The Real Java

Had a tiring day yesterday with Setiawan taking pictures with our digital cameras around Pasar Baru and Monas. We later had lunch at an East Javanese restaurant on Jalan Juanda which serves excellent soto. I definitely plan to come back here more often.

I am happy to be able to put in a fruitful amount of work last night. Today is Indonesia's Independence Day. I plan to just stay around my hotel and do some light reading. Recently I finished a book called A Cup of Java. No, it is not another one of those Java programming books (which I believe pops immediately into the IT geek's mind) but a well-researched and entertaining account of the coffee industry in Java. It is about the real thing--the coffee that has gained fame worldwide and known throughout simply as "Java".

I am not much of a cofee drinker myself--preferring tea--but since coming to Jakarta I have developed a taste for the cheap local cofee served here called kopi tubruk. Most of the expensive coffee beans from reputable estates in Java are exported overseas. The cheap coffee found among popular local brands such as Kapal Api are actually blended with corn.

First-time visitors to Jakarta might even find the first experience of drinking kopi tubruk rather unpleasant--you have all these sediments sticking on your teeth; the coarse coffee powder itself is typically not filtered out. I know many of my middleclass Indonesian friends actually disdain drinking kopi tubruk as being "low-class", preferring the western-styled cappucino and espressos served in up-market cafes that are sprouting up everywhere in town.

But to me the choice is clear: there is no experience more authentically Javanese than to drink a cup of kopi tubruk. It is the real Java to me. For some strange reason I also find kopi tubruk less disruptive to my system--it doesn't induce the palpitations and agitation that I experience drinking regular western coffee. Nothing is more pleasurable than having a bowl of Indomie rebus by the roadside warung with a steaming glass of kopi tubruk.

I am lucky that I do not have the bad habit of starting my day with a cup of coffee. Like cigarettes, It is an addiction that I can do without. But writing about kopi tubruk makes me start craving for a cup myself. Maybe I'll drop by at my favourite local cafe Arobusta after this. Ah, the pleasures of living in Jakarta.