Indonesian Diving & Food

Photo: A typical Indonesian beef sata with wrapped and unwrapped sticky rice.

Today's diving trip was kind of a bust: visibility was restricted to about 25-30 feet (I prefer Belize's 100'), most of the coral was dead, and like snorkeling yesterday, few critters to be seen and those that were present were predominately small with a few medium size here and there. There were a considerable number of turtles that I was happy to see weren't being eaten by locals. Exhausting day because of the considerable time spent commuting between dive sites in choppy seas in a small, dugout with bamboo outrigger pontoons - like the one in the background of pic 160 below. Anyway - that's about all there is to report re dives - so on to something more interesting.

The people of Lombok Island are known as Sasakss. They even have their own dialect which is unique to this island (as do the people of Ball).

One of the common foods eaten here are "sata" - pronounced satay. Like Thailand, these are beef or chicken pieces skewered on bamboo sticks and grilled on small charcoal grills. Unlike Thailand, pork sata's are not available - because Indonesian is an Islamic country.
Satas are served on the bamboo sticks with this incredibly good sauce. made of shredded young coconut meat mixed with a little chicken fat and cooked for 4-5 hours - it has a distinctive meaty taste. This is totally different from Thailand,'s satay sauce which is peanut based.. The Indonesian sata sauce is not thick like the Thai satay sauce. Instead it has the viscousity of a cream-based soup or bisque. It's delicious!

Also, unlike Thailand, Indonesian satas are served with sticky rice rolled up & intricantly tied in coconut palm leaves, and then boiled. The skewered satas are cooked on tiny charcoal grills. When served, you unwrap the rice which holds its shape (bc it's sticky rice) and dip it in the sata sauce. Satas are available on the beach - sold by vendors in fixed locations. Once and sometimes twice a day I go to my favorite beach sata vendor.

Photo: me and 2 of my beautiful beach buddies I befriended (with my "boyish charm") enjoying our lunch satas at my favorite vendor's site on the beach. When eating, you sit on straw mats laid on an elevated platform in a very communal atmosphere. Great way to meet and interact with locals - few tourists frequent these places. I hope that you can see and note the beautiful smiles of my beach buddies - Indonesian women are dark-skined, have silky/long/straight black hair, most have gorgeous white teeth, and their predominantly almond shaped dark eyes make them stunningly beautiful women. Again - I hope the attached pic brings out these striking qualities.

The Picture Says it all

Well almost all - doesn't really capture the bright reds of last night's sunset - but I thought I would pass it along anyway.

By tthe way - here sunrise occurs around 6AM and sunset about 6:30PM.