Saturday, July 29, 2017

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--Two Indonesian Treats

    We're back to more foods from a Wegman's grocery.  Specifically a ginger candy and a type of cookie, or wafer, or "biscuit" depending on what your culture calls individual sweet dessert pastries.
     Some might say that the candy I'll be discussing today is a bit of a cheat, as it's another Gin Gin product, from the Ginger People Group once more.  And that's kind of true, but technically these Gin Gins were made in Indonesia.  But, to avoid repeating myself, please check out the April 15, 2017 post on Fijian ginger candy for more info on the company that makes and distributes this product.
     The cookies were made in Indonesia by Ojo, and packed for the President Global Corporation in California.  I wasn't able to find out much about Ojo.  The President Global Corp. does have a website, but it's pretty terse.  Essentially, I learned that the company exists to import/export products from various Southeast Asian countries, such as Taiwan, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam.  These products include types of crackers, noodles, condiments, and beverages.  In addition to the Angle Wafers I tried, Ojo also makes cookies with butter coconut, raisins, and a "lucky lemon puff."
    The Gin Gins this time were individually wrapped, disc shaped, firm, and light brown in color.  About 2 cm. (.75 inch) in diameter, with 12 pieces in the small box.  They were listed as The Traveler's Candy, and Super Strength.  I found them hard to eat--they had a taffy-like consistency.  As I've mentioned several times before, I usually like ginger as a flavor, so these weren't bad or anything.  But I definitely preferred the Fijian Gin Gin crystalized pieces of ginger to this kind.  The anthropomorphized ginger person logo was notably less morbid for the Indonesian Gin Gins, though--it was wearing clothes and carrying a suitcase, unlike its Fijian counterpart (once again, see my April 15, 2017 post for more on that horror show).
     The Angel Wafers were a double lobe shape, whitish with a brown glaze, and about 7 cm (3 inches) by 5 cm. (2 inches).  I guess this shape was to represent a traditional angel wings design.  I did check, though--there are no ground up angel parts in the cookies, just wheat flour, margarine, palm and coconut oil, sugar, and salt.  According to a website these cookies are "made with alternating layers of dough and butter, rolled and folded over to create possibly hundreds of flaky layers."  I thought they had an odd flavor.  They had a typical cookie sweetness, but they also had a somehow savory taste, too.  So a bit strange, but not without their charms.  So, certainly good, and worth recommending, but different from the cookies I'm most familiar with.
     Thought I'd wrap this up by including some random facts about Indonesia.  For starters, it's the world's largest island country, consisting of over 17,500 islands.  It's also the fourth most populous country in the world, trailing only China, India, and the U.S., with over 260 million people.  It boasts the world's second highest level of biodiversity, behind only Brazil.  Over 700 different languages and dialects are spoken there.  As far as athletes go, Indonesia is probably best known for producing  boxers, such as Ellyas Pical, Chris John, Muhammad Rachman, and Nico Thomas, all who were title belt holders.  As for other kinds of entertainment, the co-director of the "Despicable Me" movie series (2010, 2013, 2017), the wonderfully named Pierre Coffin, is half Indonesian.  Alex and Eddie Van Halen, from the hard rock group Van Halen, are one quarter Indonesian.  Lil Dagover, who co-starred in the famous silent film "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920), was of German heritage, but born in Indonesia.  Laura Gemser, star of the notorious sexploitation/horror "Emanuelle" series in the 1970's and 80's, was Indonesian.  Other famous, or infamous Indonesian things are the horribly destructive Krakatoa volcano, responsible for one of the world's worst volcanic eruptions in 1883 (and perhaps the world's loudest event), the Homo floriensis fossils (the so-called "hobbit" people), and the world's largest individual flower, Rafflesia arnoldii, which has blossoms that can be 3 feet in diameter (.91 meters) and up to 15 pounds (6.8 kg.) in weight, and reek like a rotting corpse.


































No comments:

Post a Comment