The Indonesian Trifecta
Three Things that Indonesia is best known for, in my opinion.
Author’s Note: This post has so many pictures. Thus, it’s possible that your email may truncate parts of it. For best experience, readers are advised to read this one directly on Substack.
Welcome back,
I’ll be honest: for this week’s post, I had entertained a lot of different ideas. But I finally decided to center in on something fun. Shout-out to
for getting the ball rolling on Substack Notes:
Personally, I don’t know much about Romania beyond Dracula/Vlad the Impaler so I can’t really comment on Mr. Atanasov’s note as a whole. But I do know about Indonesia, so I responded with my own:
Having thought about them a little bit more, I would like to go into more detail regarding my choices. Let’s be clear though, I stand by them.
Gado-Gado
I found Western perception of Indonesian food to be a little strange. They’re not necessarily familiar with it compared to Mexican food, for example. But once they are aware about it, they’ll love it.
It’s the opposite of British food, ha!1
That being said, I can’t help but question if Gado-Gado was the right one for this. Why? Because there are simply so many different dishes when it comes to Indonesian food. One that’s really close to my heart2 is the Soto:
What is soto? It’s basically soup. But what differentiates it from any other soup? To be honest, I’m not sure myself. Perhaps it’s the coconut milk that gives it that creamy feel. Perhaps it’s the lemon and tomato that mixed well with the salty broth, creating this delectable taste. Or maybe it’s the chewiness of the beef and chicken.
In any case, it’s really good.
That being said, it’s not really what I would call iconic. After all, the topic of this conversation is ‘what is the most well-known’, not ‘what is your favorite’.
So much for the Soto.
But there are other candidates, such as the Sate:
This dish is made up of meat skewered on a stick, whether it be chicken, beef, or even goat. Sounds familiar? Yes, it’s basically kebab, though a serving of sate is much smaller than that of kebabs. Honestly, it’s hard to distinguish a sate from a shish-kebab.
This is why I don’t really consider this dish to be the most iconic food for Indonesia. People are more likely to associate this food with the Middle East rather than with Indonesia.
One final candidate for this is the fried rice, known as nasi goreng in Indonesian.
The problem with the fried rice is similar to that of the sate, people outside of Indonesia are more likely to associate this dish with another country. In this case, China. Here in America, the fried rice is a staple in every Chinese restaurant.3
In the end, I do believe that Gado-gado deserves to be considered as the one dish most associated with Indonesia. It may not be my favorite dish4, but it’s also something that is both well-known to the world at large and unique enough to be associated primarily with Indonesia.5.
If you’re getting hungry, don’t worry. I’ll stop talking about food and move on to the next section.
Bali
Honestly, this one is the easiest for me. Whenever someone finds out that I’m Indonesian, there’s a very good chance that he or she will mention Bali. It’s almost inevitable.
It’s like Brazilians with soccer, Australians with kangaroo, and Ugandans with Who Killed Captain Alex6.
It’s very tempting to dismiss Bali as nothing but a tourist trap. Now, it is a tourist trap, let’s be honest. But it’s a tourist trap that had attracted the ruling elites of the world. This little island possessed many qualities that made it an ideal tourist destination.
The first one is its natural beauty. The beaches of Bali are beautiful, I can attest to that fact myself. Furthermore, there are many underwater spots where people can go scuba diving and snorkeling.
If the image above reminds you of the Caribbean, then you’re not alone. Let’s just say there’s a reason why in the olden days, people used to call Indonesia7 the East Indies.
In addition to natural beauty, Bali also possessed cultural beauty. One can easily see this by taking a look at the picture in the beginning of this section. In fact, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was so impressed by Bali that they considered the island’s “cultural landscape” to be a World Heritage Site.
Is it any wonder that an island that possessed both the natural beauty of the Caribbean and the cultural heritage of India became the tourist trap that it is now?
The Komodo Dragon
And now we get to the final third of this blogpost, the Komodo Dragon. Like any tropical country worth her salt, Indonesia has a rich collection of wildlife within her borders such as the Sumatran Tiger, the Javan Rhino, the Orangutan, and of course, the Komodo Dragon.
One can make the argument for the Orangutan being more iconic than the Komodo Dragon, especially considering that its name basically means ‘forest man’ in Indonesian8. It’s so linked to Indonesia even its species name is in the local language.
But honestly, I beg to differ. It’s just a monkey.
Meanwhile, the Komodo Dragon is a creature that you simply don’t see anywhere else.9 And it has the cool factor that some random monkey doesn’t. The Indonesian government agrees with me:
Conclusion
Those are the three things that I think Indonesia is most known for. Though I stand by my decision, I can’t help but feel a little dissatisfied. Why? Because my list is missing actual people. In Mr. Atanasov’s original note, he listed two historical figures: a prince and a poet.
I regret to say that I don’t think Indonesia has any figures of that magnitude. There are some cool political leaders like Gajah Mada, but non-Indonesians would only know of him from Civilization V.
As for literature and the arts, I honestly have no clue. Sorry.
If you disagree with my choices, feel free to let me know down in the comments and give your own.
Until next time,
Michael P. Marpaung
Kidding! Or am I?
More like stomach, lol.
Trust me, there’s a lot of them in America.
Not the biggest fan of salad, though I like the peanut sauce.
I don’t know if there are other countries like Malaysia who has a variant of gado-gado, but it’s certainly an Indonesian thing.
Apologies to anyone from Uganda who’s reading this :p
And the Philippines, just so I don’t get roasted by the Filipinos.
As well as its sister language Malay.
No, the zoo doesn’t count.
Great choices - One more that I think hits high awareness is Krakatoa!
Thanks for the shout-out, Michael!