It’s everyone’s privilege to say that her or his country is rich of different taste of food.There is always something you can find here yet you can’t find it in other places / countries or vice versa:
You complete me.
I assume you know that Indonesia is an archipelago(an extensive groups of islands) country. Each city offers different taste of food, and style of cooking. I have only been to some cities in a few islands , and I am big on the culinary travel in each place I go to (wherever they are) O.K I have a rule:
As long as I think I can eat the food. Some foods don’t really worth trying. Some people in some regions in Indonesia seem to eat things I can’t even manage to tell; the words stuck in my throat. I am not a fear factor fan- so No, I may not eat ALL the foods I consider new just to know how they taste.
I believe it’s never enough to discuss Indonesian culinary in just one blog. One blog about food each day?Well, that looks like a tempting idea, but I think I’ll pass. I can’t really put my thoughts in writing each day sometimes; there are lots of things to do.Besides, “Antara Saya dan Dunia” does not specialize on food only. I am not that good at that, not just yet!
There is a saying of which some Indonesians believe, and this saying seems to be their credo:
Makan tanpa krupuk tuh kurang pas.
Good! thanks for trying to pronounce the sentence! much appreciated my avid readers!
The saying means “There’s something missing when you eat your meals without Krupuk.”
I don’t always serve Krupuk, but I like the idea of having it served on the table whenever I enjoy my meals-YES, with RICE- that’s out of the question!Ya ya! rice is our staple food. I once heard someone who has been living overseas for so many years:
You know, we have a rice cooker at home. Every Indonesian does! in fact, it is the most important kitchen appliance an Indonesian should have wherever he or she stays(especially overseas ,of course)
Some people love experimenting : mixing coffee with tea ( which results unique taste), mixing shrimps with cheese( which I haven’t tried yet), you go figure another experiment!
Speaking of experimenting taste, I really never try eating krupuk with, say, hotdog or kebab or spaghetti, you name one of the food without rice! For the sake of my homeland, I do not mean to say that krupuk can’t be internationally accepted easily, because it doesn’t always go together with any food you want as your meals. Yet, my experience in krupuk is still way too little to tell whether krupuk goes together with spaghetti, kebab, hotdog, lasagna, and all the like. Besides, this opinion about krupuk is a bit objective. It is you ( non-Indonesians) who should give it a try, and tell us how it goes.
Excuse me for my limited knowledge on krupuk/ “cracker” that you eat along with rice in other countries, especially in Asian countries where rice is their staple food. But, in my homeland, Indonesia; I feel like there are just too many variant of krupuk. It’s just so many that it’s not such an easy job to remember each kind of krupuk, like I said; each place offers different taste (I guess what I mean here includes the taste of krupuk.). Some krupuk are spicy, salty, or mixed taste of the two. Some are made from cassava, rice, shrimps, tempe (soybean), sorry I just can’t continue the list as they are so many. Indonesians! please go figure!
One of the krupuk people here often have is called “Emping” or Belinjo or Gnetum Gnemon in Latin. I am not sure which region this emping comes from. Is it found only in Indonesia? or also in some parts of Asian countries? I just consulted Mr.and Mrs. Wikipedia for that! Click on the Latin name, bitte!
Gnetum Gnemon
If you have ever been to Indonesia, or made connections with Indonesians; you might have tried this crunchy cracker. Even though, some foreign friends I know, do not really feel surprised with the taste of emping; maybe they just don’t think it’s special or they don’t experience it enough to tell me how it tastes(some krupuk is an acquired taste.)
Please, allow me to say that emping is indeed my taste. Is it my number one taste for krupuk? I don’t know. But for sure, I never lose my taste for emping. Be warned! even it tastes good to my taste, emping is not recommended to be consumed every day.
Too much love will kill you
But let me rephrase:
Too much emping will cause you pain
Well, anything out of the portion is never good, at least in my opinion.
So, readers! to sum up, should you ever visit us here, try krupuk, or even better emping ( I did the promotion clearly, did I??) Whether or not you like it, you have at least tried the taste of Indonesia, in a small portion. And I can’t thank you enough for that.
Happy weekend!
Note : Pictures are taken from the internet. Google search, key words: emping, belinjo
Lu2Ar
