Recipes and Foods of Indonesia - Masakan Indonesia - Spicy Natural Healthy Foods

Indonesians love rice. In their language there are at least five separate words for rice in it's various stages and forms. In fact, if an Indonesian has not had rice with a meal they may say they have not yet eaten, even if they had copious amounts of meat or vegetable - but without rice to accompany the meal.

Most Indonesians eat rice as the main dish for two or three meals. In fact some Indonesians feel they don't eat a meal unless it is rice. There is a joke that says, even if you have eaten a loaf of bread, you are still hungry. It's gotta be rice! Other Indonesians are fine with bread or noodles. For those Indonesians who have been abroad, they are able and accostomed to having breakfast with bread.

So when we say, Indonesians eat a lot of rice - what do we mean? Lunch, for example, you'll see people with a plate full with rice and a piece of chicken, or fish, or eggs and "sambal" (chilli sauce). Indonesians like to eat hot (as in spicy) food. In general Indonesian food is more spicy than Mexican food. If you order food, make sure you say no chilli or not spicy. Otherwise the food may be more spicy than you are prepared for. More than just a few visitors to Indonesia, who think that they can handle hot food, get a very big surprise. At the extreme some food can be hot enough to put an uninitiated person into the hospital for a few days in order to recover from stomach upset. At a lesser level I have see visitors get blisters on the inside of the mouth or on their lips from eating food that is too spicy.

Each area of Indonesia has its own traditional food and culinary customs. Here is a list of some of them.

Sundanese people, ("orang Sunda") in West Java, like to eat fresh vegetables and sambal. There is a joke that says you can leave them in the garden and they will be fine. Sundanese like to drink tea without sugar. So don't be surprised when they offer you tea that is not sweet and sugar or sweetener is not even offered. Ask for sugar if you need it.

Javanese people like to eat sweet and spicy foods so usually tea will be sweet when offered in Java.  Javanese also love vegetarian type recipes and foods. We will be adding many hubpages with unique vegetarian recipes for visitors to enjoy making and trying.

Padang people from West Sumatra like hot and spicy food. They are famous for their spicy food and fast delivery. A Padang restaurant waiter can bring a surprising number of plates with various dishes with his two hands in one trip to your table. You eat whatever you like and at the end of meal the waiter will calculate the price. This type food is so good and so inexpensive that you will find it almost everywhere in Indonesia.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, Indonesia does have it's share of international fast food chains present. These include Mc Donalds, KFC, Wendy's, Pizza Hut and more. Other restaurants include various types of international cusine. Some are quite expensive, especially when compared to local recipe restaurants.

So this is our introductory hubpage. We really hope to inspire visitors to try and sample the recipes we will present in subsequen hubpage articles. Selamat makan - or enjoy your food.