While traveling through Indonesia has been a true learning experience both in culture and food, I would be lying if I said that the food was light. The food is heavily seasoned with endless varieties of herbs and spices, lots of coconut and regular milk, and no shortage of meats, rices, and breads. Towards the end, I could feel my stomach bulging a bit and a an increased desire to eat more fruit and vegetables, though I was already eating a good amount of fruit because of all the amazing fresh produce we can get here easily that we cannot get easily or as fresh in New York. But, I did feel as though this indulgence period needed to come to an end.

While back in Melbourne for a day, I got to eat much lighter and did no food filming of myself, so that made me feel a bit more restful. It’s funny how others go on vacation to relax, but I rarely feel “relaxed” while on vacation because we’re always on the go. And now with YmF, there’s always going to be “work” on trips! A fan who started following me after meeting me in Jakarta said he felt bad “for disturbing me while I was working” during filming. Well, I wish this was real “paid” work now!

There are the guides you hire to accomplish A, B, and C, and they do that for you. Then, there are the guides who engage with you, listen to conversations you are having, hear what you love, and enhance your travel experience even further. These guys truly go above and beyond. Edy was that person for us. He was our 1.5-day driver/guide in Bali, and he certainly did not disappoint. Hearing that we wanted to try as much local food as possible, he not only took me to the babi guling spot I wanted to try in Ubud, but he attempted to take us to a chicken spot he loved serving the local loved ayam betutu (Balinese style grilled chicken). While they were already closed, as they are only open for lunch and it was past 6pm at the time he drove us, it was the effort that counted.

And when he heard that I loved durian and jackfruit, he searched far and wide on the roads to see if any roadside vendors were selling it. In the light rain, it was challenging, as many roadside fruit vendors stop selling during rain and do not want to get wet, but he persevered and found us a vendor that sold BOTH fruits, and both were superbly fresh, delicious, and reasonably priced! The durian he got us was likely one of the sweetest, creamiest durians I’d ever eaten. It was a pain to find a place to eat it (and film eating it) once back in Kuta, but we made it work by finding an empty bench in front of a closed tattoo shop.

And if that were not enough, on our way back from lunch today, we passed yet another durian vendor who sold us a durian 10,000 IDR cheaper than the one yesterday, and it was also super sweet and creamy with a similar amount of fruit. I was sitting on the side of a road, swatting away flies and getting bitten by mosquitoes on my arms and legs, yet I was happily eating my durian. I felt quite at bliss at the moment even though I was hot, sticky, and itchy from the bug bites.

These are the things I love about travel – eating delicious, local foods in their local environments the way the locals would eat it. As we sat and ate on the road side, other locals joined us to buy their durians, have them cut open, and sat right by us. We exchanged smiles, and it was simply understood: what unites us is our humanity and our desire for tasty and delicious food. We are joined in that.

Ubud, Bali, is historically known as a spiritual, cultural, and arts center of Bali, filled with endless temples, different types of straw and wood crafts, paintings, vegan and vegetarian Balinese restaurants, and places to do real yoga (yeah, not just the trendy stuff where everyone stands around wearing Lulu Lemon pants). It is also surrounded by lush tropical forests, endless wildly growing fruit trees, and quaint rice paddies. In the past, it has been an important source of the island for medicinal herbs and plants, as its name actually comes from the Balinese word for medicine, “ubad.”

While other westerners have visited Ubud for decades before, from my perspective, the rise in interest in Ubud and Bali overall really came after Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love came out, and then its subsequent movie of the same name starring Julia Roberts. In her journey that she shares, Gilbert travels to three countries that all happen to start with the letter “I” (supposedly a coincidence to truly find herself, thus the focus on “I” – Italy, India, and Indonesia). Much of her time noted in the book as well as shot in the movie is in Ubud. Since then, it’s become a bit of a cliche for me to hear yet another American couple go on their honeymoon to Bali. It starkly contrasts with the Aussie reputation of being the place where frat parties rein over all.

But after a day trip to Ubud, I felt like it was a totally different world than that of Kuta. It had fewer people, more walking space, more lush green area. Even the places deemed touristy like the Tegalalong Rice Terraces were quiet, scenic, and peaceful. We went in the morning, so the rice terraces had far fewer people than I’d originally anticipated, and it made for a lot of good, quiet time to shoot some videos and also just enjoy the scenery and the sounds. This is the most scenic and well manicured rice paddy I’ve ever visited, as most of the ones you pass in Asia are all flat. The series of rice paddies use the subak, which is a traditional Balinese cooperative irrigation system, which is thought to have come about in the 8th century. This is what creates the “terraced” look of the rice paddies here that differentiate their look. I loved the experience we had at Bali Pulina, where we got to have a personal tour of the agro-touristic plantation, where they grow everything from durian and cacao to coffee and even cinnamon. The whole area the plantation was on was like being in the center of a tropical jungle full of rich, delicious natural ingredients. We had a complimentary coffee and tea tasting to sample all the different varieties and really loved the overall experience of sitting outdoors and enjoying these delicious treats in the middle of nature. Even when the rain came, we were shielded and could still enjoy the sounds under cover.

One of the other big highlights for us was trying a very famous babi guling (Balinese roasted suckling pig) dish at the most respected restaurant for it in Ubud; all this restaurant makes is babi guling, so it has to be good, otherwise it would have died a long time ago. What was most notable about this pig, other than the earth shattering and crisp, thick pork skin, was all the other accompaniments you eat this with, ranging from the spiced chopped long beans with what tasted and appeared to be freshly grated coconut, fluffy, airy rice, fried pieces of pork, and tender meat from different parts of the pig. It was all served on a banana leaf atop a straw tray. This was likely the tastiest dish we’d had of the entire trip, and if not this entire trip, than in Bali, hands down. To be honest, this may have been the best suckling pig I’d ever eaten in my entire life; nothing else had skin this crispy and fatty that just shattered in my mouth or melted in my mouth, or a spice mixture this complex, spicy, and memorable.

The spice mix that the vegetables are seasoned with is called basa gede, literally meaning “big spice mix,” which seems fitting for the name. Some of the many elements of this complex and addictive spice mix include shallots, garlic, ginger, galangal, kencur (another type of galangal), turmeric, candle nut, bird’s eye chillies, coriander, black peppercorn, salam leaves (Indonesian bay leaf) and salt, plus a shrimp paste mixed in. That spice mix needs to be packed up and sent back to my apartment in New York, ASAP.

Ubud – you were so tasty and beautiful. I need to come back to you in the future.

We lucked out with traffic in Jakarta. Given that we arrived at the end of December before the new year, most of the city dwellers had departed for new year’s holidays, and so we experienced none of the gridlock that so oftentimes characterizes the city. Instead, we experienced horrific traffic in Jogja, and last night when arriving in Denpasar, Bali, as the last leg of our Indonesia trip, what could arguably be the worst traffic of this entire trip. The distance between the Denpasar airport and Kuta, where we are staying, really isn’t that far, but somehow, it took ages and ages for us to get anywhere. In many cases, we were on two lane roads where cars just did not move. Constant traffic lights were hit. And all I wanted to do was eat dinner and crawl into bed. It was so miserable. It may have been faster to drag our luggage by foot to the hotel at the rate we were going.

Bali is notorious for awful traffic, not necessarily because it is that heavily populated, but rather that the infrastructure there just cannot handle the number of cars and people that want to go through it. And as we walked around the Kuta area, I realized exactly how Australian dominated the island was, or at least, this section: all I could hear were Australian accents, and all I could see were American and Australian brands and restaurants advertising “Aussie steaks” or “Aussie burgers” (whatever either of those two terms even mean). No one wanted to greet us or even say “thank you” to us in Bahasa or Balinese; it was all English. This just did not feel right.

The only place I want to go where I immediately know I will hear Aussie accents is Australia or a family gathering of Chris’s. Anything else is not going to make me happy.

In a day and age when climate change is top of mind for most rational people, and in a day and age when many times because of that, people are more conscious about consuming less meat and animal products to help with climate change, jackfruit has become a hot item for vegans as a meat substitute, usually in tacos and as a replacement for “pulled pork” texture items because of its naturally substantial, meaty texture. In addition, and as a bit of a kicker for me because I did not know this, jackfruit has a curiously high natural amount of protein in it, making it almost a model meat substitute as a fruit.

For me, as someone who has always loved and consumed jackfruit as a sweet fruit, this was a bit mind boggling for a couple reasons: 1) jackfruit is already a very expensive, exotic fruit to grow. If it now becomes even more popular because of hipsters, then the price will skyrocket even more, making it even less accessible for all of us. 2) If vegans and those choosing to actively eat less meat use jackfruit as a meat substitute and thus in savory applications, will they also be able to recognize and embrace jackfruit as, well, an actual fruit that is supposed to be… SWEET?

This is why jackfruit can be used as both sweet and savory: as papaya salad in Thailand and Vietnam is made with unripened papaya that is not sweet, so can young, unripened jackfruit be used in savory stews, as taco fillings, etc. Plus, when young, the texture is retained just the same. And today, during our self-guided food tour of Jogja, we enjoyed gudeg, a local morning stew that is wildly popular in Yogyakarta, eaten with a boiled seasoned egg, rice, and all wrapped up in a fragrant banana leaf. The first time we had gudeg was from a random street stall our first night after learning that people pretty much never have it for dinner; we weren’t that thrilled with that first taste. But with this one, it was likely what the glory of gudeg is supposed to be: tender, meaty without meat, and a bit sweet and savory at the same time. Plus, we had hoards and hoards of locals lining up and eating on plastic stools around us to verify this. In this jackfruit stew, the jackfruit shines with its firm, meaty texture, but it’s actually also sweetened with palm sugar. It was definitely a major highlight of our Jogja eating fun.

Borobudor Temple, which we visited today, is a set of Buddhist temples just outside of Jogja that were built in the (approximately) 8th to 9th century. We arrived at Borobodur Temple at around 4:45 with our cameras, tripod, and flashlights to capture and see the very first sunrise of 2020. It was quite cloudy, so while we did not have the epic colors of the best sunrises possible, it was really beautiful to see the haze surrounding the temple and the nearby mountains, as well as to see a quick clear view of the Merapi volcano nearby from the top of the temple. It was also good to be there before the real crowds of the late morning and afternoon descended upon us. It’s the general rule to follow when visiting a very touristy site: try to go as early as possible to get fewer people, smaller crowds, and more time to really soak up and enjoy your time in the place. A lot of these sites, including the Prambanan Hindu temple, were uncovered by accident while people were digging up volcanic ash and happened upon these ruins. It is mind boggling to think that a civilization of people spent so much time, energy, and money building these temples that were then abandoned, buried by natural disasters, and then uncovered like new by later generations and people seeking to preserve the past for future generations of people to enjoy.

After three days in Jakarta, we flew to Yogyakarta today for the next segment of our trip. Yogyakarta, nicknamed “Jogja” is the city that Indonesians from all over the country visit when they want to go on holiday. It’s a major cultural and arts destination, known for its many UNESCO World Heritage sites, not to mention its art scene. They have these intense puppet-type shows where all the puppets are handmade and carved from buffalo skin (I got to touch one of these today, and they feel so soft, almost like leather!). 

We were lucky while in Jakarta because the traffic wasn’t anywhere as bad as we imagined it to be based on all the travel blogs and sites we’d read, but then we quickly realized and were told that the traffic was lesser in the Big Durian because they’d all left the city in preparation for the new year’s holiday. Where did a lot of them go? To Jogja, and the traffic was absolutely horrific here today as result of this. Today, we only got to visit the Taman Sari, or the Portuguese water castle, as a result of this and the rain. 

My first impressions of the city are that it’s definitely far more quaint than Jakarta (obvious given the size of Jogja is just a fraction of Jakarta) and actually reminded me of Qui Nhon, Vietnam, and even Siem Riep, Cambodia. The streets, the roads, the traffic, the tuktuks – a lot were very similar to these other two cities I’d visited previously. 

We ended up sleeping early and not staying out late to welcome in 2020 because we will be waking up at 3:30 to leave for our 4pm car to see the sunrise over Borobudor Temple tomorrow. This just means that we will be waking up bright and early for 2020 to see the very first sunrise of the new year. 

We ate some of the most delicious dishes during our Jakarta segment of our trip today, ranging from soto Betawi, a Jakarta beef stew made with jerky-like beef, coconut and fresh milk, ginger, galangal, garlic, kaffir lime, among other spices; martabak durian, a thick pancake with crispy edges stuffed with durian fruit; to nasi campur, an Indonesian mixed rice dish that had many Chinese barbequed meat components. And during the day, we were stopped by a few potential fans who asked to take photos with us and also for my channel name/Instagram handle so that they could subscribe and watch. It was so cute and sweet that they would stop and ask and also be a follower of mine; this is the first time this has happened during our filming outside of that one time at Ba Xuyen in Brooklyn. All this interaction/interest has encouraged me and given me more motivation to get these videos up as soon as I can. The only challenge is the massive backlog I have of videos to edit and upload, not to mention the endless amounts of footage I have from all these places. The cooking videos have a pretty predictable beginning, middle, and end. The food travel videos can involve more creativity and definitely take more time because of it, so I tend to spend more time and energy on these. I hope these will generate more interest from audiences abroad, so fingers crossed. 

When I was little, I always enjoyed many types of arts and crafts, from drawing, painting, paper mache, to beading and scrapbooking. What I never mastered that I wanted to do was braiding hair. This seems a bit frivolous, but to me, being able to do hair seemed like an important thing because why not have some fun adding variety to one’s appearance? It seems so simple, the idea of braiding hair. It’s essentially creating decorative knots in the hair. But for some reason, I never really learned how to do the most basic braids. My “braids” always ended up looking like twisted ropes, which was clearly not correct. 

Yet as an adult in my own kitchen, I mastered braiding challah quickly and enjoyed the entire process. So today, as I was struggling with the tropical heat and humidity of Jakarta, I wasn’t sure if I should wear my hair up in a bun because that would mean I couldn’t wear a hat to protect my face from the strong sun. If I wore my hat, I’d need to tie my hair in a low ponytail, but the hair from the ponytail would constantly stick to my sticky, sweating skin. The only remedy would be to braid my hair. And I thought to myself, if I have no issues braiding challah, then how is hair any different? This was so silly! 

So, I finally attempted braiding after 30 years of staying away from it, and somehow, it actually turned out looking okay. I looked up YouTube tutorials on regular braids, Dutch braids, fish tail braids, and French braids. It’s crazy all these things that really are not that hard as long as you have a very clear visual, step-by-step guide. 

Yep, I’m 33 going on 34, finally mastering braiding hair, all because I was sick and tired of having my hair stick to my skin in this unbearable heat and stickiness. This new skill is achieving my goal of preventing my hair strands sticking all over my body. At least it’s better late than never. 

We arrived in Jakarta last night to a heavy rainfall and humidity so high that every piece of glass in sight continuously fogged when exposed to the outside world. I was wondering what Jakarta would be like, particularly in the light of the fact that pretty much everyone I know who has been to Indonesia on holiday has completely skipped Jakarta; instead, they use the city as a transfer point to get to the much hyped up island of Bali (thanks so much, Australians and Eat, Pray, Love). Jakarta has a bad wrap for its congested traffic, pollution, and crowds. It made me wonder…. Ummm, aren’t those the same reasons people hate on cities like LA or New York? Yet people continue to visit those cities. Are people just pre-judging too much and straight up being assholes about what they don’t even know? 

Jakarta is also known affectionately (or not) as “the Big Durian.” It’s debated why this is Jakarta’s nickname, but some plausible theories include: like the polarizing and stinky durian fruit originating in Southeast Asia, you either love Jakarta or you hate it. For some, it’s an exciting and delicious city. For others, they simply cannot stand any part of it and want to avoid it like the plague. Another theory: durian is smelly, and so is Jakarta (I don’t agree that Jakarta is smelly, but yes, as a city with a high population and poor and rich areas, of course the poorer areas are going to have worse sewage systems, so….). 

After exploring the city for two days, I would argue that Jakarta is certainly worth a visit. Yes, it doesn’t have a lot of “tourist” sights the way a city like Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Hanoi, or New York would, but it has interesting and quirky neighborhoods, crazy large malls, and an eclectic assortment of food due to its extremely diverse population representing many surrounding countries, its 17,000+ islands, and previous colonization by the Portuguese and the Dutch. From a culture perspective, there’s plenty to learn and soak in from this capital city. And from a foodie perspective, it’s kind of like a dreamy paradise. Who would have thought to put jerky-like beef into a coconut and cow milk-based broth, or to make coffee from coffee berries defecated from a civet / luwak cat because going through its digestive track would result in a more rich and chocolatey flavor? Also, I’d never before visited a country with SO many different types of sambals (spicy chili pastes) ranging in level of heat, sweetness, sourness, saltiness. Indonesian cuisine is vast, rich, and diverse, so heavily influenced by Malaysian, Chinese, and Indian cuisines, just to name a few. I cannot imagine anyone who enjoys trying new foods to find this city even remotely boring.