There is no doubt that one of the most memorable aspects of travelling is food as it makes the experience more authentic.
I always consider myself a gourmand but my palate was really challenged in a trip to Bogor, a city south of Jakarta.
Apart from visiting landmarks, a zoo and a garden, the trip was mostly spent hotel-hopping in Pullman Ciawi Vimala Hills Resort and Spa Convention, Pesona Alam Resort, Hotel Santika Bogor, and Ayana Midplaza sampling familiar Indonesian dishes and delicacies unique to Java. Great meals were also served at the Grand Garden Café, Café Doea Tjangkir, Dapur Babah and Café Batavia.
Indonesian cuisine has distinct flavors and comes in many forms that are made more-tasty by herbs and spices such as chili, lemon grass, coconut, and more chili. I have little tolerance to spicy food but the pungency in Bogor hurt so good!
The nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice) with chicken, prawns and shredded omelette is an ultimate comfort food for spice lovers. Most of their dishes use vegetables as main ingredient: Karedok is their Gado Gado, if Gado Gado used cooked veggie and egg with peanut sauce, Karedok uses fresh veggie and no egg.
According to Adjie Wahjono of Aneka Kartika Tours and Travels, Bogor is in West Java where the Sundanese tribe originated that generally eat less meat and more veggie.
Wahjono added that Batavia port also plays a prominent part with respect to Bogor’s cuisine. Batavia was the capital of the Dutch East Indies that corresponds to present-day Jakarta, Indonesia. It is on the north coast of Java where in its Sunda Kelapa Harbour was abuzz with merchant vessels from Europe, China, India and from throughout the Indonesian archipelago, loading in and sailing away with precious nutmegs, pepper, tea, coffee, ceramics, cloths and other exotic products of the time.
“Jakarta is melting pot, the tribe is Betawi and their food is also influenced by Chinese and Arab,” he said.
Cebu Pacific flies daily to Jakarta from Manila.
