Indonesia: Snacks in Yogyakarta
We left Ubud for the airport early in the morning when it was still dark out and barely any cars were on the road. We started missing Bali as soon as we got to the airport (even though technically we hadn't left yet).
Maybe we were biased, but we weren't really impressed by Yogyakarta when we landed. Compared to the lush greenery of Bali, it was kind of a culture shock to find ourselves back in a concrete city bustling with cars and motorbikes.
Then we found out that the place we booked wasn't a block away from Malioboro St, as was shown on its Airbnb map, but was instead 30 minutes outside of the city center. And there was no Internet.
On top of all that, both CL and my sister were not feeling well.
Needless to say, our time in Yogyakarta was not off to a good start.
But then the couple who owned our homestay, Vivian and Dedy, came and while we weren't happy with being misled about the location, it was hard to stay mad when they were just so damn friendly. While Dedy hooked up his cell phone to act as our wifi router (sigh), Vivian drove T and I to three different pharmacies to find the right medication for CL and my sister.
Even though we had two sick people waiting for us back at the homestay, we couldn't resist stopping for some munchies. Vivian was great about pointing things out that might interest us.
She was the one who said we should stop at this food cart:
There was nobody manning the cart when we arrived. If we were by ourselves, we totally would've just walked by, thinking that it was closed. Vivian marched right up to the cart, then started calling around for the owner. When he popped out, she proceeded to order us some batagor:
Batagor is basically fried tofu and fried fish paste in peanut sauce. We were good and held off on digging into the batagor until after we got back to the homestay. The peanut sauce had a kick to it and the fish paste was smooth and so delicious. I wish we'd gotten more of that stuff.
On our way back, we also stopped at a fruit stand. The fruit didn't look all that great and we were about to walk out disappointed when I suddenly noticed a giant oven with these babies inside:
Vivian told us that they were honey cassavas and that was it. I had to have them.
They were super wet and sweet:
I was quite pleased. I may or may not have eaten the whole bag by myself.
Vivian spotted some sugar apples and picked a couple out for us:
In Chinese, we call them Buddha heads because, well, they look like Buddha's head. They're really soft and you can pull them apart with just a soft squeeze of the hand:
It comes in segments and each contains a seed buried in creamy, milky flesh. Very yummy.
When we got back to the homestay, CL was conked out and my sister was getting there. We tried to tempt them with the goodies we brought back, but they were more interested in the medicine. Oh well, more for us.
We decided to take it easy our first day in Yogya. The girls took a nap while I tried to figure out an Indonesian drama. After they woke up, we took a taxi to Maliboro St to do some exploring (post to come).
Dedy offered to drive us around Yogya on our second day, for a fee, of course. When he arrived the next morning, he brought us some sweets that Vivian bought for us.
We were uber excited when we opened one leaf package to find the klepon we loved so much in Bali:
If you missed my post on the Karangasem market, klepon are glutinous rice balls with a brown sugar syrup center and coated with shredded coconut.
There was also this glutinous thing with shredded coconut and brown sugar syrup (sensing a trend here?):
And this tofu-looking thing that wasn't tofu at all:
I still don't know what it is, but it was dry, but still glutinous-y and subtly sweet. I like.
The problem is, we'd already eaten breakfast by the time Dedy arrived and we had no room left in our stomachs for these sweet gifts beyond a few nibbles of each. There was no refrigerator in the homestay, so by the time we got home at night, all the sweets had gone sour. Such a waste!
Though the Yogya leg of our trip didn't start out too positive, things looked up once we met Vivian and her husband and especially after we started eating. Things always look better once you have something good in your tummy.
Maybe we were biased, but we weren't really impressed by Yogyakarta when we landed. Compared to the lush greenery of Bali, it was kind of a culture shock to find ourselves back in a concrete city bustling with cars and motorbikes.
Then we found out that the place we booked wasn't a block away from Malioboro St, as was shown on its Airbnb map, but was instead 30 minutes outside of the city center. And there was no Internet.
On top of all that, both CL and my sister were not feeling well.
Needless to say, our time in Yogyakarta was not off to a good start.
But then the couple who owned our homestay, Vivian and Dedy, came and while we weren't happy with being misled about the location, it was hard to stay mad when they were just so damn friendly. While Dedy hooked up his cell phone to act as our wifi router (sigh), Vivian drove T and I to three different pharmacies to find the right medication for CL and my sister.
Even though we had two sick people waiting for us back at the homestay, we couldn't resist stopping for some munchies. Vivian was great about pointing things out that might interest us.
She was the one who said we should stop at this food cart:
There was nobody manning the cart when we arrived. If we were by ourselves, we totally would've just walked by, thinking that it was closed. Vivian marched right up to the cart, then started calling around for the owner. When he popped out, she proceeded to order us some batagor:
Batagor is basically fried tofu and fried fish paste in peanut sauce. We were good and held off on digging into the batagor until after we got back to the homestay. The peanut sauce had a kick to it and the fish paste was smooth and so delicious. I wish we'd gotten more of that stuff.
On our way back, we also stopped at a fruit stand. The fruit didn't look all that great and we were about to walk out disappointed when I suddenly noticed a giant oven with these babies inside:
Vivian told us that they were honey cassavas and that was it. I had to have them.
They were super wet and sweet:
I was quite pleased. I may or may not have eaten the whole bag by myself.
Vivian spotted some sugar apples and picked a couple out for us:
In Chinese, we call them Buddha heads because, well, they look like Buddha's head. They're really soft and you can pull them apart with just a soft squeeze of the hand:
It comes in segments and each contains a seed buried in creamy, milky flesh. Very yummy.
When we got back to the homestay, CL was conked out and my sister was getting there. We tried to tempt them with the goodies we brought back, but they were more interested in the medicine. Oh well, more for us.
We decided to take it easy our first day in Yogya. The girls took a nap while I tried to figure out an Indonesian drama. After they woke up, we took a taxi to Maliboro St to do some exploring (post to come).
Dedy offered to drive us around Yogya on our second day, for a fee, of course. When he arrived the next morning, he brought us some sweets that Vivian bought for us.
We were uber excited when we opened one leaf package to find the klepon we loved so much in Bali:
If you missed my post on the Karangasem market, klepon are glutinous rice balls with a brown sugar syrup center and coated with shredded coconut.
There was also this glutinous thing with shredded coconut and brown sugar syrup (sensing a trend here?):
And this tofu-looking thing that wasn't tofu at all:
I still don't know what it is, but it was dry, but still glutinous-y and subtly sweet. I like.
The problem is, we'd already eaten breakfast by the time Dedy arrived and we had no room left in our stomachs for these sweet gifts beyond a few nibbles of each. There was no refrigerator in the homestay, so by the time we got home at night, all the sweets had gone sour. Such a waste!
Though the Yogya leg of our trip didn't start out too positive, things looked up once we met Vivian and her husband and especially after we started eating. Things always look better once you have something good in your tummy.
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