Postcard – Tuesday, 6 October 1998

Drinks

Here in Indonesia they don't have cordial, they have syrup, and the labels on the bottles of syrup proudly proclaim, and I quote, “contains guaranteed 100% pure sugar, flavour and food grade colour”. Now, when you ask an Indonesian to make you a drink they mix the stuff about half and half, so you get an unbearable sweet concoction that invites a multitude of medical conditions. The good thing about this is that they apply the same measures to alcohol. A gin and tonic is closer to a long martini. Now, I was bought a bottle of local vodka the other day. I must admit to having a sneaking suspicion that it was terps as it was only 9000 rupiah ($1.50). It came in a bottle exactly the same as a terps bottle and had the word terps crossed out on the label and the word of vodca written in a green crayon. It did, however, taste a little bit like vodka and mostly like terps. I was made only one drink and couldn’t pronounce the word “is” for three hours and in the morning I cursed the Indonesian love in White Tiles.

Drinks in Indonesia are weird at the best of times. I'm a big fan of Es Kalapa Muda (young coconut milk with ice) but most other drinks contain glutinous things that look like fluorescents caterpillars. Basically they scare the hell out of me. Avocados here are not eaten but turned into a thick milkshakes of sorts. Most of the drinks, however, are so sickly sweet and I don't think even Aussie kids would like.