Asian in a Strange Land

Crowd of hundreds

Actual date: October 17, 2008

The original impetus for our trip to Indonesia was that mom and dad were going to have a multiple-purpose get-together to celebrate mom’s birthday, their anniversary, their many years of service to the church (the church wanted to celebrate that–they weren’t showing off), and to give thanks for me and Denise having gotten married.  That last bit was supposed to be celebrated in 2005, but that was the year of the Bali bomb incident and we took the U.S. State Department’s travel advisory (“Don’t go to Indonesia unless you have to.”) very seriously and ended up cancelling that trip.  In retrospect with Indonesia being generally safe–not a warzone or anything–and our lives being in God’s hands we might’ve chosen differently with what we know now, but that’s how it went down at the time.  So this get-together became a huge deal with hundreds of people invited and a huge feast of food mostly prepared and paid for by people who had known mom and dad for many years and wanted to help celebrate this occasion.

This type of shindig is called syukuran in Indonesian.  Syukur roughly translates to giving thanks, and the -an suffix can be used to turn a verb into a noun.  So syukuran is a gathering for the purpose of giving thanks to God.  In the Indonesian Christian tradition this usually entails anything from an abridged worship service with some singing and praying to a full-blown worship service with the works including a sermon.  We had the latter.  In all incarnations there’s food.  As you’ll see throughout this post they didn’t mess around with any aspect of this get-together.

Kulintang players

These men and women are playing the kulintang, which is a traditional Indonesian xylophone-like instrument made of wood.  They come in various sizes roughly approximating 4-part harmony–bigger ones go lower, smaller ones go higher pitch.  Some players have a stick per hand, and some have more than one per hand.  With the keys being made of wood, the sound is a lot smoother and more soothing than metal xylophones, but otherwise the principle is much the same.

Vocal group

Small vocal groups are also a popular form of sacred music presentation, and these gentlemen did a great job.  There was also a vocal group from the seminary where my father teaches, and a couple solo performances including one by one of my cousins who studied music in college.  Indonesian worship services are generally fairly music-laden, and special services like this even more so.

Speaking of singing, Susie, Denise and I also sang a couple songs with my mom and dad in front of the sanctuary.  It’s a Pamudji family tradition to sing at all Pamudji-sponsored syukuran events, and Denise being a recently-minted member of the family unfortunately had to go through the same ordeal as me and Susie.  In the first picture above you can see how many people were there.  Easily 300+ I’d say.  Nerve-wracking stuff, but we got through it ok.  No pictures of that–too busy sweating nervously in front of the crowd to take pictures of ourselves singing.  All in all not terrible for having gotten in a single practice session before the real deal, but we weren’t a patch on the real vocal groups who came before us.

Cake cutting

And what’s a birthday party without a cake?  It might look wedding cake-ish to western eyes, but this is par for the course for important birthday parties, which this was (mom’s 60th.  Don’t worry, people aren’t so sensitive about their age in Indonesia).  Mom and dad had clothes made special for the occasion, and as you can see they are thematically matched.  They tried to get Susie to have a similar outfit made, but she wisely declined.  Yes, the cake decorator misspelled “Thank you”.  Give them a break–it’s not a native English speaking country.  I’d like to see you spell “thank you” in Indonesian.

Receiving line

Afterward there was a receiving line for everybody, everybody, to say their congratulations.  Being “that guy with the camera” has some very real perks, one of them being that I did not have to stand in the receiving line.  I actually came back from snapping shots of the food (mom told me to go down there and get some snaps before it was all eaten up, and I’m glad she did) to take this quick snap.  I’m so bad with names that I’m sure I would’ve had even more awkward, “Remember me?” encounters than I did if I had been in the receiving line.  Sofia had the right idea here, taking it easy on the steps.

Note the tile floors.  This is common for all sorts of building types–houses, offices, houses of worship, etc.–in Indonesia.  I can’t think of any carpeted floors I came across while living there except for in hotels that host a lot of westerners.  Not hardwood floors either I don’t think.  Some traditional houses are made of wood of course, but most modern buildings have tile floors.

Water dome

So yeah, I snuck out during the receiving line business and documented the food setup.  As I mentioned earlier, most of the work and food were provided by volunteers and friends, and they really did an amazing job cooking as well as setting up everything.  Above is a semi-dome of plastic cups with drinking water.  It’s a semi-dome because some people had already worked a hole into the top of it, but you can see the general idea.  Cool, eh?  These cups of drinking water are very common in Indonesia, basically their version of bottled water.  Water is also sold in bottles, but cups are popular.

If you’re ever in Indonesia know that the tap water isn’t pre-processed and sanitized like in the U.S.  Do not drink water straight from the tap.  People boil water before drinking or using for food prep.  If you’re afraid that a restaurant looks shady enough to not bother with the boiling bit, buy a cup of water to drink instead.

Nice silverware arrangement

Here’s another example of the meticulous detail put into the presentation.  instead of just stacking the spoons in a pile, they fanned them out into a circular pattern.  Spoons are the main silverware implement in Indonesia, with forks playing a supporting role.  You scoop your food with the spoon, and the fork can be used to help push food onto the spoon.  Works realy well and much better than forks alone when eating rice.

Stacks of food

More nifty presentation, but the picture speaks for itself there.  The actual food is Sup Tahu (sup = soup, tahu = tofu), which consists of tofu, vegetables, and in this case some rice noodles, all in a broth.  The broth is poured onto the tofu and vegetable mix right before serving to keep the ingredients from getting too soggy and also to keep the soup hot since it’s kept in a heating pot like this:

Sup Tahu cart

The big metal pot is what I just mentioned, which in this case is built into a vending cart.  I don’t know if somebody had access to an authentic vending cart or if they just paid a vendor to rent his cart, but they got the real deal and parked this cart here to add a bit of visual interest and authenticity to things.  In any case it’s a creative touch I had never seen before.

Street food is huge in Indonesia, and you can see these types of carts hawking all sorts of food all day long.  Meatballs, soups, satay, sweet snacks, bread, fruit salad, fried rice, noodles–the list is endless.  Different vendors have different calls or sound-making devices that help you identify what food is on offer even from afar.  We didn’t eat much real street food while there since my mom was worried our Americanized stomachs wouldn’t fare too well against the Indonesian germs (she was probably right), but this is one thing I really miss about Indonesia.  When we go to New York one day Denise won’t be eating street food because she’s a wuss, but I’ll probably do it just for the nostalgia.  It won’t nearly be the same of course, but for me there’s a definite comfort food aspect to street food.

Rice Noodles and Sapo Tahu

In the foreground you can see more of those pickled cucumbers, laced with some hot peppers (the little dark green bits).  The rule of thumb is the smaller the hotter, and you can see how small these ones are.  Closest to the camera after that is a stir-fried rice noodle dish with eggs, shrimp, cabbage, Chinese mushrooms (shiitake mushrooms for the less knowledgable–the Japanese stole everything from the Chinese ), and some other ingredients.  Behind that is Sapo Tahu, which can be either stir-fried or more soup-ish, and contains various types of seafod along with vegetables and mushrooms.  Think of the best seafood stir-fry dish you’ve ever had at a local Chinese restaurant and multiply the deliciousness of that by 10 and you get the gist of it.  No filler stuff here–the balance of ingredients is meant to provide the best taste balance, not maximize profit by sticking in cheap vegetables to make up the weight.

Roast suckling pig

And the coup de grâce: roast suckling pig.  The chef considerately left the head and tail on so we’re sure what we’re getting.  Denise calls this the “carcass” presentation method and is generally squeamish about it, but before our trip we had multiple discussions about dishes with faces still on them, and to her credit she dealt with it superbly.  It’ll be a long time before she goes for the cheek meat on a suckling pig or anything, but she wasn’t petrified and the intact head didn’t make her lose her appetite (I think she actually enjoyed the dish), which is a great start.  This was Denise’s first trip abroad, but you wouldn’t know it from how she handled herself.  Few people in the world would’ve handled such cultural differences with such aplomb.

Roast suckling pig is a Chinese delicacy, which is not to say that it’s not also a delicacy in other cuisines.  The Chinese probably invented it though, since we invented everything.  Anyway, the skin is roasted to a deliciously crispy texture, and the meat is done to perfection.  To the right is a bowl of finishing sauce to eat with it.  As delicious as everything was, this was most certainly the highlight and centerpiece of the meal.

The roast pig was another example of extreme generosity on the part of people whose lives have been touched by my mom and dad’s ministry.  Mom ordered a couple roast pigs and was going to pay for them, but when the chef found out what they were for he refused to be paid for both the raw material and the prep.  Just to emphasize the significance of this, a whole pig isn’t cheap, and we had 2 of them; plus there’s the prep time, which is quite the process.  God takes care of his servants in so many ways, and it’s always edifying to find out about tangible ways in which he does just that.

Instant celebrity

Sofia checking out herself

Sofia was a big hit, especially among her aunts.  I’m one of the oldest children in my extended family in my generation, so most of my cousins are younger than me, as are the ones in these photos with Sofia.  They took a bunch of photos of and with Sofia, and why wouldn’t they?  This was the first time any of them had seen her in person, and probably the last chance to do so for a long time.  Plus, she’s irresistably cute.  Little did we know that this little vignette would be repeated over and over throughout our trip, by complete strangers!  Random people would want to take pictures of and with Sofia throughout our visit.  Not having lived in Indonesia since the digital- and cellphone-camera explosion of the early 21st century, I don’t know if this is what people do with all cute kids of complete strangers or if there was something particularly unique about Sofia that people wanted to take photos of her, but that’s how it went.  Thankfully it was all young people and mostly girls, so I think I can safely attribute it to one of those crazy culture differences.  It took me off guard, and I know it did Denise too, but we adjusted to it after a while and accepted it as a harmless quirky thing.

Sofia was in dreamland being able to put her mitts on this camera, as dad’s cameras are strictly and absolutely forbidden.  I fully intend to put a camera in her hand as soon as she’s old enough to manage to not drop it every few seconds and can appreciate what it’s for and how to use it, but for now she’s just going to have to enjoy glimpses of that future from people less anal-retentive about their cameras.

What a great event this was.  I saw a lot of old acquaintances, friends, and family members, some of whom I’d never met before.  Mom and dad really looked like they enjoyed themselves as well.  Everything went smoothly, and even after doling out some of the leftovers we had so much food to take home that we ended up eating on that for many days.  And we made it through the singing bit without fainting.  Mission accomplished.