Archive for April, 2010
Great Coffee Origins – Indonesian Coffee
April 28th, 2010 | 
Author: Coffee came to the Dutch East Indies archipelago in the late 17th century. The legend of coffee itself makes fascinating reading (Kaldi and his dancing goats!), but for Indonesian purposes coffee arrived here in an organized and less mythical fashion on VOC (the Dutch East Indies company) trading galleons, via Yemen and the Dutch enclave of Malabar. These first coffees introduced were Arabica, direct descendents of 6 coffee trees the Dutch managed to smuggle out from Yemen and plant in the Botanical gardens in Amsterdam. The trees were well suited to the tropical conditions found on Java and quickly thrived and produced cherries. The first plantations were located close to Batavia (modern day Jakarta). Later plantations were established in Sulawesi, Maluku and Sumatra. Independently Colonial rivals Portugal planted Arabica in East and West Timor as well as in Flores. Coffee, along with nutmeg, cloves and other spices, became the backbone of the VOC economic machine. Infrastructure to get crops out of plantation areas led to development of port and later rail and road systems that still exist today. After the demise of the VOC the Dutch colonial government took over many of the business activities in Indonesia. At one stage sale of these commodities made up almost 30% of the entire Dutch GDP.
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Soto Ayam (Clear Chicken Soup)
Soto ayam is a chicken spicy-aromatic soup. This is the perfect soup for food lover’s looking for the true taste of Java and Suriname.
This is more of a complete meal than just a soup as it is served with lots of extras
Soto soup is usually served with white cooked rice.
Sumatra Coffee – A Bean That Packs a Punch
Coffee is an important part of the Sumatran culture and the region is famous for producing some of the most unique and complex coffees in the world. In general Sumatra coffee tends not to be sold by region like many other countries but instead guidelines are used, and these guidelines are based around the picking preparation and processing of the beans. There are a number of different brand available, beans that are grown in the Sumatran west is usually known as “Gayo Mountain” and this coffee tends to be sweeter than many of the other varieties, but easily the most common and well loved of Sumatran coffee is Mandheling. This coffee is produced just inland from the south coast and has taken its name from Indonesian people that were once responsible for the production of that coffee.