The Paulaner Brewpub

Just a quick update today, as it sort of ties in with the "food" topic.

Lunch yesterday consisted of a soy-marinated then roasted whole fish of unknown species. Very good and boneless, about the upper end of my spectrum of spicy. Very very good. There I was peeling the skin off when the business partner we were lunching with, pointed out I'm supposed to eat the skin. I tried .. but the texture just wasn't for me.

In the mall next to the hotel there is a Paulaner Brewpub. They had their grand opening this weekend so I was looking forward to trying it, and I got that chance last night. Previously I had a 0.5l bottle of Erdinger Hefeweizen which ran me $13, so I wasn't sure how many brews I could afford (daily meal allowance here is about $40). I was happy to see Paulaner's brew cost a mere $6/0.5l.

So they had two choices. I was expecting a list of Paulaner's brews, like in a brewpub, but they had just two - "Lager" and "Dark". I asked the waitress which styles they are, and she replied "the lager is a yellow style, and the dark is a brown style". oooooookkaaaaaaaayyyyy. Well, she let me know she's moslem and doesn't drink. Fair enough, so I ordered the lager. It was their hefeweizen, which, if you know beer, isn't a lager. But it is yellow. And it was very good - they must brew it locally because it had that freshness that German brews lose when they cross the Atlantic or travel long distances. If you're in the US and think you like German beer, you really should give thought to a vacation Germany and try it fresh. Come to think of it ... the Euro may likely collapse this summer (think Greece, bailouts, and ripples), making it reasonably inexpensive to travel there. Not to mention that the Germans are so dang friendly and most speak english .. it's a very nice place to visit.

So anyway, I didn't get to try the 'dark' yet, which I suspect is the dunkelweizen. It could be a bock, but I don't think Paulaner brews that. I was too full from the jaegerschnitzel. Technically they called it 'escalopes' which is the same thing - pork or veal pounded flat. The schnitzel part is breading and pan frying it. An addition of a brown sauce with mushrooms makes it a 'jaeger' version - and served with kartoffeln (i.e. potatoes).

Indonesian Food

There's no dieting here. The food is too good!

No chopsticks are used, and rarely have I been provided with a knife. Indonesians eat with a fork in one hand, a spoon in the other. The spoon is mostly used to help push food onto the fork (and to eat soups and sauces).

There are contemporary and traditional styles. Traditional first.

The traditional foods include rice, chicken, fruits etc. but with different flavors than we're used to. For example, I've frequently been served hard-boiled eggs - but boiled in a beef broth (I think) of sorts which gives it a mud-brown color and a distinct flavor. Not bad ... but different. Rice and chicken are as we expect, but once in a while there will be a dish on the menu with "chicken hearts". I have skipped that one. Jackfruit is common too - I've had it cooked, it brown, looks like small wood chips but with a soft texure and tastes like ... soft nutty wood. It is pretty good and served as a condiment. Soybeans are common too. I've heard reference to an "avocado juice" drink, but haven't had much luck finding it so far.

But it's not all good. There's the fried and cooked beef skin. The flavor is good, but the texture leaves a lot to be desired. Skin is mostly collagen (i.e. gelatin) and this side-dish has the consistency of juicy motorcycle seat foam which falls apart in your mouth like the gelatin in cans of Spam. It is truly the only thing I have not liked so far.

I'm also finding many coconut milk dishes, which shouldn't be surprising since there are plenty of coconut trees here ;-)

The contemporary cuisine is very similar to Thai with some Indian influences but without the curry. I was very surprised when I looked for a curry dish and didn't find one. Instead I have found many dishes with peanut sauces, bamboo shoots and compositions similar to pad thai. Fried eggs are very common. Chicken marinated in the same fashion as tikka marsala, whole roasted fish and roasted teriyaki duck. The duck was excellent ... not something I would usually try, but I sure did enjoy it. Oh yeah .. can't forget the tofu. Great food for soaking up local spices.

Beef is also common, but usually served braised and in a soup, like this:

Being a thoroughly modern society, cuisines from other parts of the world are available such as sushi, pasta, hamburgers etc. It just depends how much you want to pay. The steakhouse attached to the Grand Hyatt has excellent food but it is overpriced - the Norwegian salmon I had last night blew my meal allowance by about double but it was one of the least expensive items on the menu - the 5 oz corn-fed midwestern filet mignon was $110 ... the shark fin $120 (and shark fin soup was $45). For the sake of comparison - a lunch at a local Indo establishment with rice, beans, chicken and shrimp is about $2 - about the same as a cup of Starbucks.

Oh .. the coffee (called 'kopi' here) .. Indonesia has some of the best coffee in the world: Sumatra, Sulawesi, Papua. And that one that is picked out of civet poop. In general the coffee here is very good, but I suspect the best coffee is exported. When served coffee in cafe's or with meals it has always been thick, dark, aromatic and strong, but it lacks some of the complexities I'm used to back home. A quick cup at a Starbucks confirmed this - the complexity was there. Since coffee beans are a great cash crop, I wouldn't be surprised if the best beans are exported (although the roasting process has a large influence too). But for all this great coffee .. the Grand Hyatt rooms only have water heaters and powdered instant coffee. I made a cup the first day and once sip later it was down the drain. It was worse than ANY coffee I have had, even the stale overcooked car dealership stuff. Yuck!

On our excursion to Yogyakarta we made a trip to a bakpia factory. These desserts (pictured above) are cooked green beans with sugar, covered with dough and roasted. Despite what it sounds, these are actually Very good and are available in various flavors - cheese, and my favorite, chocolate. The owner brought us into the rear of the shop where hundreds of workers sat, rolling the filling, covering with dough.

That's all for now .. I'll leave you with another picture of the bakpia because I'm going to eat one now (and Chrome crashes when I try to delete it).

Palaces and Temples

Me and the Evil Twin

This was a holiday weekend in Indonesia, celebrating the birth and life of Buddha. Rica, her friend and I flew to Yogyakarta to visit some temples. Rica and her friend took Thursday off too, and I flew in the next (Friday) morning. The flight was cheap - $170 or for first class, and that was expensive due to being last minute - and then we rented a car for about $50/day (which included a driver!) and went zooming around.

The first one was the Sultan's Palace, guarded by two statues which are twin brothers. The one on the left was evil, the one on the right good. Knowing me, I can't keep left/right straight .. I would confuse good/evil.

followed by a visit to his weekend water park:

If you'd like to read more about it .. go here.

And then the first of a series of strange requests occured. Two young girls .. maybe 12 years old .. asked if they could take a picture of me. They gave their camera to a grownup and stood next to me and got their picture. Wierd.

We moved on to Prembanen which is a ninth-century Hindu temple.

It's actually several sites with multiple temples. The main one is pictured above, with a couple more around it. These were found in ruins and have since been rebuilt.

And then it happened again. An older gentleman from Malaysia asked to have his picture taken with me. Of course I obliged ... but .. wierd. Within two minutes, two women wearing shawls (i.e. moslems ... there are lots of them here) ... asked for a photo. Now I'm starting to put some thought into this. Am I a good luck charm or something? There aren't many westerners here, and I have yet to see one with red hair ... so I wonder if they've never seen a redhead before and want a photo.

Another temple site, called Sewu, was a short walk away.

This was still in the process of being built. There are 249 smaller temples around it which are mainly just piles of rubble.

The next day we visited Borobudur, a Buddhist temple, and a big one at that. It has ten levels and lots and lots of reliefs.

This time a group of 7-8 young boys wanted their picture taken with the friendly redhead Norwegian.

I could sit here and write all day long .. about the food, the people, the traffic .. there will be more, but later.

That's the view from my room in Jakarta.

I'm at a Hyatt. I usually stay at Hilton's since that's what IBM approves, but in this case they approved the Hyatt .. and wow .. talk about incredible service, nice rooms, nice views. This is a 5-star hotel for $95/night. Even their fitness center is the best I've ever seen in a hotel. Well, ok, I have one complaint: the room AC is pretty aggressive - and coming from me, He Who Hates Humidity, is saying a lot. Oh yeah, there's no alarm clock. And here's me without a watch. I'm sure I can find something in this town.

The tempurature toady was about 90F and extremely humid, yet my host tells me the neighboring islands (like Singapore) can be much, much worse. I just wish I could wear shorts :-( All men wear dark pants here - except me, I have cream-colored pants, and I stand out. But no shorts. Haven't seen a man wearing shorts yet. The women have more leeway with skirts .. maybe I should wear that? Although 86% of the population is muslim, maybe one in ten women wear shawls and I have yet to see a burka.

Getting to Jakarta was easy and relatively pleasant with the exception of an 8-hour layover in the Singapore airport. The flights from Chicago to Hong Kong to Singapore put me in Singapore at 11pm, and the next flight to Jakarta boarded at 7am. The Singapore airport is HUGE - it took me about an hour to walk through the whole thing. By the time I had found internet access and walked to the far end of the airport the shuttle back to where the (relatively) comfy benches were had stopped running (the airport was also nearly empty). So I walked back .. I had time. By the time I got comfy on the bench and had fallen asleep I was woken by the airport police who wanted to check my passport. Grr... couldn't get back to sleep.

This was my first time flying on Singapore Air .. wow .. these flight attendants are true professionals. They put their american counterparts to shame. The steamed towels, excellent food and coffee was nice, but it was how the service was delivered that really stood out. They were prompt and cheerful, not grumpy and clumsy. My flight homewards via Amsterdam is on Singapore Air.

Once in Jakarta I was happy to get out of planes and ports. After nearly 40 hours of being in controlled environments it was wonderful to step outside into the heat and humidity. BTW I wish I could have taken a picture of a sign in the immigrations line: "Drug trafickers will be put to death." I think I made many other mental notes to remember something, and have promptly forgotten them.

Outside the airport I met Rica, my host, and she drove us to the Hyatt to check in as our client was having network issues and were not ready for us. The drive from the airport to the hotel in downtown Jakarta was (I am guessing) typical of this part of the world: Chaotic. Yet Rica handled it with finesse. She's not a racer, but glided in and out of lanes with ease in situations that would have frazzled western drivers. Lanes were painted on the road, but nobody paid them attention. 2/5 of the traffic was scooters which flitted in and out of traffic. People merged and yielded patiently without anger - very different from back home. It was almost as if the drivers were able to read each other's minds.

One of the highlights of traveling is food. Food rules. Food rocks. I like food very much, and so far, that includes Indonesian cuisine. Satay is common, as are curries and peanut sauces. So far I would describe it as Thai with more emphasis on heavier sauces and flavors. Still ... it is all very good and I am looking forward to trying more.

And ... their beer. So far I have only tried their "Bintang" local pilsen-style lager. While not as crisp and hoppy and Urquell, it is more so than the American counterparts. Over lunch today I noticed the Paulaner Brauhaus in the attached mall .. hmm .. I might make that dinner tomorrow night ;-)