Wisdom can be a curse sometimes.....


No, I'm not talking about the Book of Ecclesiastes, where the Teacher proclaims, "Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless! (including wisdom). But rather, I'm referring to my lousy left wisdom teeth, which decided to grow inwards away from my mouth. Last Tuesday, I was subjected to a relatively tedious oral surgery to get these two bad boys out.

The process itself was fine. It was the post-surgery experience that had me drowning in complete agony and reaching out for painkillers with trembling fingers.

......Ok, I'm over-dramatizing a little but it seriously hurt A LOT. Four days later, I'm a happier person who can't wait to eat solid foods. But until then, unto the intended blog content.


Hello Jakarta II

Now, we roam the streets of Jakarta. Well, part of it, at least. Check this out:

"Woah. What cheap horror flick is this?"

It's actually an automated chill/spice paste grinder. In the older days when your grandmother would use that batu giling, we now have a more high-tech gadget to do the job. Here's how the whole thing looks like:

It reminds me of a meat grinder or whatever you use to make sausages. In this pic, it's used to make 'santan' (coconut meat) by grinding the thick white flesh of old coconuts. XD

Here are the wet chill/spice pastes sold. The aunties would just have to buy the spice paste of their choice, take home and cook their family's favourite dish.

Moving along.....

As we (my group and I) strolled on in the market, we also encountered a few more interesting foodstuffs.

Call me a jakun**, but I still find milk packaged like this....weird.

Kerupuk (savory crackers, usually seafood-based/-flavored) are pretty common in South-east Asia but I didn't expect them to be colored pink. Hmmm.....maybe these are sweet rice crackers. Guh, I should have bought some to sample.

Finally, we had a look at local chicken distribution. A USDA official will have a heart attack upon seeing how chicken is sold in the wet market. Someone strolls in with a heavy gunni bag and dumps a bunch of skinned/de-feathered chicken onto the tiled table. Forget the temperatures this batch was stored during delivery and where the chicken is from. The whole chickens are chopped on a huge chopping board as customers poked and pick the chicken they want. Chicken bonanza!

Once the chicken is brought home, it's washed. Not everyone has kitchen sinks, yo. This is when I realize that I take many things in life for granted.

Oh and speaking of modern amenities, check out the laundry! Actually, I hang my laundry at home in a similar fashion. I just thought that it's funny how clothes dryers are practically non-existent here in South-east Asia.

Too bad I was only in Jakarta for 1 day. I would like to stay longer next time and explore some other locations. I mean, Indonesia is like, HUGE. But until then, I'll just imagine and wonder......

** A local term used to described someone who lives at the jungle, is uncivilized and isolated from the modern society. It's a little rude since there are real life native tribes in Malaysia Borneo by that name. (^_^);; I guess it's OK as long as you use that term in KL.