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Indonesian cuisine is diverse, in part because Indonesia is composed of approximately 6,000
populated islands. Many regional cuisines exist, often based upon cultural and foreign
influences. Indonesian cuisine varies greatly by region and has many different influences.
Indonesian food is an umbrella term covering a vast variety of regional cuisines found
across the nation but, if used without further qualifiers, the term tends to mean the food
originally from the central and eastern parts of the main island Java. Now widely available
throughout the archipelago, Javanese cuisine consists of an array of simply seasoned dishes,
the predominant flavourings the Javanese favour being peanuts, chillies and sugar, especially
Javanese coconut sugar, which comes in small blocks, as well as certain spices.
All too often, many backpackers seem to fall into a rut of eating nothing but fried rice,
and perhaps commonly available Javanese dishes, but there are much more interesting options
lurking about if you're adventurous and take the trouble to seek them out. In West Java,
Sundanese dishes composed of many fresh vegetables and herbs are commonly eaten raw. Padang is
famous for the spicy and richly-seasoned cuisine, dominated by meat. Both the Christian Batak
people and the Hindu Balinese are great fans of pork, while the Minahasa of North Sulawesi
are well known for eating almost everything, including dog and fruit bat, and a very liberal
usage of fiery chillies even by Indonesian standards. Tamed Muslim-friendly versions
of all three can be found in the malls and food courts of many Indonesian cities, but
it's worth it to seek out the real thing especially if you happen to be in these regions. And
by the time you get to Papua in the extreme east of the country, you're looking at a Melanesian
diet of boar, taro and sago.