A Home Cooked Meal

Jan Miyake, visit to Harri Santoso's home, 11.01.14

One of the highlights of our trip to Banda Aceh was being invited to the home of Harri Santoso, who we had gotten to know in Oberlin last semester. Bang (older brother) Harri was last Fall's Shansi fellow to Oberlin from Banda Aceh and attended some of our language-acquisition lunches to help us out. He has a warm and generous personality and went way out of his way to connect with us in Banda Aceh and have us over for dinner.

Our evening started with rides in becak, motorcycles with sidecars. To say we loved this mode of transportation is a mild understatement. Arriving at Bang Harri's, we were warmly greeted and invited to sit in the main room. We were served cordials of pink sweet water (brought back reminiscences of bubble gum), sweet treats (pounded rice with coconut or pounded sweet beans), and sweet fruit (rambutan, durian, and langsat). Dinner was then served buffet style. It was an amazing cornucopia of colors, smells, spices, and textures. My favorite dish was these spicy sweet picked vegetables that were heavenly served over rice. Many of us are still learning that all food is meant to be eaten with rice... Sadly, eating these vegetables on their own appeared to turn people into an interesting shade of red from the spicyness! Dinner conversation was wide ranging, with topics that included families, our local IGA, dating customs in Indonesia, and travel stories. After dinner, Bang Harri generously opened up his house to us so that we could see one Indonesian home. We were very impressed by the efficient use of space!

It was wonderful to see a familiar face in Indonesia. It was an extra special treat to have a home cooked meal. And, it was a true pleasure to meet the rest of Bang Harri's family! Thank you, Bang Harri and family for a really fantasitc evening!

 

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