Preserving our culture, Good habit: I love Indonesian Products

I love Indonesian products (=Aku cinta buatan Indonesia) and I'm serious!!!

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I always prefer local brands though I wear imported shoes too. There's an explanation for it.

These are what I have:

• some locally made sandals
• a pair of locally made jogging-shoes
• four pairs of high-heel-shoes from a European brand.

Two pairs of the high-heel-shoes were bought 10 years ago. The third pair was a gift from my mother in law when she travelled to Singapore five years ago. The fourth pair was bought by my husband a few months ago. You can now see that I'm not a shoe collector. I choose that specific european brand because of it amazing durability, nothing else.

I've seen many people around me showing off their belongings which are imported from abroad: handbags, cosmetics, clothes, furniture, etc. Those imported things are, off course, look very nice and make people, who wear them, look splendid too.

What's wrong with Indonesian products? Many people would say that their quality are not as good as imported ones. I don't agree. In my opinion, those people are just not searching hard enough. I've found excellent and locally made handbags, cosmetics, clothes, furniture, jewelry, various kind of fruit even food supplement and one of my favorite places to shop is UKM Gallery: Preserving the Indonesian Heritage.

April 24th 2009 was Aqmal's 9th birthday. We did not have a birthday cake. Why? It's because of the fact that Indonesia has to import flour continually in order to meet increasing demand on cakes, bread and noodles year to year. What's the alternative? Rice is the best answer, because Indonesia has a surplus in rice production and the government is proudly announcing the we are exporting rice starting this year.

That day, we had a set of traditional meals : a lovely arrangement of nasi kuning (rice cooked with turmeric). As shown in the photo, it consisted of: nasi kuning (for 4-5 servings), gule ayam (chicken curry), empal daging (spiced and fried beef), sate udang bakar (shrimp barbeque), sate daging (beef barbeque), urap (vegetable sprinkled with spiced shredded coconut flesh), thin slices of telur dadar (egg), sambal goreng kentang dan hati (chicken liver and potato in chili gravy), perkedel (fried potato cake), sambal (chili sauce), kerupuk (crackers) and goreng kentang kering (spiced and fried potato). Hhmmm!!!

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I attended another birthday invitation earlier this year. Mrs Mien Soedarpo celebrated her 85th birthday and held a party for relatives and close friend in her house in Jl. Pegangsaan, Jakarta. Besides lunch, guests also enjoyed an exhibition of:

1. Mrs Soedarpo's old collection of batik

2. Her kain songket collection. 3. Paintings and photos of her families

4. Her wedding bed (in Padang style) which has surprisingly been well preserved for so many years.

All showed her great efforts on preserving our culture. I love Indonesian products!!!