There’s a bit of an obsession in the expat community, wherever you happen to be, about food. People obsess over food from home and are quite often willing to pay ridiculous prices to get it. The small import section at our local supermarket has salt and vinegar crisps for 70,000rp (about £4 – I don’t miss them that much). If you’re one of those people who like marmite (or more likely vegemite if you’re in Bali because you’re probably Australian), you can expect to pay over 100,000rp for a small jar – that’s around 10 Australian dollars or about £5.
Personally, I’ve managed to get by without missing too much – I did get my family to bring over a few things the first couple of years I was here – mainly junk food. But I’m blaming that on the fact that I was pregnant.
Since then I’ve adjusted by cooking a lot more – I make my own bread now along with hummus and a load of other random things that are impossible to buy here like gravy. The one thing I do really miss every now and again is a proper roast dinner. It’s coming up to Easter now and my mum always used to make a big roast dinner on Easter Sunday and we’d usually invite a few friends over.
So I found this video in which a mother embarks on a journey to the Arctic in order to prepare her daughter a proper roast dinner quite touching. Funnily enough, I considered working in the Arctic at one point (not training Huskies though, how random is that!?)
Research from Knorr has found that 82% of people agree that the taste of some foods will remind them of their childhood so it’s not really surprising that we get so wrapped up in thinking about foods we miss from home. If we ever end up living in the UK, my kids will probably be crying for rice and tempe every day…
p.s. I’d only ever used instant gravy before I was forced to make my own but it’s actually pretty easy to make with stock cubes and flour – there are some good gravy recipes on the Knorr website
This post sponsored by Knorr but all thoughts are my own
My name is Joe Pinzone and I’m casting an international travel show about expats moving abroad. We’d love to film in Indonesia and wanted to know if you could help us find expats who have moved there within the last 15 months or have been there for 3-4 years, but recently moved into a new home. The show documents their move to a new country and will place the country in fabulous light. The contributors on the show would also receive monetary compensation if they are filmed. If you’d like more information, please give me a call at 212-231-7716 or skype me at joefromnyc. You can also email me at joepinzone@leopardusa.com. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Joe Pinzone
Casting Producer
P: 212-231-7716
Skype: Joefromnyc