Happy Lunar New Year

Year and year, Petronas continues to impress with their touching NY videos.  Treasure what is in front of you!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

雅加达的五脚基

Kaki lima, the enduring British connection to Indonesia.

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The 5 feet story of Thomas Stamford Raffles

Jakarta Post, 19 Dec 10

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/12/19/the-5-feet-story-thomas-stamford-raffles.html
The Napoleonic Wars in Europe in the early 19th century reverberated in the small towns of the East Indies: though only for a short time, the British took over the colony from the Dutch.

The Governor General was Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. He ordered the construction of sidewalks along the main streets of Batavia of a certain height and width: 1 foot (33.5 centimeters) by about 5 feet.

Little did Sir Thomas know that sidewalks would become a very lively place for trade and commerce in the future. His 1-foot high and 5-foot deep sidewalks became known as the kaki (feet) lima (five), or the kaki lima.

Actually the Malay translation was not correct: 5 feet should be lima kaki. The mistranslation may explain why conventional wisdom holds that the city’s pedagang kaki lima, or street vendors, take their name from pushcarts with 3 feet and the two-footed vendors who push them.

The kaki lima in Indonesia offered a potpourri of goods such as socks, blouses, pots and pans. The fact that nowadays sidewalks are occupied by small eateries and stands was probably outside the realm of consideration for Raffles.

Though sometimes not travelling on paved sidewalks, kaki lima vendors have remained peripatetic since Raffles, stopping at the request of a patron or moving in search of a strategic place.

Slowly, kaki lima became connected with food. The food served became known as makanan kaki lima, or sidewalk food.

Don’t assume that Jakarta’s sidewalk cuisine typifies local food. Perhaps that was true 30 years ago, but not today.

A good example comes from vendors from Tegal, a small seaside town on Java’s north coast. The food they sell has nothing to do with local Jakarta food, but their warteg (or warung tegal Tegal-style foodstalls) have become a local institution.

The people from the Sundanese highlands working out of similarly named warsun are another example, offering sayur asem, lalap, pepes ikan and other dishes from distant lands.

When trying kaki lima food, choose items that are constantly boiled over flame, such as bubur ayam (chicken porridge), which is typically sold by an kaki lima vendor and enjoyed for breakfast or late at night. The vendors’ iced drinks are not for those with weak stomachs, nor are drinks made with santan (coconut milk).

In defense of kaki lima food, there are many other types of food you can (safely) enjoy while strolling along the city’s bustling sidewalks.

The food sold by kaki lima vendors no longer reflects local foods reflecting the nature of Jakarta’s melting pot. Jakarta is home to the Betawi people, but finding authentic Betawi (I prefer to say Jakarta) food is difficult due to the influx of other regional, and even foreign, food.

Local Jakarta delicacies such as nasi uduk and its special side dishes such as semur tahu or semur jengkol are now more geared to the taste of non-Betawi people. For instance, semur jengkol was a must-have side dish for the people of Condet and Ciganjur on the outskirts of eastern and southern Jakarta.

Some locals who thought they were true nasi uduk connoisseurs changed semur jengkol into ayam goreng (fried chicken) and semur daging because jengkol, with its strong aftertaste, was considered an inferior foodstuff not fit to serve to non-Betawi.

Semur jengkol was previously made according to the availability of the ingredients and in spacious gardens where the jengkol tree was always present. Traditional sop kambing (goat soup) can know only be found in very special places such as Tanah Abang and in Menteng area. Kerak telur — in my youth the most well-known sidewalk food and a true Betawi speciality — is now only available as a delicacy at Betawi food festivals!

Now hamburgers, hot dogs and donat (doughnuts) await Jakarta’s hungry masses — as does pempek from Palembang, pecel lele (milk fish) from East Java, gudeg from Yogyakarta and the city’s ubiquitous warteg.

Hygiene remains a problem for sidewalk dining as clean dish washing is seldom practiced due to a lack of running water.

When exploring kaki lima foods today at up-market establishments, consider the history of the region and the introduction of food from other areas.

Lifehouse in Jakarta

Over the last weekend, Jeremiah attended his first-ever rock concert, in Jakarta of all places.  As with most of the concert goers, Jeremiah was there to hear Lifehouse perform.  Since Lifehouse was an American band and the concert poster indicated that the concert would start at 5.59 pm, Jeremiah and his mates decided to be there at 6 pm.  Alas, the Lifehouse turned out to the closing act and only started playing at 11 pm!  Boo to the poor planning and communication on the part of the organisers. 

Great lessons re-learnt from the episode: (A) Be considerate towards others and put yourself in their shoes.  Do not do unto others what you would not do onto yourself.  (B) Communication is not just about what you say, but also how it is said and understood.   

Miss Tourism Indonesia 2010

Not too long ago, Jeremiah attended the finals of Miss Tourism Indonesia 2010.  Two more of the finalists caught the eye of most of the audience - Miss Papua for her bright and refreshing ethnic costume, and Miss Kelimantan, who at the age of 20 was already running a bank branch!

Jeremiah needs a cold beer

It has been one disaster after another.  It's now 9 pm on a Fri night.  One speech to write before calling it a night.  Time to find a temple in Jakarta to pray....

Greece, Any One?

Jeremiah wants to go to Greece too, and wonders if he can away with it if he tries to justify the trip on the grounds that he wanted find out if Athens was in Greece.

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Indonesian House Team Off to Greece for Ethics Lessons

Jakarta Globe, 19 Oct 10

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/indonesian-house-team-off-to-greece-for-ethics-lessons/402254


Apparently undeterred by harsh public criticism of lawmakers’ frivolous overseas visits, the House Ethics Council is planning a trip to Greece, to learn about legislative ethics from a country with an ancient history of democracy.

Nudirman Munir, deputy chairman of the council, said on Tuesday that his group had a list of questions that urgently needed answers, so he is heading a team of eight legislators and three staffers leaving on Saturday for Greece where they hope to find them.

Greece was chosen, he said, because “an ethics council has been used there since the time of ancient Rome.” Meanwhile, a trip overseas had to be taken because “the information can’t be accessed through the Internet,” he added.

Ancient Greece was famous for its pioneering philosophers and developing much of the framework for modern western ethics, starting from notions of virtue and physical strength and progressing to strength of character and nobility of mind.

The study and development of ethical values continued in the Roman Empire, which spread across Greece and into Asia.

“How to stop legislators from ranting or mocking others in a meeting, how to stay ethical and within regulations? Can a House Speaker dismiss a plenary meeting unilaterally? These are the questions that need to be answered, because to date, we have only used our feelings when it comes to things like these,” Nudirman said.

The Golkar legislator said the team would also delve into the Greek Parliament’s smoking regulations to see “whether they are allowed to smoke.” Nudirman said the ethics council wanted to learn from Greece whether or not it could dismiss legislators if they failed to answer summons, whether legislators could leave sessions after simply raising their hands and how foreign countries treated legal issues and policies, including the death penalty, “so we are not fooled by NGOs.”

Nudirman claimed the council had thoroughly prepared its materials for the Greece trip.

However, Gayus Lumbuun, chairman of the council, doubted the advantages of the visit and would not join it.

“I see almost no benefits of the planned visit,” he said, adding that as long as the ethics council did not include representatives from the People’s Conscience Party and the Great Indonesia Movement, “its decisions are not even legitimate.”

The Greece trip is the latest in a series of overseas “comparative study trips” by legislators that have been slammed as a waste of taxpayers’ money.

The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) said Rp 122 billion ($13.6 million) had been earmarked in the 2010 visit for lawmakers’ official overseas visits — 30 percent more than in 2009.

The reports produced, however, left much to be desired, Fitra said. One was merely a two-page description of the visit, while others contained basic information easily found on the Internet.

Ikrar Nusa Bakti, a political analyst at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), was skeptical of the visit.

“What kind of ethics do they want to learn about? If they want to learn ancient politics, then Greece is fine,” he said. “I don’t understand why should they go to Greece just to learn how to interrupt.

Music Dreamer Live! Cafe (爱琴海民歌餐厅）

Singaporeans are generally a fickle lot when it comes to dining and night life.  Unsurprisingly, restaurants, cafes and night joints come and go with regular frequency.  But tucked in a corner of the linkway between Millenia Walk and Marina Square is the venerable Music Dreamer Live! Cafe, which had been in existence even when Jeremiah was in Secondary School.  It is a place where fledging local Chinese bands could perform, where friends could have a good time without burning the pocket, and a first date place for many who went to SAP schools.

Last Friday, when Jeremiah and his mates were weighing where to go for post-dinner drinks in the Marina Square area.  The list narrowed down to Music Dreamer and Paulaner Brauhaus.  Would they go for German beer and chill out in a nicely furnished restaurant/pub but with a somewhat pretentious crowd (that place has its fair share of SPGs)?  Or they would head to a simpler place, with local bands brandishing Mandarin and Hokkien hits, freuqented only by heartlanders, serving no alocohol and only Asian tea/coffee drinks but in the process support the local music industry too? 

Well, it was really a no-contest, for Jeremiah and his mates are 100% heartlanders at heart.  And it is really heartlander joints like Music Dreamer that make up Singapore's cultural identity and heritage, not ersatz European joints.

Heartlands rulez.  Majulah Singapura.

欠遍问答题

Jeremiah is likely to be out of action for a few days following his dental surgery in a few hours.  Here's something for you to ponder in the meantime.  The first person who answers correctly gets a prize.

A hungry wolf and a sheep were on the same MRT train platform.  Why did the wolf not eat the sheep?