Tradition of Indonesian People at Meal Times

Rice Table

Meal times in every region is some­times dif­fer­ent. In west­ern and mid­dle part of Indone­sia, usu­ally main food is cooked in the morn­ing and con­sumed around mid day. Com­monly, Indone­sian kitchens only cook 1 or 2 meals a day. Then it is heated again for dinner.

It is dif­fer­ent from west­ern cul­ture where food is eaten con­sec­u­tively such as appe­tizer, main food, and dessert. Indone­sian cul­ture is eat­ing main food directly with­out any appe­tizer or dessert, whereas Indone­sia has many cakes, cook­ies, and snacks and they’re suit­able to become desserts. In fact, the cakes are often eaten any­time among break­fast, lunch, and din­ner. There’s no cer­tain time to eat cakes. And there are many serv­ings and fresh Indone­sian drink such as es cam­pur (mixed ice), es teler that can be served after main food.

Also, as a coun­try where most of the peo­ple are Moslems, rules of reli­gion has changed tra­di­tion. There­fore, pray­ing before eat­ing and using right hand when eat­ing seems oblig­ated and it is taught since in child­hood. So, gen­er­ally using a spoon is on right hand and fork is in left hand.