanation, and the skeptics contradiction of the palaeocontact theory.
Palaeocontact is a theory, that human has been in contact with aliens since ancient time. The alien came to earth to assist human to advance their technology. Ancient human recognized the aliens as gods.
The theory itself is debatable and the, so called proofs, are generated from archeological excavations. The skeptics label the supporters of the theory as delusional.
I personally believe that extra terrestrial DOES exist. It could be true that the ancient gods were, in fact, aliens. I am open to this possibility. In the middle ages, when Copernicus said that earth is not flat and the sun is the center of our solar system, all scholars said he was delusional and absurd. Look at it now. We believe that the earth is round and it revolves around the sun.
The video can be watched at this channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/2012IHC
My Relationship with My Parents
I lived with my mom almost half of my lifetime because my dad was away to work from city to city. He came home only on holidays, or when he was assigned in my hometown. He spoiled my with money whenever he was at home. I respect him, when I knew, that he had to sacrifice his time at home to support me and mom.
I am closer to my mom even until this time, but our relationship is not always smooth. At some points in my life, she was over control, and I hated her. In the end of the day, I realized, she did what a mother must do. My father often plays as a mediator to make up the relationship between me and my mother better. When I lost my temper, my mom always takes it patiently.
I am the only child in my family. Eventhough my parents aren't rich, they will do to help me to achieve my goals. Sometimes, I feel like an unuseful child, because I haven't been able to give back anything significant for them.
Mom, dad...
I will work harder and make you proud!