Text 21228, 123 rader
Skriven 2012-02-13 14:46:00 av Glen Jamieson
     Kommentar till en text av Michael Loo
Ärende: FOOD MEMORIES 210 20213
===============================
 -=> Quoting Michael Loo to Glen Jamieson <=-

 GJ> My favourite chicken meat was prepared by the cook at the plantation
 GJ> canteen in Sumatra where I was working.
 ML> How was it made? Moist heat I presume.

Long simmering in a sauce heavy with spices and coconut cream gave
tender drumsticks, deeply infused with complex flavours.

 ML> Those chickens were lean,
 GJ> athletic birds that fed on insects and anything else they could pick
 GJ> up in their daily struggle for existance around the houses.
 ML> The taste makes up for the lack of tenderness, doesn't it.

We got tenderness, also.  I have been looking back over my diary notes
from that period.  The food served in that canteen at lunch for the
more senior plantation workers included fried small fish, chicken and
many kinds of tempeh, from dry-fried loose beans mixed with dried ikan
bilis (sort of very small anchovies), a dark, dangerous-looking
version with dried prawns (udang) and small dried chilies, to paler,
rectangular cakes with egg.

In that canteen diners grabbed plates, helped themselves to rice, then
a nice girl served the other ingredients from dishes on the buffet, as
requested, "Satu ini, dan satu ini." (That one, and that one.), then
the last item would be the sambal, given out by the table-spoon. I
preferred the rich, milder red to the harsh, very hot green, normally
requesting "dua", although once the girl got to know me, she always
served me two spoons.  The usual accompaniment to lunch was iced tea,
served in a glass, and made hot and strong to 1/3 of the glass, then
ice cubes added.  Once it had been mixed up enough, it was OK.

Sometimes the cook would make a special effort, such as a lunch with
thinly sliced goat in an onion sauce, cubed tempeh and liver, whole
small fish, chicken, assorted vegetables including green breadfruit
cooked in coconut cream, tiny (15mm) clams and a few small marine
snails cooked in a broth with lemon grass, ginger and chilies. Yum!

The canteen breakfast was usually noodles - mie goreng - with chilies
and prawns, fried or scrambled egg and kopi susu.

When visiting the city of Jambi - a 2 hour drive - with other workshop
staff, we would dine at one or other of the many varieties of
restaurant, featuring dishes from other parts of Indonesia.  The
eastern-most islands - Bali and Lombok - are fairly mild in spicing,
getting more pedas towards the west.  In the Padang restaurants, up to
15 different dishes would be placed on the table in front of the
diners, often stacked in 2 layers.  Typically only about 5 dishes
would be chosen and consumed, and the other dishes would be removed
and taken to the next group of diners.  We would only be charged for
the dishes eaten.  If only a small part of the food in a dish was
taken, it would be charged fully.

At those restaurants, we ate grilled tuna, catfish, green nanka and
kangkong vegetables, goat soup, chicken rendang and dendeng (thin
slices of spicy beef, dried to tender, black and crunchy) - very good.
For drinks, fruit juices were served, including durian juice in
season, and "es ceruk" - a type of citrus.  One rather impressive
looking drink was "apokat", blended avocado with swirls of chocolate.
The cost of a meal like that for 4 people was typically Rp54,000
(US$5.40), and I generously paid for everyone out of my $75/week
allowance.  It was not usual to tip.  A charge of Rp1,000 was added to
the bill to park the car outside the restaurant.

 ML> --
 
 GJ> It is fun to taste again in memory.

 ML> It is indeed: I enjoy this costfree and noncaloric indulgence
 ML> at times, and sometimes it is enough in and of itself to satisfy.

At the time I enjoyed that life-style, but got used to it quite
quickly.  In retrospect I now realise I have been very fortunate to
have those rich experiences before getting too old to qualify for that
volunteer service.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05
 
      Title: Dendeng Pedas ('hot' Fried Beef)
 Categories: Indonesian, Beef, Ceideburg
      Yield: 6 Servings
 
      1 kg (2 lb) topside (beef)

MMMMM--------------------------MARINADE-------------------------------
      1 tb Olive oil
    1/2 ts Black pepper
      1 tb Dark soya sauce

MMMMM---------------------------BUMBU--------------------------------
     10    Shallots
      4    Red chillis (or 2 tbs
           -Sambal Ulek)
      2 tb Vegetable oil
           Salt
      1 tb Lemon or fresh lime juice
 
  * Cut the beef fairly thin and trim it into small, square pieces.
  Marinate it for 1 hour or longer. Remember that pedas=hot++spicy hot!
  This is fried beef, with a robust flavour of chilli. Slice the
  shallots finely. Seed and slice the chillis.  Fry them in a
  tablespoonful of oil, in a wok, stirring all the time until they are
  golden brown. Add salt to taste. Keep hot. Put a tablespoonful of oil
  in a thick frying-pan, and fry the slices of meat a few at a time.
  Three minutes on each side will be ample*. When all the pieces are
  cooked, put them into the wok with the shallots and chilli. Heat, and
  mix well. Sprinkle over the mixture 1 tablespoonful of lemon juice,
  or, better still, fresh lime juice. Stir, and add more salt if
  necessary.  Serve hot, with rice. * NOTE: In Indonesia, the meat is
  usually fried until crisp.  You can even buy sun-dried dendeng which
  only needs coating with bumbu and frying. Crisp dendeng can be rather
  tough, and I prefer it as described above; however, a purist might
  say that my recipe is not 'genuinely' Indonesian. Makes 6 servings.
  From "Indonesian Food and Cookery", Sri Owen, Prospect Books, London,
  1986." ISBN 0-907325-29-7. Posted by Stephen Ceideberg; March 1 1993.
 
MMMMM
 

___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 [NR]

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 * Origin: Braintap BBS Adelaide Australia (3:800/449)