To start with, here in eastern Indonesia, there are very few restaurants or kiosks. Frankly, I was surprised since in places like Thailand, I know that food is very cheap, and everyone eats out. During our early days here, we either ate on Moonbeam, or dined at gala dinners.

Here is a description of our first meal out: Annie, Ken and I were out exploring the streets of Kalabahi around lunchtime. We found a very small restaurant and went in. It was a really hot, dry day and I was very thirsty. The server asked about drinks. I wanted something cold, and knew that the water bottles would be warm. It was too early in the day for a cold beer. Annie and Ken pointed to soda cans, and said "cold?". She said 'cool'. Close enough. I rarely drink soda, but the thought of a cold one was enticing, so I pointed to a can of Fanta with the familiar orange logo and said "cool". Glasses with ice arrived, followed by the soda cans, and unwrapped straws. Uh-oh. We know better than to have ice (or unwrapped straws) in foreign places, so we wiped the can tops, opened the pop top and drank. Mine was God-awful. This didn't taste like any Fanta orange soda. When I scrutinized the can I saw that it was strawberry soda: warm, strawberry soda! Ugh!

Now came the meal order. The waitress spoke no English and I hadn't gotten the hang of menus yet, since it was our first experience eating out. I did have my translation dictionary with me, but the server was more comfortable having us point to what we wanted. We didn't quite understand what came with what but we just pointed to various dishes and took our chances. The dishes arrived. There was a HUGE mound of rice, topped with noodles (yep, you read that correctly) and some UFOs (unidentified fried objects) which I thought was ayam (chicken) but the pieces didn't look like any chicken parts I've ever known and loved. We ate the chickenish item and the noodles, and picked at the rice, but left most of it over. After all, how many carbs does one want to ingest in one meal. As we left the restaurant, I looked to see what others were eating (one of my habits) and they had EMPTY plates. Not a grain of rice left over! Oh well. And..as we later found out, noodles on rice is a typical dish.

Generally, the food is good, but, at least here in eastern Indonesia, it is not very varied. Rice is the staple. The fish and chicken are good; so are the cooked veggies, although they are not very seasoned. They are accompanied by hot sauce (sampal) on the side, so you can burn at your own pace. The meals are ended with fruit: bananas (the delicious little ones which are sweet as candy), paw-paw (papaya) and some others which I don't know the names of.

In the early 70's in England, in order to get away from fish and chips, one of the few options available was Reichstoffel, an Indonesian rice dish which I remember quite fondly. I have yet to see it here, but perhaps they will have it when we go west towards Bali.

As for markets and supermarkets:
The fresh markets are everywhere and have some wonderful fresh fruits and veggies, although you do have to pick carefully. We bring our bags back to Moonbeam, and as per our research, rinse the items in water with a drop of bleach, dry them thoroughly, and put them in a green plastic bag with a paper towel to absorb any excess moisture and refrigerate. It seems to be working and our produce is keeping quite well.

As for the 'super' markets: they are quite large, clean, with marble floors and well-organized shelves. I wouldn't be surprised if they are all owned by the same cartel since from town to town, they all look alike and carry the same products. They have a decent selection...for locals, but do not cater to us boaters so...no canned foods, no coffee, no cheese, no butter......... What do they have? Baby products, condiments, paper goods, Costco sized bottles of cooking oil, candies and cookies, beer, beer, beer, and housewares.

Speaking of coffee, when we were in Cairns at the first rally meeting, I asked a question about the availability of coffee beans in Indonesia: something near and dear to our hearts, but expensive (like everything) in Australia. One of the rally guys muttered something like "didn't you ever hear of Java?". OK. I'm stupid. Being unwilling to cast my fate to the wind, we did stock up. Many of our rally mates have run out, but we've been careful and are still in the chips, (or beans, as it were.) We have yet to see anything but instant coffee packets, but perhaps we will see inexpensive beans as we get closer to Java.

Bodegas: These are everywhere. Being from NYC, I call them bodegas, but they're just itsy-bitsy shops, 4 or 5 on a block, and sell all manner of things: candy, cooking oil, baby products, gasoline in 1 liter water bottles (filled by women and children without masks, while the 'man' stands by, cigarette in hand), but, mostly nothing we need (except for the gasoline for our dinghy engine).

And...so far, so good. Not to jinx ourselves, but 'no Bali Belly'. We try to be careful, but it's hard to know exactly what to do. One of our rally mates (she and her husband are both docs) said she is mostly vegetarian, here. She won't eat meat, will only eat fish if she sees it being caught, won't eat uncooked veggies and won't eat eggs. I do try to learn from others, but that would only leave cooked veggies and cooked starch...so, that would be hard for us. So, we try to pick and choose, and have managed to be lucky.....so far.

I was hoping to have a great 'food porn' pic for this update, but I have no great pix of cooked meals, so here's a pic of an uncooked meal.