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Some time ago while I was grocery shopping in the supermarket and walking down an Asian spices and seasoning alley, I saw this:
I raised my eyebrow because I had never heard of Indonesian food with name “ayam panik” (“ayam panik” is literally translated as “panic chicken” in English; and in Dutch spelling, “ajam” is read as “ayam”, which means chicken in Indonesian). Btw, I was sure it was an Indonesian menu because the name was in Indonesian, even though written with Dutch spelling. (p.s : for those who are curious, the Dutch word for “chicken” is “kip”).
So, chicken is not the only menu which is known in its Indonesian name here. A lot of Indonesian food in the Netherlands is still known and marketed with its original Indonesian name, without being translated to Dutch (but with Dutch spelling). For example: here, there are “babi pangang” (“roasted pork”, and in Indonesian it is “babi panggang”. Yeah, one of the ‘g’s in ‘panggang’ is dropped somehow
), ”rendang” (though it is understandable that it is impossible to translate this one), and the most famous one: “nasi goreng”! Yup, fried rice is known as “nasi goreng” here, its Indonesian name; and it is not even translated to “gebakken rijst“.
This reminds me about a story. A friend of mine who lives in Australia told me that once he was having lunch in a canteen there. At that time, the canteen sold two kinds of rice. The rice on the left tray was labeled as “fried rice” and the rice on the right tray as “nasi goreng”. My friend asked the lunch lady what was the difference between the two. The lunch lady answered, “The one on the left tray is Malaysian fried rice, and the one on the right is Indonesian“, huahaha
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Anyway, because Indonesian food is pretty much everywhere, I think Dutch people are quite familiar with it, or Asian food in a more general sense. When I was taking the first level of my Dutch course last year, the lecturer told us that she liked “ajam pangang” (roasted chicken). And warm meal sold in the canteen in my campus is usually in Asian nuance. Well, mostly it is like fried rice or fried noodle.
But how about the flavor? Well, of course, the flavor is already adjusted to Dutch flavor, which means it is quite spiceless or tasteless (in Indonesian standard)! Once, the canteen sold a special menu consisting of rice + beef + soysauce seasoning + shrimp crackers! Because I was hungry, I bought this menu. And when I tasted it, well, it was quite flavorless! Fortunately, I think people are already aware of this and they provide free salt and pepper. Hence, I poured some extra salt and pepper so that at least now it was not that tasteless, hahaha
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About spiciness, well, do not expect to find spicy food here. In Indonesia, I was known as someone who was pretty much anti-spicy. Yes, I hate spicy food. My standard for spiciness is very very low. However, even so, apparently this low standard is already quite high in European standard. In the Sport Centre’s cafe where I had schnitzel after ice-skating some time ago, beside salt and pepper, they also provided ketchup, mayonnaise, and chili sauce whose bottle was labeled “very spicy“. Curious, I tried it a liiiittle bit. But then, it turned out that the so-called “very spicy” chili sauce was not that spicy, huahaha
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Well, back to the “ayam panik” (panic chicken) story above. After several minutes of astonishment in front of the rack, I suddenly remembered that there was an Indonesian menu called “ayam paniki” (paniki chicken). Well, I had never tried it though, but I was sure I had heard about it before. Suspicious, I took that “ayam panik” box, and it turned out that it was indeed an “ayam paniki” seasoning!
And there was no misspelling or so. At that time, coincidentally, the last “i” of the word “paniki” was covered by the little grating of the rack and so “paniki” appeared as “panik”, huahahaha

Some Indonesian dishes in the supermarket (you can see "ayam kecap", "babi kecap","rendang", "sate ayam", "kari ayam")
BAHASA INDONESIA
Beberapa waktu yang lalu ketika sedang berbelanja di supermarket dan berjalan di salah satu lorong yang raknya berisi bumbu-bumbu makanan dari Asia, aku melihat ini:
Heran lah aku karena aku belum pernah dengar ada masakan Indonesia yang namanya “ayam panik” gitu ya. Btw, aku yakin ini adalah bumbu masakan Indonesia karena namanya aja dibela-belain ditulis pakai bahasa Indonesia (walau ejaannya disesuaikan sama ejaan Belanda sih; yang mana sebenarnya sama aja kayak ejaan lama gitu di Indonesia): “ajam” yang maksudnya adalah “ayam” gitu deh (p.s : buat yang pengen tahu: bahasa Belandanya ayam itu adalah “kip”).
Jadi ceritanya, nggak cuma si ayam ini aja lho yang dikenal dengan nama dalam bahasa Indonesia disini. Banyak sekali masakan Indonesia di Belanda yang namanya masih menggunakan nama bahasa Indonesianya tanpa diterjemahkan ke bahasa Belanda (cuma disesuaikan ejaannya saja). Contohnya: disini ada menu “babi pangang” (aku tidak salah ketik loh, jadi ‘g’ di kata ‘panggang’ memang dihilangin satu gitu
), “rendang” (okelah, ini mau menerjemahkan ke bahasa Belandanya juga gimana), dan yang paling terkenal: “nasi goreng”! Ya, disini “nasi goreng” ya dikenal dengan nama “nasi goreng” loh; dan tidak diterjemahkan menjadi “gebakken rijst“.
Jadi ingat, temanku yang di Australia bercerita waktu itu pernah ia makan di sebuah kantin disana. Katanya, waktu itu kantinnya menjual dua jenis nasi. Yang di bak sebelah kiri ditulisi “fried rice” dan yang di bak sebelah kanan ditulisi “nasi goreng”. Temanku kemudian bertanya apa bedanya. Dan penjaga kantinnya menjawab, “Yang di bak kiri itu Malaysian fried rice dan yang di sebelah kanan itu Indonesian”, huahaha
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Anyway, karena sering ditemui dimana-mana, orang Belanda sendiri sepertinya jadi cukup familier dengan masakan Indonesia dan Asia pada umumnya. Sewaktu aku mengikuti kelas bahasa Belanda level satu tahun lalu, dosennya bercerita bahwa ia suka “ajam pangang” (ayam panggang maksudnya). Dan di kantin di kampusku, menu hangat setiap makan siang seringnya adalah menu-menu bernuansa Asia. Seringnya sih nasi goreng atau mi goreng.
Bagaimana dengan rasanya? Aduh, kalau ini jangan ditanya deh. Tentu saja cara masaknya juga sudah disesuaikan dengan lidah Belanda ya, yang mana artinya bumbunya itu sedikit sekali alias hambar (bagi standar Indonesia)! Pernah suatu waktu menu spesial di kantin kampus adalah nasi + daging sapi + saus kecap + krupuk udang! Berhubung lapar, aku membeli menu ini. Dan ketika aku mulai melahapnya, aduh, rasanya hambar banget dong! Seakan-akan masakan ini nggak dikasih bumbu sama sekali! Untungnya, sepertinya mereka sudah siap sedia dengan kejadian semacam ini karena mereka menyediakan garam dan merica dengan gratis. Ya udah masakan itu kemudian aku taburi garam dan merica, jadi setidaknya lebih “berasa”, hahaha
Masalah pedas, jangan ditanya lagi ya, jangan berharap menemukan masakan yang pedas disini. Aku sendiri dikenal di Indonesia sebagai orang yang anti pedas. Ya, aku tidak suka masakan pedas. Standarku akan tingkat kepedasan makanan itu rendah sekali. Namun, walau pun begitu, standar kepedasanku itu sudah cukup tinggi loh untuk ukuran Eropa. Di cafe-nya Sport Centre dimana aku makan schnitzel setelah bermain ice-skating beberapa waktu yang lalu itu, selain garam dan merica, mereka juga menyediakan saus tomat, saus mayonnaise, dan saus sambal yang tulisannya “very spicy“. Iseng aku mencoba sedikiiiiit sambal itu. Dan ternyata, sambal yang mereka bilang “very spicy” itu nggak pedas loh, huahaha
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Kembali ke kasus si “ayam panik” di atas. Setelah beberapa menit keheranan di depan rak itu, aku ingat bahwa aku pernah dengar sebuah menu Indonesia yang namanya “ayam paniki”. Aku belum pernah mencobanya sih, tapi aku pernah dengar. Curiga, aku kemudian mengambil kotak “ayam panik” tersebut dan ternyata memang kotak itu berisikan bumbu ayam paniki!
Dan bukannya salah tulis, tapi waktu itu kebetulan huruf “i” terakhirnya tertutup jeruji raknya itu sehingga kata “paniki” jadi terbaca “panik”, huahahaha


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Wow, this was way crazier than AirAsia’s super cheap tickets sale!! Totally unexpected!! And I started to worry that all tickets would have been taken by the time I got access to the ticketing page, hmmm. Well, I guess I understand more now Wimbledon’s decision to use
But luckily, some individual tickets were still available. Of course I do not plan to go there just for one full day. I mean, it would take me some effort to get to Paris, so at least I have to enjoy the tournament a bit longer, right? haha 
I was so shocked when I read the news and immediately googled it to see whether it was a a hoax or really the truth. And apparently, it was true!! I can’t believe it!!




















