Bakso, Murtabak and Murtabak

I've never really been one to miss foods from home. Sure, I like my Char Koay Teow or Roti Canai but in the past, I've never really yearned for them when I was out of the country. Even the whole time we were living in Australia.

That was me before the move to Palembang.

Over here, we have oats for breakfast everyday. Red rice with vegatables for lunch and then brown rice with vegatables for dinner. No chicken because of the bird flu. Rarely and beef because its just too gross to shop in that part of the market. Pork is in the faraway Pasar Buah. Fish...well, we have fish occasionally. The point is.....meals are boring here. Same vegatables over and over again. The highlight of my week is always Tempeh but other than that.......nothing.

So anyway, we've now discovered some tastes from home.

Bakso.....this food that the Indonesians all claim as their own. They all seem to like it. Talk about it all the time. See signs for it everywhere. When we finally try it, I find out that its actually BEEF BALLS and Dry Noodles - Kon Low Gow Yook Yuun for those who can decipher my cantonese.


Murtabak is something else that seems to be everywhere. Lots and lots of little stalls all selling murtabak. So, one day, I had this craving for it. All the time imagining that it was the murtabak I knoew...mixtures of onion, egg, some meat and then spices all fried and then wrapped in a think Roti Canai skin. Well, over here, its basically just a deep fried roti canai. Thats alright though.....extremely unhealthy but incredibly tasty with a very fragrant curry to go with it.

That was the first murtabak I tried. If you go to some of the afternoon stalls and order murtabak, you actually get Ban Chang Kueh. They have some weird flavours over here though like chocolate chip and cheese !!