Experiencing food— green and otherwise

Wow there really is a lot of green food items here, especially green drinks. This includes the usual green tea items, cold and hot, but it doesn’t stop there.

We’ve tried an avocado float, a café avocado and an avocado cappuccino. They are all really good and different from one another. Note: the two donuts were free with the café avocado and the avocado cappuccino but we’re not sure why. We didn’t see any signs. They just gave them to us saying they were free.

B works with a gentleman who tries a different green drink every Friday. B has started joining in the tradition a little and last Friday he ordered kedongdong juice.

 

Kedongdong (also called ambarella and great hog plum plus a bunch of other names) is common in South and Southeast Asia. It’s one of the many ingredients in a fruit “salad” called Rujak which Ibu Tin is planning on making for us. It has a single seed which is fibrous. The fruit can be eaten raw or as juice as well. Some add sweetener because it can be a little sour. It’s supposed to have tons of vitamin C. So what did B think about the kedongdong juice?  He was not a fan.

Also in the “green” category were green pea cookies. No, we didn’t buy any, but were intrigued enough to take the photo. Maybe someday we will buy a bag and check them out.

Semangka (watermelon) is plentiful this time of year and grown locally.. This little beauty was delicious.

How about a few food items that aren’t green? What about nasi biru? That’s blue rice. Yes, the rice is actually blue and gives a blue tint to the rice when cooked.

B is trying a local malang apple, which is grown in East Java. Ibu tin told me it is a firm and very tart apple and I bought some for B to try. They were not really firm or tart but tasty enough. B liked them but they will not replace the Mutsu as his favorite.

 

The last food item to discuss is something called duku. On the outside it sort of resembles lengkeng (longans). They are both round and similar in size. The duku has a fairly firm outershell that takes a very firm press to open the fruit.

While lengkeng just pops out when you press on it, the outer shell of duku must be peeled off. While lengkeng has a large seed, duku has only tiny seeds which are edible. Duku is segmented inside while lengkeng is not. The taste of lengkeng resembles a lychee, but duku tastes like a diluted grapefruit. Very tasty even though they are not much to look at.