Undoubtedly one of the highlights of any trip to Indonesia is the food. You will enjoy a culinary journey when you incorporate the exotic dining experiences that Indonesia can offer you, when you plan your next trip. And there is no need to worry about health concerns either as the food is prepared in hygienic conditions, at most places, as long as you use a bit of common sense. Naturally, you should always have the best travel insurance you can afford to take care of life's little uncertainties.

In a country with a population of over 200 million there are obviously a huge number of eating experiences that you could enjoy. So it is extremely difficult to narrow down a list of restaurants all meals that you should include in your itinerary. Nevertheless there are at least five particular dishes that you should experience when it comes to the cuisine of Indonesia.

• Satay. The Satay is probably the best-known Indonesian dish in the world, but one variation that may have escaped your attention is Satay Ponorgo. This is an East Java dish originating in the town of Ponorgo and is made from marinated chicken meat served with a sauce made from peanuts and chilli. This dish is unique however in that each skewer contains a whole chicken's meat, not just a few slices, so it is a rather filling dish! This is a traditional recipe calls for it to be marinated in its special sauce for long periods of time before cooking. It is traditionally cooked in a specially designed earthenware pot roasted over hot coals.
• Gado Gado. This is a basic vegetable dish made from cooked and raw vegetables in a coconut milk and peanut sauce. You will find this dish in almost every restaurant as well as many street vendors, where the peanut sauce is made fresh for each dish. This makes Gado-Gado more special word is served in Indonesia as opposed to the restaurants back home, where the sauces are prepared in advance.
• Rujak. This dish is widely regarded as Indonesia's national salad dish. Consisting of pineapples, bananas, green apples and cucumber, it is then dressed with chilli powder and dark soy sauce with a little brown sugar and a splash of lime juice and is absolutely delicious and refreshing. It's something you don't see very often outside of Indonesia so make sure you give it a try.
• Nasi goreng. This is the famous fried rice dish that is served around the world, and is a simple combination of rice, dark soy sauce, chilli powder, onions, garlic, and brown sugar with seasoning. Serve it as an accompaniment to many dishes this makes a complete Indonesian experience out of any meal.
• Sarikayo Telor. For a desert with a difference this Indonesian specialty is a steamed egg and coconut milk concoction flavoured with vanilla for the perfect end to any Indonesian meal.

The huge variety of Indonesian food makes the challenge of finding the best European dish an impossible one.

The best advice you could receive would be to simply let yourself go and experience the full local cuisine of Indonesia and to never turned down the chance to eat with a local family where you are assured of being treated to something really special. Whilst hygiene levels can vary from place to place just use your common sense with the proviso that a good holiday insurance package should always be part of your plan.

This is incredibly important to know if you are a coffee lover of any sorts because you will be faced with numerous brew options throughout your life as a Java drinker. So how do you navigate the ins and outs of the various types of Java that you may be faced with to always get the freshest and most robust taste in your brew?

Firstly, I have to emphasize that it is so necessary to always freshly grind your beans, as well as to purchase them when they are freshly roasted. If you are buying pre-ground beans, then there is absolutely no way that they are fresh at all - sorry to break it to you. When the beans are ground, they begin to go stale within a matter of hours, so if you are picking up a bag of Java that is pre-ground in your local grocery store, then it has already gone stale.

I recommend investing in a quality grinder, which you can definitely get at a minimal price, like the Kitchenaid BCG100 Coffee Grinder, which retails at $35.99. It is easy to use, not to mention the fact that it will thoroughly grind your beans from a fine to a coarse setting, and all of the parts are dishwasher safe. There is nothing better than freshly grinding your beans directly before you brew your morning Java for the most fresh and rich flavors.

Speaking of brewing, which method of Java brewing are you currently using? One of my favorites that I constantly recommend to all of my friends and customers is the French Press. If you haven't tried the French Press yet, then you are truly missing out on some of the deepest and most robust flavors of the bean that you have ever tasted. A great starter on your French Press adventure is the Bodum Chambord 3 Cup Coffee Press, which is only $19.95, and it works by extracting the finest essential oils from the bean itself so that your final brew product is fresh and full-bodied.

You can use the grinder I mentioned above to coarsely grind all of your beans, and then all you have to do is place them with steaming hot water within the French Press, wait four minutes, plunge the grounds to the bottom, and then pour yourself a cup of the freshest Java that you may ever have! The best part of all is that the Bodum Chambord 3 Cup Coffee Press is actually award-winning as the Best French Press by The American Culinary Institute in 2004. Good to know!

Lastly, if you are ordering a brew in a coffee house, feel free to ask them questions about where they get their beans, the roasting process, and how they are brewed so that you can know the Java being served is the best. Also, test their wares by buying beans from them, grinding them at home, and seeing what flavors they have to offer. If they are a reputable shop, they will also be able to tell you the roast date of all of their beans. Implementing all of these methods will be sure to guarantee you the freshest tasting cup of Joe every time. Bellissima!

Spicy Food "Buntil" From Javanese Traditional Cuisine

Here is one more unique food from Indonesia named "Buntil".

Buntil Food was known as traditional spicy food from Java Island that are East Java, Central Java, Jogjakarta and West Java, but most famous at Central Java and East Java.

Buntil word is the meaning Wrapping, so the Buntil Food means dish of roasted taro leaves wrapped around spices.

The spicy sensation, makes it hard to forget it!

A. Buntil Stuffing Ingredients:

- Grated coconut
- Red pepper
- chili
- onion
- garlic
- tiny sea fish
- pete cina
- salt
- sugar
- flavoring

B. Buntil Wrapping Ingredient:

- Taro leaves with purple color
- Alternative material cassava leaves or papaya leaves

C. Buntil Sauce Ingredient:

- coconut milk
- red pepper
- chili
- onion
- garlic
- turmeric
- the galangale
- lemon leaves
- lemon grass
- salt
- sugar
- flavoring

Cooking Instruction for Stuffing Buntil: A

1.a. Mills finely red pepper, chili, onion, garlic, salt, sugar and flavoring
2.a. Pouring grated coconut, tiny sea fish, pete cina to the dough 1.a.

Cooking Instruction for making Buntil Wrapping: B

1.b. Heap up 7 plies taro leaves
2.b. Put dough 2.b. on the taro leaves 1.b., wrapped around as a ball
3.b. Steamed within 7 hours

Cooking Instruction Buntil Sauce: C

1.c Mills finely red pepper, chili, onion, garlic, turmeric and alpina galanga.
2.c Prepare frying pan and cook doug 1.c until good smelt ±5 minutes
3.c Pouring coconut milk, wait its boiled

Serving Guide:

- Prepare a cup
- Put on the Buntil and pouring the Sauce
- Ready to eat, enjoy it.

Cookbook and Food Magazine Addictions

Hi my name is Christine and I'm a cookbook-food magazine junkie. Can't collect enough, can't stop by any checkout stand or book store food section without picking one up, thumbing through it, reading the side-bars, looking at the photos, wondering when my next fix will kick in. I have a constant longing, craving and yearning for the next one with pretty pictures, will it ever end? I have a collection of about 200 books; food, wine, dessert, entertaining, beverage there are so many that they now serve as decorative adornments (dust collectors) throughout my home. And the magazines, I have finally succumbed to tearing out the photos or recipes I truly want and put them in my working binder and recycle the rest of the magazine to my hair salon (how Green of me! Not really I just cannot bring myself to throw away a $5 magazine that I bought for just one recipe!).

I'll admit in the beginning when the book was new I read it from cover to cover savoring every word, every photo and actually made some of the food porn that appealed to me the most. Speak to me in pictures don't give me a cookbook without photos because it will never work between us. I need to see the food; desire it, lust after it, make the recipe and then move on. It just gets old after going through it a few times, same old recipes, same old pictures, same old outcome. OK this is beginning to sound like an article for the Dating Examiner I digress; the hard cover book with the glossy photo for every recipe is the type of book that gets me. Gets me every single time. Think of it as the bad-boy, type-A personality book. The one you can't stay away from but the one you can't stay with either. It's the type of book that makes your knees buckle with its cosmetic beauty, makes you giggle with delight over its expansive and informative recipes with photos that take your breath away leaving you hungry for more.