Hello Asean Hive Community
Today let me share you one of the food that is not originated from any place in South East Asia. I will pick a Japanese food here, it is called Tendon.
Tendon stands for Tempura Donbury. Donbury is a rice dish, so it means Tempura on top of the rice. I like Tendon a lot, however I find it weird that most people I know, do not like Tendon or they prefer to go with other.
I like Tempura with udon, a big noodle, or Tempura with Ramen or Soba. Those are sold well here in Jakarta, sadly not for Tendon. We should love eating rice, right? Somehow it doesn't work like that.
Around 3 weeks ago I visited AEON which was famous Japanese Mall here. They have their own supermarket and famous with ready to go food. I bought a set of Tendon there, They wrote Tempura Don because the name of TENDON was not familiar for most Indonesian.
I am a simple guy, I do not want to complicate myself by ordering a bunch of ala carte so I go with a set menu / dish. This was the Tendon I bought, they looked wonderful although I knew well ready to go food would not taste great.
You can see Shrimp, Crab stick, fish, eggplant, and others there. They were on top of the white rice and they gave me lettuce so those Tempura would not get mix with the rice.
One of the reason I can guess why most people do not like Tendon here is because of the sauce. Tendon use similar sauce with Katsudon, a sticky thick soy sauce that mainly give you sweet flavor. Most people do not like this kind of sauce, they prefer with a pure sweet soy ketchup or with spicy chili sauce.
Another minor reason was because of fish. People here do not fond of saltwater fish. They like shrimps, crabs, but not for the fish. A bit weird from me, but I am a weird guy too lol.
Ok now it's my part. I am going to share what I am not fond of from local made Tendon, which is dominated by Local flavor and preference.
Crab stick! I have said above, people in Jakarta prefer crabs and shrimps, they tend to avoid sea fishes. So part of the tempura is actually crab stick. Don't get it wrong, I love crabs but real crabs. I know Crab Stick is not made from crab.
I like Japanese Tendon which they are dominated by Shrimp tempura and vegetables with some fishes. No need of crab stick or some fish cakes because people do not like real fish.
This is the second reason and the main reason why sometime I feel discomfort eating local made Tendon. They tend to give a thick flour dough skin. I know they are deep fried and you need to have some flour to coat them, but why you need to make them thick? Of course to make them look bigger and sell them higher LoL.
Tendon is already expensive due to its origin as Japanese food. I bought this one for more than 2.2 dollars. No need to be deceitful like this lah.
Ok that's my short story about having a Tendon. Thank you for stopping by, have a good day and God Bless You all.
Thank you for coming and reading my post. I live in Jakarta, Ex-Capital City of Indonesia. I used to live by making money online, that's why I like being here, on HIVE, and in #PIMP - (Paper In My Pocket) community.
