The Jakarta Chronicle

If I Could Only Have One Watch

This would be it, Seiko Automatic Scuba Divers SBDC001, 6R15 Caliber powered, with manual and self-winding mechanism, unilateral bezel movement and water resistance rated to 200m. It is versatile yet flexible enough to be use on top of my wetsuit arms, or inside my cotton cuff. Truly a watch for a man of all season.

Me and the rest of the band

Me and Andre, off the Padang Bei Coast

Me and my friends, off the Padang Bei Coast, East Bali. We were on the 4 days trip, with 1 day dive and 1 day snorkeling in the midst. It was a good day, the water was clear, and the weather, as you can witnessed, is absolutely a gem. Can’t wait to get back for another dive soon !!!

watch

If people said that Jakarta is a mixing pot of Indonesian’s diverse cultures, then there is one food that can represent the mix better than any other food.

 Hail the esteemed noodle (bakmie). No Jakartans will ever argue that along with Nasi Padang, Bubur (Porridge) and Soto, noodle is one food that comes in abundantly great variety. There is almost one comes from each Indonesia’s provinces in additional of other that comes with a cutting edge look.

 Historically a direct descendant of the Chinese Noodle Soup, the Indonesian variety version was much more diverse in terms of noodle type, topping and the seasoning, thanks the centuries of acculturation with the local taste. On top of your head, you can easily name Mie Aceh, Mie Ayam Medan, Mie Ayam Palembang, etc.

 Let’s recalled the Jakarta’s great three noodle vendors, the Bakmi GM, Naga and Gang Kelinci, all started from the rather insecure spot at city centre slum, and grew larger in to million dollars business and franchises. Though the three vendors deploy pretty similar form of Bak Mie and soup, you can always bet that there are people who prefer one better against the other.

 Today, Jakarta noodle library are as diverse and as exciting as the international wine list. Quick Sunday drive to area like Kelapa Gading, will expose you to several famous noodle vendor such as Bakmie Tan (with its fish fried cake), A Loy, A Sui,  or A Haw, all comes with their own interpretation of how a bowl (or in same case a plate) of noodle supposed to be, and served along a bowl of chicken soup, and various topping (from chicken only, to mixed chicken-pork).

 Order a glass of cold Liang tea (Herbs tea) and some fried wonton, and you will have your self a perfect Sunday lunch.

 Any discussion about which one is the best will usually incite a prolonged and heated argument, without any conclusion. The content of discussion will usually revolving around the shape of noodle (thick, thin, wide, rubbery, soggy, soft, soggy), the taste of the noodle it self (flat, salty, salty sweet, fish, prawnishy or simply tasty), the soup (tasty or not tasty) and the topping (chicken, pork, wonton, beef balls or porky materials). Price and place is usually discussed at the very last, or never entered the discussion at all)

At the end, as for the variety it involved along the ingredients in between, and like any other cuisine, it is a very subjective judgment. Good things that nobody every fallen victim from this sort of discussion.

As for me, I like the Bakmie Tan’s fried thin fish cake, and Aloy chews noodles. But for the beef balls ultimate experience, A Guan at Lao Tse is the best. What about you ?

The odd is you have an opportunity to stumble upon one of its articles sometimes within the last 6 months or so. And the chance is, if you have time to have stumbled upon my obsecure blog, then good bet that you are already aware about the series too.

Meet My Jakarta by The Jakarta Globe, a series of article featuring rather random (or not so random) Jakartans from various walk of life. In it you will encounter real life Jakartans telling their story. By real life I mean not only the crème of the crop, the famous, the public figure such as esteemed Monti Tiwa, but also the average “Budi” who sels Porridge in the corner of Jakarta, or “Wati” who lives in at  one of the Jakarta’s river slump.

Along the way, some more shabby character also featured, the gambler, the adulterer, etc all were offering nothing but a candid and to certain degree honest point of view on their life as Jakartans.

Written by various contributors, My Jakarta is colorful representation of Jakarta’s soul. It provides a skin deep insight on the life of the people who’s living in this great City and its honest and candid take, offer a friendly and sometimes hilarious approach to its reader.

Personally I found the series very enjoyable, and with its new articles every two-three days or so, it leaves something to look forward. And compare to larger than life Jakarta Post’s People, I am more fond to My Jakarta humbler approach.

Admittedly, it will be erroneous to say that you will learn a good deal bout Jakarta by reading the series, but I suppose it’s suffice to say, that sometimes a little information completes the big picture, and if you are one of those folks who thinks Jakarta is much more exciting that the robotic Singapore, and synthetic Kuala Lumpur, I would say My  Jakarta is just as good reading as any scientific attempt on Jakarta social life.

Jakarta on Islamic Holiday is usually dreadfully quiet. Even with malls still opening and trade center running their business rather half-assedly, most people are opting to confined themselves in their home, spending quality time with family or if your family in anywhere near like my parents, converting the house into a public kitchen, and spend the rest of day smelled rather like beef curry, and barbequed lamb.

That left youngsters like me with limited option though. Surely the malls and its cafes are rather obvious choice, but to be quite frankly, you go to the malls if you don’t have any other choices. So what other choice do you have on one of those lazy holiday ?

Driving. If you are into this sport, driving on holiday is just as good as driving on Sunday. The place were rather empty, so you could do your driving rather relax, especially is the weather is quite agreeable.

Strolling the CDB early in the morning. Mostly agreeable if you are living nearby the areas. Put up your jeans, tee and sandals, and grab your pocket camera, and just light walk the place around the CBD, namely Mega Kuningan, SCBD, Sudirman and Casablanca. The sky is blue, temp is still cool, the sun is still low, and the air is still clean. Taking the skyscraper pics is rather an easy exercise at around this time, and if you look around enough you will find several unique moments and faces to capture.

Steet food-vendor hunting. Right before your move on, I warn you that this is rather haphazard exercise, and should never be conducted alone. It goes along pretty simple concept. You and your friends gather and sit in your terrace (in either morning or late afternoon), and you called every street food-vendor that went pass through. You order 1-2 portions, and shared amongst you. No doubt that after 3 hours and 2 packs of cigarettes, your will have yourself over 7 different types of food, and by the end of the last plate you can barely breathe. It is one of the best, cheapest and easiest way to try Jakarta real world culinary gems.

The Other driving. This is one involves car, highway and adrenaline rush. If you are like me, who simply like driving, holiday is the right time to do it, more specially the very early morning of the holiday. Try to go out at around 1-2 am, enter the Jakarta Ring Road (Tol Dalam Kota) at any point a go around it, in full cycle. Depending on your driving skills, it can be completed anywhere between 15 minutes to 45 minutes. For some people driving can be stressful activities, for me and other bunch of people, it simply sheer of joy

What about you ? what do you recommend ?

Last few weeks Jakarta was drenched wet, and with almost daily afternoon-evening rain the traffic was more an more outrageous, and personal impact a side, by car is notoriously dirty.

The good side though, the rain cleared the sky, washed the pollution down, and cooling down the air. So the traffic aside, I enjoy the cooler Jakarta, the view of Mount Gede overlooking Jakarta from the South.

South Jakarta from 27h floor of by apartment building (source:personal archive)

Jakarta downtown right after the rain

A friend of mine, was self professed social smoker. Having pulled to the smoker circle by his choice of friends, he admitted to smoke ever casually, and only if there is another smoker friend abound. He refuse to be called a smoker, on the ground that he did not have any attachment to the item, although he admitted that he enjoyed smoking through and through.

Being asked what is the best time to smoke, he quickly answered, right after a meal, and when hanging out with his smoker friends. Do you smoke any particular brand ? I asked. He don’t have any preference, though he regularly smoked Marlboro Light Menthol, or Black Menthol, because those were his friends were smoking. He added then, that he started with Djie Sam Soe, the ultra heavy kretek preferred by Indonesia blue colar, and enjoy any kretek just as much as white cigarette. A fact, that he quickly pointed out to show that he was not the ussual smoker, because he really dont care about the taste of the smoke.

In different occasion,  I asked how many packs that he consumed a day. He proudly noted, that as social smoker, he never had a regular count on how many his consumption in a day. Naturally he kept a pack in his car, and several in his home, just in case the friends were coming over, and when the opportunity presented, he can smoke more than 10 in one haled. But again, he added, that he could go on a days without the cigarettes, and felt no impact when he have or have not. a fact that again he quickly pointed out that he is not an addict hence,  not an active smoker per fact.

But when the City announce a bylaw that prohibit smoking inside Jakarta’s building (and that means any non residential building), he was the one first who  showed the concern to the bylaw, noting the impracticality of it, ”No smoking in a pub ? that is just outrageous.” Concern aside, he also seriously more agitated that his friends about this prohibition.

I asked,”What’s the big deal, you can still smoke in your home ?” to which he replied, “No, I’m not smoker, hence I don’t smoke in my home, I only smoke when we are out, in the pub or resto, or some place.”

“So it’s good then, less opportunity, less smoke, you can actually be healthier.” I added. And to this he stoned for a while. I’m not sure what came to his thought when my sentence ended. Maybe, just maybe, it dawned upon him, that the pub, the friends, and the hangout were just an excuse to smoke, and that he actually a smoker, heavy or light, and that he just don’t have the gut to admit that he was addicted to the tobacco as much as his friends did.

In any case, he didn’t reply to my comment, and instead shrug his shoulder while pull the cigarette deep to his lung and breath it long and full toward the horizon.

So it was Sunday late morning, your girl was out somewhere, and none of you friends were available, you were hungry, there were some ingredients in the fridge, but you were not quite keen to go the kitchen yet, what’s the option ?

Quite a few really, for one you you skipped and jumped right away to the several cafes and restaurant around the city, ready to throw some western breaky which by nature should consist of eggs, toast, bacon, and orange juice later washed throughy with a slightly bitter yet aromatically splendor coffee. Or…or like what I did just then, drive slowly around the neighbourhood, cruising for some gerobak food stall.

My target that morning – or rather early afternoon, was a Ketoprak vendor at Jalan Tebet Timur Dalam 2, just near the bus stop.  I have the name for vendor, calling it Ketoprak XL, because the guy have a side job of selling mobile phone voucher, and the first time I spotted him weeks ago he wore an XL shirt.

You see, like most Jakartan who grew snacking whatever the street vendor who walks around in front of your door step offered, I am very fond of this local food, cause eating it will not only satisfy my craving with the food or matter of making my tummy full and happy, but also incite a childhood memory, bring a certain warmness and sense of happiness. Well you know what I mean.

Anyway, luck was with me that day, the Ketoprak XL was there, already one customer waiting. A mere 10 minutes later, a plate of Ketoprak Sedang (not too spicy) complete with boiled egg and cut cucumber was ready to be savoured, and savoured it was.

Having completely awed and enchanted with after taste, not to mention a satisfied tummy, I crave for some desert. Alas not a vendor in sight, and so my sight rested to gorengan (fried stuff) vendor just 10 walks away, quickly ordered two fried tempeh, and two fried ubi (sweet potato).

Walking nonchalant as if I have all the time in world, I moved slowly to the warkop nearby, got a bottle of ice tea, and really took my time in finishing my tempe and ubi, occasionally sipping the ice tea.  

As I walking back to my car, I calculated the expenses I just paid, Rp.8000,- for the Ketoprak, Rp.2000,- for the Gorengan, and another Rp.3000 for the ice tea. 

The sun was searing above my head, and I could almost imagine I tucked my self in to blanket, in my cool bed room, as soon as I finished a long, hot and steamy shower. Not bad for a lazy Sunday.