Homestyle Indonesian Cooking and Indonesian Cakes & Desserts Periplus Mini Cookbooks series, Periplus Publishing
Indonesia has one of the world's great cuisines, drawing on influences from around the world. Foreign culinary art is subtly distinguishable in Indonesian cooking, yet each alien ingredient is blended creatively with the islands' own cooking secrets. Indonesia is located at the crossroads of the ancient world, astride the great trade routes between the Middle East and Asia. Wave after wave of traders, adventurers, pirates, and immigrants have been drawn by the riches of these Spice Islands. All brought their native cuisine with them.
What did they bring? From India came curries, cucumber, eggplant, and cowpeas. From the Americas, chili, pepper, vanilla, soursop, pawpaw, and pineapple. The Chinese brought the wok and stir-fry, Chinese mustard, and such vegetables as brassica and cabbage. From Arabia arrived Middle Eastern gastronomic techniques and ingredients such as kebab and flavorful goat stews. Peanuts, avocado, pineapple, guava, papaya, tomato, squash, pumpkin, cacao, and soybeans were all introduced by Europeans. Nature and history have conspired to give Indonesia a culinary tradition as varied and seasoned as its thousands of islands and hundreds of ethnic groups.
Yet it’s also true that Indonesian food can be mediocre and lacking in variety, even a constant, dreadful carbohydrate overload. After the culinary delights of Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam, Indonesia can really bring you down to earth. With the exception of Bali, food does not play a major role in Indonesian culture. In Thailand, as in France, if they’re not eating, they’re talking about eating; the cuisine is highly refined. It has nothing to do with money--Vietnam is desperately poor, but the food is wonderful. Sumatra's Padang food is excellent, and food on Bali very good, but on an island like Flores hunger can eventually force you out. Still, if you know the dishes and spices, you can order good food anywhere. Or cook it yourself.
This is where the book reviewed below comes in. They are the perfect “starter kits” to get you into the wonderful world of Indonesian cuisine. In them you can enjoy home-cooked dishes from all over the Indonesian archipelago with this collection of over thirty classics from Sumatra, Java, Madura, Bali and Sulawesi.
Because it’s a very small volume (only 64 pages), users won’t be intimidated to give the dishes a try. The readers will be able to master all the recipes and the few desserts within a month and be well on their way to enjoying the best that Indonesian cooking has to offer. They are also irresistibly priced at a little over two bucks apiece which qualifies them as ideal and very attractive full-color gift items for the folks back home!
Homestyle Indonesian Cooking contains such favorite Indonesian classics as oxtail soup, chicken satay, and spiced fish in banana leaf are as well as Cirebon salad, duck in spicy coconut sauce, and Malang-style grilled chicken. Seafood lovers will enjoy feasting on prawn satay, swordfish curry, and carp simmered with chilies and herbs.
This little book is a perfect introduction to the wonderful and varied cuisine of Indonesia suitable for both novice cooks and more experienced home chefs.
Homestyle Indonesian Cooking, Periplus Mini Cookbooks, Periplus Publishing 2002, series, 64 pages, ISBN 962-8734-00-8, measure conversiontables, introduction, glossary, index.
Available for only Rp20,000 at Periplus Bookshops in the Bali Galleria and in the Matahari in Kuta, Warung Made in Seminyak, Ngurah Rai Airport (both international and domestic terminals), in Gramedia Bookstores, and in Ary’s, Ganesha and Periplus bookshops of Ubud.
For comments and suggestions, please write : pakbill2003@yahoo.com
Copyright@2005 PakBill
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