Sebab Merumbu Adalah Takdir Manusia

There are things you can count in, and there are some you can’t. While you can count Indonesia's islands, which consist of 13.487 island, it is almost impossible to count Indonesian food diversity. When I say impossible, it is literally. Take an example: soto. Most of every region or city in Indonesia has its own version of soto. From Sroto Banyumas, Coto Makassar, Soto Sulung, and three most popular kinds: Soto Betawi, Soto Madura, and Soto Banjar. Every single one of them have quite different taste and appearance. Can you imagine that? One name, and uncountable appearance and taste.

Soto Betawi is made from mix of chicken or beef stock, milk or santan (milk squeezed from coconut), beef innards, and the gnetum gnemon chips as side dish. In Soto Madura, you'll see the thick gravy chicken broth mixed with sohun (chinese transparent bean flour vermicelli) and the chicken shred. Meanwhile, Soto Banjar is consist of chicken stock, sohun, mashed potato cake, chicken shred, and potato chips.

That's one example. Now let's take a look on the different main food in Indonesia. You can say that rice is the main food in almost every part of Indonesia. Yes, almost. Because not every part of Indonesia take rice as their main food. The Papuans or people of Celebes take sago palm as their main food. They don’t take rice as their main food. Now this is a great diversity.

When I traveled to Derawan Island, East Borneo, few years ago, I saw and experienced an awkward moment when I ate fried banana with hot peanut and chilli sauce. In my region, East Java, banana which has a sweet and soft texture usually mixed with flour and sugar. It is strange to see people eat banana with peanut sauce which has raw texture and spicy taste. This “new” food is came from Bajo Tribe, the sea gypsy from Indonesia who live in eastern part of Indonesia.

This is a brand new experience which depict a culture diversity in Indonesia. So, I understand this new culture through food.