A food-lover's week plus a "first-in-a-while" hike

Tuesday

W's birthday may be over, but we have enough Chinese longevity noodles left for a second meal. W smacks his lips at the taste - sooo good.

Dr Hanna sent over the mix of sauce, noodles, and toppings.

Wednesday

Chicken Central is booming! Hens, chicks, and roosters in many shapes and sizes dart around the garbage dump. I hiss to scatter them so they're off the road when the dogs walk by.

Plumbing, you say? This garden hose is typical of a home water-supply line from the city. The paving workers didn't bother pulling it to the side. They put concrete around and over it, making it part of the new sidewalk.

It's nice to have a sidewalk though the old garbage bags haven't moved. The workers chopped and mortared as close to the fence as they could without having garbage fall into the trench.

Around Bandung, the Dutch colonial influence remains in the architecture. Our area is no exception. Remember that "hot air rises"? These tall-roofed, teak-windowed houses drew outside air in and up to cool the main living spaces without air conditioning. Clever.

Property lines? Easy to find. Just look at who's paid their yardman lately. No clipping the neighbor's hedge!

The wheels on the big bus go round and round on this final day of school. The neighborhood kids are going to visit the Monas, a national monument in Jakarta, today. The moms and kids line up a half hour before they're due to leave. Some kids are out of the house at 5:00 a.m.

A new-to-us papaya vendor sends up several fruits for us and friends. "Almost ripe, just for you," she says. It's a sweet deal at about $1.40 each, including delivery.

Soon after, the seller of microgreens sends a tray of broccoli sprouts to the house. She'll send a different kind of sprouts each week. Yum.

At Ethereal restaurant, Allan and Janni are treating W (plus Laurel and me) to a birthday lunch (#waroengethereal). They give us a tour of the kitchen. We all like the cheerful blue on the walls!

It's a chef's dream - spotless, fully stocked with every cooking tool plus a Henny, a computer-controlled pressurized deep-frier.

"What do you like to eat?" they ask. We want to try the fried chicken made in the Henny for sure.

But they cheat ... by making all 4 of the cafe's favorites for us. Oh my! Janni bring the starter dish.

A starter? It's a whole portion of fish and chips, and our first taste of genuine British-style fish & chips since we ate at Spuds in Juanita 8 years ago. Crisp beer-batter coating, tender dory (no cod available), and chips made with real potatoes.

I cut everything in half as it arrives and set it aside for a doggy-bag. I suspect there will be too much food. The others cut their fish in half, too, but then eat it all. Because it's so good!

Next course is an enormous Eterea Special Mac burger. The Western-meat burger is dressed in fresh vegetables, placed inside a toasted bun, and lathered with the special chef's sauce. MacD's, eat your heart out.

Laurel insists, "This is the best burger ever. Better than what I got in Chicago."

What?! I thought Allan was going to let us share a piece of chicken so we could taste it. Instead, each of us gets two tender pieces with perfectly-crisp skin.. KFC, take a seat in the back of the auditorium.

Finally, there's homemade coleslaw and Dutch-style beef croquettes. We might cause a fight, trying to agree on what we liked best. hehe It's all top-notch and cooked with love.

Afterward, we pray together over the shop and our hosts. We take home the leftovers and a few bonuses for another meal. Most of the way home, we talk about the good food and company.

Back on the Porch, I relax as I look over the garden. What? Spanish moss has flowers? Who knew! These teeny-tiny wonders are new to me.

I have no regrets that we painted the porch railing black. The bamboo wind-chimes remain but most of the paper lanterns have disintegrated in the sun. The helpers take them home for grandkids' craft projects. 

We'll hang new spheres soon, but will they be purple, yellow, red, blue, or green? The summer before moving to Indonesia, I bought 12-packs of colored lanterns @$1/box (USA closeout). So we have "Choices, choices."

Thursday

Today's my first hike in months. W and I walk 3 km (2 miles) around our hilly neighborhood most mornings. But at Gunung Batu the elevation is higher and the hills steeper.

My heart pounds when going up. It's good to be a few pounds lighter, but the "reduction" trajectory probably isn't helped by the good food sent our way for W's birthday. I've decided to enjoy the hospitality of others. It's been delicious! and non-vegan. Back to the heart-healthy grind after this.

I'm not tempted by W's birthday cakes, or the fresh cookies baked by IbuA. Ah, except for her chocolate chip cookies, made with dark Belgian chocolate. (Trader Joes "Bittersweet Almond" 500 gm bars come back with us after every trip.) I admit to being temped by those, so we send the cookies to the office fridge a few blocks away and retrieve them as needed.

Luckily the organizer has the cars drop us most of the way up. Two of us "old ladies" get a ride within shouting distance of the summit while the others walk the trail to meet us partway.

Below us, the city is busy and polluted from factories and fires. Garbage and dry leaves are burned every day along the roads.

New tourist attractions pop up all the time: this mountainside now boasts a go-kart track. Looks like an ATV circuit is set up as well. We slip under the barbed wire to cross the track and get back on the trail to the top. 

Oops - someone mounts my camera to their tripod but cuts off our feet. We're happy to pose on top of a mountain that overlooks Lembang on one side and Bandung on the other.

This vintage VW bus is a reminder that many nations along with their imports have landed in Indonesia over the decades.

Much of the hike is through grassland. No snakes in sight after the dogs run ahead. The trails are steep in places but there's been no rain recently to soften the ground or slick the dust into mud.

We choose the road with good shade over a a trail with rocks at the beginning of it. It looks like someone is improving the path. After rainy season, there are deep ruts in most trails and cobblestones on the roads have shifted or lifted away.

Some of us walk the extra kilometer to the restaurant, while others and the dogs hop in the car. It's a short walk today (3+ miles/5km), mostly downhill with a few ascents between.

We pause to admire the view, Bandung far in the distance beyond the trees on the slopes below.

A modern house with a 2-storey green wall perches on a hillside with a sharp drop-off under it. In an earthquake prone area with a major fault running through it? I'd probably not rent here.

We eat nearby. This young woman, displaced by the European war, tries avocado coffee for the first time. She's not a big fan. She has a PhD in music and used to teach piano and vocals at the opera house in Ukraine. Several of her countrymen and fellow hikers have lived in several countries since the war was started.

I ask where they've enjoyed living most. "We want to live in our home, in Ukraine," they say. Of course. (Dumb question.)

We pass a pickup truck full of the play-lions used to cheer little boys before circumcision. The truck is going too fast - I don't get a clear picture of the handful of "lions" and the pack of teens holding them down in the cargo bed.

The dogs are happy to watch from the back window for other animals.

True luxury? Coming home to the smell of fresh-baked cookies and 2 banana breads on the way.

Of course, a hot shower is never taken for granted. We wash dust off our skins and swish the dust out of our clothing. We look forward to a supper of leftovers from yesterday.

Read more:

*My soul will boast in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Psalm 34:2

*Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Philippians 2:1-4

*Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Philippians 4:4-5

Moravian Prayer: With our whole hearts we sing to you, O God, for sending Jesus to show us how to live and take our sins on himself. May the joy we feel because of his presence be evident in all we do. Amen.