Food Access

Food is funny. It is tied greatly to our cultures, families, religions and availability. My love of food is part of what drove me to this internship in the first place. Turns out the feeding myself piece of the trip has been a bit of a challenge.


I like coconuts.


Let me start by saying this: I’d like to think I’m a fairly liberal (by American standards) about trying daring food options and general concern for refrigeration. I’m not obsessed. Food can get left out, within reason. I’d rank myself (again, by Western standards) a 7 out of 10. However even with my liberal standards I am pretty sure all the “street meat,” which is a predominant food option in many parts of the country, would be shut down in 30 seconds by any Department of Health. I’m not exaggerating. My standards for what is acceptable have decreased infinitely.

Let me explain with an anecdotal story about a dinner we had a few weeks back in Bogor during which I thought I led us to a Lonely Planet recommended restaurant. Immediately after we sat down our friendly waiter asked if we wanted something… I assumed he asked if wanted menus, and I politely shook my head. Instead they brought out a smorgasboard of food. Maybe I should learn the word for menu. It did not appear so terrible at first, some hard boiled eggs, friend chicken, white rice, other assorted vegetables and meat items in spicy sauce that we couldn’t account for. We quickly realized that most of the food was cold, likely prepared hours (or worse, days!)ago... and we were charged by what we ate, which leads us to believe they reuse the food for other customers. Turns out this was NOT a Lonely Planet recommendation.

The quality of water paired with a lack of refrigeration creates a perfect recipe for travelers falling ill to painful stomach problems. THANKFULLY I have remained healthy the first month here. When you start to talk to the locals about the problems we weak stomached Americans have, it turns out many of them suffer from pain frequently, getting sick as often as once per week. This doesn’t seem normal to me.

Another anecdote comes from my time in Pacitan. We had a delightful woman from the community cooking for us and she did prepare a nice variety of foods, per my request and of course Galih’s uber concern for me staying happy and healthy. Aside from me begging for her to make vegetables, I would have been limited to rice and meat. The food access in this rural region struck me as extremely limited, which is so upsetting for a rich agricultural place! I asked many of the farmers what they grow during bad drought seasons (important for understanding climate coping strategies), and their reply was that they either grow nothing, or something with little nutritional content such as cassava. They also report in Pacitan that almost entirely all of the rice the farmers grown for self consumption. I can’t help but wonder and be worried that during these periods the food access is limited to fried cassava and rice. Many of the farmers have smaller vegetable gardens but nothing that is grown in large quantities. This lack of crop diversity is alarming and is an issue that I’m grappling with in my climate adapation assessment. Although the two may not seem linked, they are!

Runs to local small bodega-esque stores in Pacitan reveal a small amount of vegetables but a great amount of processed foods. It is sad that such a demand exist.. I’ve also been told that Pizza Hut is considered the best pizza in Indonesia. This makes my stomach turn over. Really? Dammit Fast Food Nation America!!! I could go on but I’ll leave it at dammit America!

Maybe I haven’t seen enough of a representative sample, but it feels to me that Bogor is at a crossroads, as its a city overburdened by the spillover from the close to 9 million crowd in Jakarta, 30 miles away but can take 3 hours with traffic. Bogor has some really great dining experiences (which, not to worry we are finding and enjoying!) but they are overshadowed in my opinion by the abundance of fast food and questionable street meat. If the people know the food can be extremely harmful, why isn’t more done to avoid it? It’s likely the same reason that trash collection is unreliable and pollution so rampant. I can’t pretend that in two short months here I will be able to answer these questions or enact change, but it is still very troubling for me as a foodie.

Despite the challenges, I have found some deliciousness in Indonesia. Fried tempe! Satay. Whatever the amazing peanut sauce is that they use many items here. The avocado juice which tastes more like a smoothie - found everywhere - is out of this world. Fried rice is so awesome, but I can’t eat it every meal or even day. Fresh fruit juices. Bananas in all kinds of desserts. Delicious. Enak.


Fried tempe and some kind of phenomenal rice-coconut milk this is supposed to be healthy treat.

Maybe my health thus far is a result of good fitness or extreme anal retentiveness about food and hygiene or just dumb luck. I am going to try like hell to keep it all up throughout the remainder of my trip. But I will never, ever take for granted the good fortune we have in the US never to worry about clean tap water or food served at a restaurant making you sick.