Eating Guide for Indonesians in the USA – Part 1

By Buntoro

INTRODUCTION

When I first stepped my feet in California, I have to admit that I was somewhat confused of what to eat here because of the wide variety of food available here in the United States, especially California. I first found it surprising because I not only found the typical “American food” as I used to know them when I was still living in Indonesia.  Anyway, the very first restaurant I visited in the US is… a Chinese  restaurant in the vicinity of Monterey Park,  California. But, even then, I was very surprised because I could hardly recognize the Chinese  food in the United States. The restaurant had a small steam table choices in the front display case but I could hardly recognize any of the food there. For once, they didn’t look like the typical Chinese  food that I was used to eat in Indonesia. 

Not sure why, but I used to associate Chinese food with CapCay (There is no food like that in the USA, but the dish is basically a stir-fried mixed vegetables, Indonesian style), Tami Goreng (Deep fried thick egg noodles with stir fried vegetables, Indonesian style), Fu Yung Hai (Indonesian style Chinese food omelette with crab meat and seafood fillings) or Cah Kangkung (Garlic seasoned stir-fried On-Choy), perhaps because those are some of my favorite Chinese food in Indonesia.

But then, as I faced the impatient look of the lady serving the steam table, I noticed there were few vegetable dishes but at that time I didn’t recognize the vegetables, for sure it’s not Kangkung (Which I later found to be known as On Choy or Ong Choi in America). There were also some stir fried food with combination of meat and vegetables, but they were pretty much mystery dishes to me too at that point. What kind of Chinese food is that? Is it good? Even the names didn’t ring a bell since the names were quite strange to me at that time. What the hell is Kung Pao Chicken? What is twice cooked pork? Spicy or not? 

Anyway, after looking at the display for a while and to avoid further embarrassment, since the lady was already looking somewhat impatient, I decided to choose the easiest choice, the roast duck which was hung inside the case next to the steam table. At that time, I thought that was the safest choice for me. At least I know it is a roast duck, how bad can someone mess up a roast duck? Plus, roast duck dishes were actually considered higher class or more expensive among the other dishes of Chinese food in Indonesia because they’re usually only available from Hong Kong style restaurant.

I admit that not every Indonesians experience the same confusion like myself, I guess some Indonesians were more knowledgeable than me  when it comes to food in the United States. However, later on, I   actually met some other Indonesian friends who actually had similar embarrassing moments when they first ordered food due to their lack of knowledge of the food and food culture the United States (not Chinese food though), especially when they  first came to the United States. Later on, those embarrassing moments can become icebreakers in conversations among Indonesians, some people even happily joked around about his or her silly experience. But even then, from my own experience, I found that those incidents  were not all funny when it happened. In fact, they were somewhat embarrassing. One of the reasons I decided to write this eating guide is obviously to help fellow newcomers from Indonesia from experiencing similar incident. 

I am aware that this eating guide is far from perfect, but I sincerely hope that this short guide would at least help some readers from falling into similar predicament, whether they be fellow Indonesians who are visiting or studying or moving to the United States. I also thank all friends who have spared their precious time to help me finish this guide. I am also thankful to the readers for reading this guide. Once again, this guide is not perfect but I hope that this guide would at least help increase your knowledge about food and food culture in the United States, and hopefully none of you will experience food related culture shock embarrassment just like the humbling experience that I went through.

As a disclaimer, I once again want to reiterate that I am not a food expert by any means, I am just a person who enjoys eating food from different parts of the world. However, in order not to keep the guide as honest and legit as possible, I am also striving to provide related references for information I provided. Another disclosure is that the experience that I shared with you guys here is based on my personal experience while I live in the United States, and all data provided here is valid currently at the time of writing. Most of the data provided here is based on my personal experience living in San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California for about 6 years and 10 plus years in the greater Los Angeles area in Southern California.

To make it easier, I would like to separate the guides in several categories:

1. American Fast Food (Indonesia vs American style)
2. American Fast Food (The good and bad)
3. Slow-Food or Sit-down restaurant Food (American style restaurants)
4. Indonesian Food
5. Other ethnic Food (From all over the world)
6. Halal Food
7. Café, Bakery and Dessert Options

I completely understand that the limited classification above is not perfect, simply because of the wide variety of category in food world, especially for the foodies. However, due to time constraint and limited schedule, I decided to simplify it based on the above category, without any intention to degrade any other ethnic food. Once again, I apologize in advance for any  mistakes, errors and/or omissions in this short writing.

Last but not least, I would like to once again express my gratitude to all readers, I sincerely hope that you all can benefit from this guide and I also hope that this guide will help brothers and sisters in your journey and adventure in the smorgasbord world of food culture in the United States.

Peace,

-Buntoro

fast food

ˈˌfas(t) ˈˌfo͞od/

noun

noun: fast food; modifier noun: fast-food

1. food that can be prepared quickly and easily and is sold in restaurants and snack bars as a quick meal or to be taken out.

“a fast-food restaurant”

–++++++

Cartoon

(General idea: An Indonesian tried to get the spicy chicken rice dish package from McDonald’s in the USA. Because PEDAS and PANAS is the same word in English, HOT. The Indonesian then ask, “Do you sell HOT chicken?” The restaurant worker politely replies, “Sir, all our chicken is hot per the state law.” Not satisfied with the answer, he then ask again, “No, I mean, do you sell chicken that is really really HOT?” While gesturing and acting as if his mouth is burning. The restaurant worker replies again, “Sir, the temperature of our food follows the government standard for food safety. We cannot sell any products which is too hot that it burns your tongue.” The Indonesian is confused with the answer.)