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.