Chinese Food in Indonesia

Hello~~! How are you doing? Are you hungry? So am I!!
What do you want to eat now? Japanese food? Italian? French? Spanish? Or Chinese? I think Chinese food became so popular and common in Japan and there are a lot of Chinese restaurants here. So, how about in other countries? Many countries including America, Canada and Japan have an area called “China Town”, and lots of Chinese people run Chinese restaurants all over the world. My parents live in Jakarta, Indonesia now and I visited them in January. I was so excited to eat Indonesian food especially Nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice) because I really really like it! I tried to go to local restaurants to experience local food, genuine taste and their quality and atmosphere. I enjoyed Indonesian food and it became one of my favorite foods, but the memorable fact I found there is… there were so many Chinese restaurants as if I felt I was in China! So my parents and I went to some Chinese restaurants 3 times a week. Then I found another interesting point, and that is they do not use pork at all! Indonesia is Islamic country, therefore most people do not eat pork. That religious feature has influence not only on Indonesian cuisine, but also on other cuisine in Indonesia. Of course, in China, they eat pork. For instance, xiao long bao (小籠包), sprig roll, meat stuffed green pepper, fried rice and many more have pork in them. But as I said Indonesian people don’t eat pork, so they use other meat such as chicken and beef instead.




I ate xiao long bao and which had chicken inside, not pork. That was the first time for me to eat xiao long bao without pork. The taste was really good and I think I don’t care if it is pork or chicken. Anyway, it tastes good.




Besides, I experienced another new xiao long bao, “a dessert xiao long bao”. That had red bean jam inside. In Hong Kong or main land of China, I have never found such a dessert xiao long bao, so I was not sure the taste would be good, but soon after I ate it I became a big fan of it! I think I am so lucky to know both taste: pork xiao long bao and chicken xiao long bao, and the new taste of dessert xiao long bao as well.
I can try all of the foods all around the world because I have no religious believe or rules, but there are so many people who do not eat certain foods which I normally eat because of religion. That is a little bit weird, but interesting! And I can definitely say that we can experience unique version of some cuisine in different countries like I experience different types of xiao long bao in Indonesia, not in China.