Jakarta Notes through Food Scapes

Nasi Liwet at Menara Standard Chartered

Channelling Jakarta, a book by AbdouMaliq Simone

To walk a city is to know one sensorially, and to eat through it gives a snapshot of the place. A lot of times on Jalan Sudirman with the dedicated bus lanes and the traffic, it felt like Pune and places such as Chakala in Andheri in Mumbai. A true mega city of the Global South, Jakarta is a treat for the senses as most mega urban conglomerations of thirty million plus populations. My engagement with Indonesia is old, my boss at NTU in 2011 was from Makassar and wrote his book on the New Order Technological Politics of BJ Habibie. He introduced me to Indonesian fare at Orchard Road and I have been to Jakarta and Bandung in 2012. I worked on a research project with Airport workers in Jakarta during my first PhD stint at NUS. Indonesian diasporas are seen everywhere from Dubai to Singapore to KL.

The Warungs by the streets were tapri’s from my hometown of Mumbai, the energy at every corner is evident. The posh malls have great local and global fare often at a fraction of the price in Singapore, albeit at the same outlet. Food as a lens connects, to create connections of the heart through the stomach.