Drink

Hey, I am not talking about alcohol :p ... since traditionally Indonesian do not drink alcohol. What I am talking about here is the variety of drink that we have in Indonesia.

Number one: air putih or water. If you translate it word by word, air putih = white water, but it simply means water. Most of Indonesian like to drink air putih, yes, we do not drink soda that much. Keep in mind that never drink tap water in Indonesia, as we do not have a good drinking water system. People who live in big cities usually buy drinking water, but my parents are still kinda traditional, they always boil the water, cool it down, and put it in the bottles or jug.

In a lot of areas including where my parents live, people like to drink tea. They served it differently though. In West Java (where Iis from) they serve it unsweetened, while in my hometown they are crazy about sweet tea. We do not put milk or anything else other than sugar, whether it is for hot tea or ice tea. Among the common type of tea are jasmine tea and black tea. My mom usually prepares tea for everybody each morning and evening. How do we pronounce tea in Indonesia? Teh. The 'e' is pronounced like 'e' in the word "else". Don't forget to pronounce the 'h' at the end.

Despite the fact that we have one of the best coffee in the world (you name it! Toraja, Sumatra, Java, Kopi Luwak) Indonesian do not drink coffee as much as tea. In some areas maybe, but certainly not in Yogyakarta. But don't forget to remind me to shop for some coffee when we are there.

We have some unique drinks like boiled ginger
- not my favorite, es cendol (ice = es) - remember the drink that we ordered in Penang, es jeruk = squeezed orange ice, this is my favorite, and young coconut ice. I am sure you will enjoy most of them, because generally they are very tasty and refreshing.