The Netherlands - Indonesian Food

There are countless Indonesians in the Netherlands - why of course, we had a long lasting relationship with the Dutch! I'm too lazy to write the history of Dutch occupation because I'm not very good at memorizing historical facts and you can actually Google it.

This time I want to talk about food. As I said in the previous post, I found many different varieties of Indonesian food at the supermarket in the Netherlands, and I actually love the fact that I can find them easily at almost every groceries.

On my second last day of orientation we were served nasi goreng (Indonesian word for fried rice). They don't even call it "fried rice" here. It's actually pretty cool to have a term in your language not translated into English or Dutch.

What I find weird about this nasi goreng is the way they serve it. Aside from the shrimp crackers, everything else on the plate was not what you commonly see in Indonesia. They serve the fried rice with peanut sauce! Throughout my entire 23 years of living as an Indonesian who is still culturally strong, I've never seen anything like this. Yes, we do use peanut sauce in a lot of dishes, but they are mainly salads or grilled skewers (sate). Never on fried rice.

I was in doubt about the peanut sauce and fried rice combination, so I asked the waitress what the sauce is for, and she said "for the fried rice."

Well, I tried eating the rice with the peanut sauce. Not the best combination ever, but it didn't taste bad. I just found it weird. It's like you grew up knowing eating bread with peanut butter and then suddenly you're told to mix peanut butter with grape jam and spread the mix on your toast. A lot of Americans find peanut butter and jelly delicious, but I find it a little weird with the mix of salty, savory, and tanginess.

They also have sambal (chili sauce), which actually tastes pretty good compared to the chili sauce in Singapore (it's like eating sugar syrup with a hint of capsaicin). I feel that a lot of sambal here is mixed with trassi (fermented shrimp paste). And I don't mind it because I love trassi. It's very savory.

I'm really glad I could easily find rice at the supermarket. Nasi goreng is so easy to make, it's yummy, and it fills your tummy.

I'm looking forward to trying Indonesian food in the Netherlands, but at the same time, I want to make use of my time in Europe to try more European food. I'll try the famous Dutch tomato soup next time!

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The Netherlands - Exploration Days

It's been more than a week! And yes I have tons of reasons and excuses for not posting anything to this blog. The Annual Introduction Day (AID) took so much of my time, and I actually fell sick on my 3rd day in the Netherlands.

The weather had been pretty bizzarre here: it was sunny, hot (37C) and humid. It wasn't the usual Netherlands weather, so people said. And since it's normally windy and chilly here, there was no fan or AC installed in the dorm room so those days were friggin' hot. I couldn't sleep for 3 days. Back in Indonesia I deal with hot and humid weather, around 32C in average, and I could survive because almost every house is installed with at least a fan. Luckily, the temperature was back to 'normal' after 5 days.

The orientation was fun, although I wish more of my group members would turn up. We only had about 5-6 members per day. It's a little sad, but I got to know a little more about the campus.

Travelling by bus is a little expensive, but if I save up on other expenses I'm sure I'll be able to reach the school just fine.

As I heard from  many people, almost everyone in the Netherlands uses a bike to travel around. I'm quite used to walking a long distance walk, so I was actually fine not knowing how to bike. But the problem comes when your friends ask you to hang out with them and you're the only one who don't have a bike. It's hard to tell them "please go on ahead I'll be walking" and if you keep making them wait for you I'm sure they'll get fed up.

So I bought a bike. Yup. I fell down so many times as I tried to learn how to bike for the first time in 20 years and the bruises on my left leg actually look pretty scary. They're huge and black (not blue). I showed them to my mum and she was actually freaking out. Well, I hope they heal soon.

Anyways, I explored a little bit about the town I'm currently staying at: Ede.

Being an Indonesian, I saw a lot of familiar words from Indonesian language, such as the picture at the bottom:

I knew that a lot of vocabularies in Indonesian language is actually derived from Dutch, yet I still find a lot of things awkward. Especially when you see Indonesian terms written in Dutch, as follows:

Sajoer Lodeh is actually an Indonesian dish, kind of like vegetables in coconut milk-based soup. I find it funny because that was how Indonesians used to write before 1972. We learned how to write roman letters thanks to the Dutch, and we learned how to read those letters according to the way the Dutch read them. The correct way of writing it in current Indonesian language is Sayur Lodeh. So it felt like I was brought to the past.

Tons of "misspelled" Indonesian products in the Netherlands. Those products may have been adjusted to the local taste but it's better than nothing :)

Another exciting thing about my first week in the Netherlands was the celebration of my country's independence day from the Dutch. I didn't feel anything awkward about it, but when I thought about it, it was ironically funny.

The red and white flag is actually Indonesian, by the way. We share the same flag as Monaco, and if you invert our flag up side down, you'll see a Polish flag.

The food provided by during the orientation was so-so. Well, I didn't expect anything grand since the university must have been affected by the Euro crisis as well. One day we had a BBQ outside. It was really hot and humid. We had chicken sate (skewer), beef patties, chicken sausages, bread and some salads.

The last day of the orientation was fun: graffiti workshop.

We went to the museum in Wageningen as well. There's no entrance fee. A lot of things have English translations, but you'll see some stuffs that are only available in Dutch.

When Germany surrendered at the end of World War II, the agreement to have the Germans disarmed was actually signed in Wageningen. 5 May, 1945.

And then we walked a little bit towards the meadow at the back of the school. Well, in general, this is how things look like in Wageningen. It's a very small town with lots of greens (which I heard will turn yellow and brown once autumn has started). Very peaceful, and you could see lots of beautiful stars when it's not cloudy at night.

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The Netherlands - Hello Amsterdam!

I've been on hiatus for quite some time, and yes I'm no longer in Japan. I headed back to Indonesia after I was done with my language school in Tokyo, and now I'm in Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands. There is free wi-fi all around the airport but it's not very fast. I attempted to use FaceTime and Viber, and either I couldn't get connected, or the other party doesn't hear me.

The airport is pretty lovely, but I wish they have more seats that are located next to a power plug. I spent the first half hour trying to find seats with power plugs next to it. Well, I found one near the train station. Still part of the airport but it's at the center where it's connected to the train station. Pretty convenient, huh?

I have to wait for another hour to meet the person who would pick me up and show me the way to my university (and I suppose another hour and a half after that for the next new student to arrive, go through the immigration and pick up her baggages).

Can't be helped but I think it's better for me to wait instead of heading there alone and not knowing where to go :')

Tons of cafetaria and restaurants around, but most of them sell sandwiches and all sorts of bread. It's gonna be a little tough for me because I don't really like bread. It's not the taste or the texture, but bread gives me a different kind of satiety. A weird kind, I would say. Probably because I'm so used to digesting rice and noodles, but not bread.

Alright, time to rest up a little bit. I'm still a little sleepy; 12 hour flight isn't very pleasant. I'll probably gonna watch a couple episodes of Shirokuma Cafe for now.

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