Sample Recipes

How to Decipher the Menu, Know the Market Foods & Embark on a Tasting Adventure

Joan & David Peterson

ISBN 0-9641168-1-2
$12.95 paperback
5.5 x 8.5 - 160 Pages
Pub. Date 1997

• About the Book
• About the Authors
• Praise for Eat Smart in Indonesia     
• Table of Contents  
• Ordering Information  
• Other EAT SMART Books by Ginkgo Press  

This smartly designed culinary travel guidebook is never out of date. It opens up the world of Indonesian food to travelers, including students studying abroad, and tells how to find the most delicious, authentic, and adventuresome eating experiences there.

The authors share the secrets they’ve uncovered while hunting for something good to eat—from restaurant dining to home cooking to fresh market produce—to allow you to get to the heart of the culture through its cuisine. The book also includes recipes from some of the finest chefs in Indonesia.

As you know, food is one of the first and most immediate contacts a traveler makes with a foreign country. Travelers to Indonesia can make it a more memorable contact by taking along the easy-to-use Eat Smart in Indonesia, one of the guides in the award-winning EAT SMART series. The authors show that traveling and eating in unfamiliar territory doesn’t have to be gastronomical guesswork.

Also available: culinary guidebooks to the cuisine of Brazil, Turkey, India, Mexico, Poland, Morocco and Peru.

Joan Peterson, author of the award-winning EAT SMART series of culinary travel guidebooks, has created her books for food-loving travelers and cookbook lovers like herself who want to get to the heart of a country's culture through its cuisine. To date she has written guides to the food of Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Morocco, India and Peru. Joan travels extensively and has led culinary tours to Europe, Asia and Africa. She is a founding member of CHEW (Culinary History Enthusiasts of Wisconsin) and is the director of the Travel Publishers Association.

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"Soundly researched, clearly written, artistically illustrated, Eat Smart in Indonesia is the most comprehensive and readable survey of the whole scope of Indonesian gastronomy I have ever come across. It is equally valuable as a solid reference work for the scholar and as exotic inspiration for the chef or home entertainer."
—Bill Dalton, founder, Moon Travel Guides; author, Indonesian Handbook

"You may go to Indonesia for puppet theater and white beaches, but you'll return dreaming of nasi goreng (fried rice) and opor ayam (spicy coconut chicken). Still, there are so many Indonesian treasures that you might have tried, if only you'd known how to ask for them, and felt reasonably confident of the ingredients. Happily, Joan and David Peterson are masters of conferring culinary smarts. They provide regional specialties, food market aplomb, restaurant phrases, a glossary of ingredients, and the main course--an extensive list of Indonesian entries with English translations. I wish this book had been available when I visited Sumatra and Bali."
—Amazon.com editor

Travelers who like to get to the heart of a culture through its cuisine, yet never find enough material about food in general guidebooks, can get a quick handle on eating abroad with the unique and innovative Eat Smart destination cuisine guides, which contain a treasury of culinary surprises and language tips for navigating menu and market. Less adventuresome eaters will be more at ease in experimenting with new foods and food preparations since these invaluable guidebooks take the guesswork out of exotic, unfamiliar foods. The newest (and third) guide in this authoritative series Eat Smart in Indonesia: How To Decipher The Menu, Know The Market Foods & Embark On A Tasting Adventure is a paean to Indonesian cuisine. (The first two in the series covered the cuisines of Brazil and Turkey. ) It contains a rich historical perspective on the origins and varieties of Indonesian food and extensive background on the delectable regional dishes. Indonesian phrases are included to make one's culinary adventure even more successful. At the core of the book are two extensive glossaries in Indonesian with English translations. The "Menu Guide" demystifies food selection, allowing visitors to order with confidence in restaurants; the "Foods & Flavors Guide" is a comprehensive list of foods, spices, cooking utensils, cooking styles, etc. , to make shopping in the colorful outdoor markets easy and fun. Authors Joan and David Peterson (inveterate travelers, cooks, seekers of unusual herbs and spices, and new ways to prepare familiar ingredients) have added a delicious bonus by providing a chapter of recipes for travelers to preview the tastes before departure, thus broadening the guide's appeal to cookbook lovers as well.
—Midwest Book Review

Preface

Acknowledgments

The Cuisine of Indonesia
An historical survey of the development of Indonesian cuisine and the outside influences felt by several millenia of foreign intervention by traders and invaders from many nations.

• Early History 
• The Chinese 
• The Indians 
• The Muslims 
• The Portuguese 
• The Spanish 
• The English 
• The Dutch 
• Special-Occasion Foods 

Regional Indonesian Food
A quick tour through the Indonesian islands to see the diversity of cooking styles encountered in traveling the length and breadth of the archipelago.

Indonesian Food in a Nutshell 
The Greater Sundas 

• Sumatra 
• Java 
• Kalimantan 

Sulawesi 
Bali 
Nusatenggara 
The Maluku: The Spice Islands 
Irian Jaya 

Tastes of Indonesia
A selection of delicious, easy-to-prepare regional and national recipes to try before leaving home.

Shopping in Indonesia's Food Markets
Tips to increase your savvy in both the exciting outdoor food markets and modern supermarkets.

Resources
A listing of stores carrying hard-to-find Indonesian foods and of groups that focus on travel to Indonesia or offer opportunities for person-to-person contact through home visits to gain a deeper understanding of the country, including its cuisine.

• Mail-Order Suppliers of Indonesian Foods 
• Travel Agencies 
• Some Useful Organizations to Know About 

Helpful Phrases
Questions in Indonesian, with English translations, which will assist you in finding, ordering and buying foods or ingredients, particularly regional specialties.

• Phrases for Use in Restaurants 
• Phrases for Use in Food Markets 
• Other Useful Phrases 

Menu Guide
An extensive listing of menu entries in Indonesian, with English translations, to make ordering food an easy and immediately rewarding experience.

Foods and Flavors Guide
A comprehensive glossary of ingredients, kitchen utensils and cooking methods in Indonesian, with English translations.

Bibliography

Index

Eat Smart in Indonesia
ISBN 0-9641168-1-2
Paperback
5.5 x 8.5 - 160 Pages
Pub. Date 1997

$12.95 + free shipping via US Media Mail. For international orders, please call 608-233-5488 or email about shipping costs.

Or, for mail orders, send check/money order for $12.95 (free media mail shipping for US orders) to: 

Ginkgo Press, Inc. 
P.O. Box 5346 
Madison, WI 53705

Also Available in Canada from:
Ulysses Travel Guides Order Desk
6600 St. Urbain Street
Local 206
Montreal, Quebec
H2S 3G8
514-948-1919
Fax 514-948-4934
orderdesk@ulysses.ca

They are also available from Ingram and Baker & Taylor.

Ginkgo Press, Inc. 
P.O. Box 5346 
Madison, WI 53705 
voice 608-233-5488 
fax 608-233-0053