Talk about a “world brand”. Nothing confirms the power of branding around the globe than Coke, the one drink you’ll get everywhere. Others have come and gone. Others attempt to duplicate the great success of Coca Cola, presumably without adding ...
WHERE THERE IS A WILL, THERE IS A WAY The traffic Department at Central Jakarta has fiddled with the routings hoping to move the Jams from here to there. So, here it is to get to the Ya Udah Bistro ...
Our Farewell Ya Udah Bistro Blog: Indonesia Wises Up to Global Eats For the final weekly blog from YaUdah Bistro, we look back to the history of foods in modern Indonesia, styles, tastes and trends. It began, properly enough, with ...
A Two-part Farewell Blog from Ya Udah Bistro It is a common truism that “Everybody has to eat” but that must be qualified as “Nobody has to eat at your place of business”: worldwide, over 50% of restaurants fail within ...
Salad is smart right now, around the world. Salads are big because of the pandemic scare. People who were careless about their health have suddenly waken up to the reality of a very nasty virus going around. And that virus ...
No, not names for crazy babies, though in fact being saddled with an impossible or hilarious name may all but drive you crazy over the years. How come everybody has to struggle to be “original” with the naming of their ...
Human behavior, when dealing with an unknown, can be curious. “Please come in” is always an invitation with a calculated risk – particularly when facing a stranger. What is the intention of the guest? (Is that a religious book he ...
Let’s take beer. No, seriously, have a beer. Have another. Don’t worry – the Bistro can order some more – we’ll get the breweries working overtime. Be proud. You are perpetuating a tradition of thousands of years. In Mesopotamia, the ...
Globalization: that’s the ticket. At least for our corporate masters. The thrust of enterprise over the past six decades has been to optimize every aspect of business operations, in order to extract maximum value for the shareholders. Sound cold and ...
There’s trouble in communications, in an age of acceleration, when a simple message error can mean the difference between life and death. Air traffic controller: GIA 152, turn right heading 046 report established localizer (report when you have intercepted the ...
Technology is a trickster, and one impossible to avoid or evade. It has burrowed its way so deeply into our lives that escape seems out of the question. Look at a 1950s movie, and computers (always a mainframe, in a ...
A Global Trend the Virus has Supercharged It’s all the same actually – only the names for the phenomenon differ: dark, cloud, ghost, virtual – and while it is a dream for those creative individuals who love to invent, prepare ...
The Eternal Shadow of Inflation Sweeps Onward Best to impart the bad news first and then put it behind us, as we soldier on toward new vistas. Everything we need seems to be getting more expensive. Oh dear – you ...
There are a number of ways to slice’n’dice humanity, but one outstanding difference is to group those humans who cannot bear spicy food versus those addicted to it. Sure, in the middle are folks who shrug, arch their eyebrows and ...
The culture of a region is not completely limited by national borders, except in the case of an island nation of one engaged in a hostile relationship with its neighbor (South Korea and “Best Korea” – don’t tell that to ...
We truly live in a world of magic. In fact, it is astounding to consider the plethora of conveniences, many of them unimaginable, that we take for granted these days. If you are middle-aged then the speed, security and helpfulness ...
THE CONTROVERSY OVER DUAL-PRICING: YOUR OPINION? When considering whether visitors from overseas should pay more to visit a tourism destination, there is another way of looking at the matter: local people, earning perhaps 5~10% as much per month as the ...
As a kid I was vaguely interested in astronomy, but could never figure how the ancients, who apparently had too much time on their hands (while their slaves were scouring the fields, growing the grain and herding the animals) managed ...
There is a degree of annoyance and disappointment in dealing with the “youth culture” which the Globalists have been ruthlessly promoting since the early part of the Twentieth Century. And once the FMCG gang carjacked the bandwagon it roared forward: ...
Just kidding! Naw, we are not kidding about the robot takeover: I’m kidding about the “when” – as though it is not a done deal already, a thorough fait accompli, folks. No? They are running the world. Who do you ...
The internet has been a wonder and a blessing for billions of people around the world – not least for us expatriates, separated by the seas from our homelands, friends and families. Being able to stay in touch with those ...
Oh how sad, how stressful it must be to be filthy rich these days. What?? Why are you giggling hysterically, dear reader and eater? Has someone slipped some nitrous oxide into your luxurious, tasty Ya Udah Bistro pasta? No? If ...
The world can be an inexplicable, dangerous place. Thus travelers often prefer the familiar. Brits holidaying in Spain, soaking up the sunshine, are notorious ethnocentrists, demanding their fish’n’chips or kidney pie in a land of paella. Americans travel to China ...
What a strange, uneasy time it is to live in … We re going to talk ab an unpleasant corollary of the “New Normal”: it is a field day for nosey neighbors, busybodies and snitches … …One ugly result is ...
How often do you hear somebody whining “I’m bored” these days? No? Not even some entitled kid, who has just stepped on his smartphone on the way to the bathroom in the early morning and cracked the screen, killing it? ...
We proffer a sincere welcome to yet another buzzword, ripe with technological sparkle and cutting-edge excitement. Brace yourselves for impact. This is it: What’s up? What the devil is wrong with the ‘Old Normal’? Or for that matter with the ...
Ah for the good old days – come in, plunk down, yell for the waiter or waitress and then magically dive in to your steaming food and freezing drink. Here is a memento of a bygone era – everybody having ...
(I hope anyway.) The digital sorcerers of Silicon Valley make some pretty far-reaching promises, aiming to expedite our existence with smart kitchens, smart cars, smart TVs – but alas, nobody mentions “smart children”, who, judging from the miserable results of ...
Conjectures of Conspiracy down through the Ages Information possesses pressure. The more urgent the demand for data, the higher the flow rate, the greater the pressure. The more confidential the information, the tighter the containment. Sooner or later, as history ...
HEY! Look what happened to us: Best German bars around the world Here’s what CNN says about Ya Udah Bistro, nicely enough: The world’s largest Muslim-populated nation happens to have a German restaurant known for a gigantic hunk of pork. ...
What to do about investing? Those who have a lot of money (present company excepted, sadly) know in their hearts that a pool of capital is like a pool of water: if it doesn’t keep moving it goes stagnant… and ...
Pep us up, Pop. Give us some cheery stories, funny events, merry happenings. We’ve had heap plenty ugly stuff in the media. Show us how happy times will prevail. What again? You went down to Ya Udah Bistro on Jl. ...
Dear Ya Udah Bistro Patron, A month on from our last message, we hope you and your loved ones are safe and healthy and have been able to enjoy some moments of peace and normal life at home. The ...
Hard times, sad times, unease and suffering – and then, in a flash , you get an insight: your head cranks around and your eyes scan the firmament. Oh dear. Little old Me and my little old problems on my ...
Intergenerational conflict must be as old as humanity: the parent disappointed because the child does not grow up to be a replica of him / her, or destroys the dream of the parent by turning into an unrecognizable creature. “He ...
One of the most famous memes-of-movies, and one associated with the biggest gamble: a surprisingly youthful Clint Eastwood holding a pistol on an equally young-looking Andy Robinson. Both men among the great character actors of Hollywood “B” movies, facing off ...
Well well well what to believe. What is true and what is snot. Alas, the trust of the public everywhere has deflated like a sad balloon, as the absolute volume of information has amped up, thanks mostly to our darling ...
Dear Valued Ya Udah Bistro Patron, We wish to extend our sincere hopes for your safety and health in this most difficult time. We are reminded that our world is really a very small and interconnected one, and that we ...
Humans and Their Animals, Pets & Their People My dear niece, married to a veterinarian, writes to say “We don’t see the problems in the economy. People still bring in their animals, charge up big bills on their credit cards. ...
Formula 1 driver. Marlboro smoker. Sir Jackie Stewart: “In the 1960s, the chances of a Formula 1 driver being killed were one in three.” That’s killed, ladies and gentlemen. Dead. Lethally, fatally so. Hard to believe when you watch the ...
Everybody in the world has come close together… and not just because of the surge in population to nearly 8 billion, either. Cheap jet travel means you can bop around the planet the way you used to travel from one ...
People do indeed have unusual hobbies, avocations that you might not imagine are, well, quite normal at first. OK, here we go. Believe it or leave it. “We all know there are people superb at imitating animal calls but, believe ...
Well dear Ya Udah Bistro eaters and readers: living in Indonesia you might be unaware of the looming presence of St. Valentine’s Day – February 14th – but in the West and WOW in Japan??? Get this: ‘The chocolatier ...
Hey. Remember ‘1984’? It was a book, then a film… and then the year itself rolled around: Nineteen Eighty-Four came and went, came in like a kitten and went out like a dead dog. A dud. The feared year of ...
It’s a new decade, YaUdah Bistro patrons, and we salute you with sincere appreciation for your loyal patronage over the years. One of the curious aspects of this new decade is the ‘palindrome date’ approaching rapidly – reads the same ...
It is an era of fakery. Those whom we have relied on and kept the faith with – have failed us. Worse, they have annoyed us. Remember ‘Clippy’? (Maybe you don’t want to remember Clippy) Microsoft killed it before the ...
When I worked for a Dutch engineer at a German company in Indonesia (mixed-up enough?) I became pals with a very funny New Zealander – also an engineer – who related the story of his first trip to San Francisco, ...
Imagine this combative scenario, with e-mails crackling back and forth through cyber-space, between several high-pressure executives. We’ll call them Heckle & Jeckle, to protect the guilty: Heckle: “I am awaiting your earliest response. I sent you that e-mail a good ...
Just imagine visiting glorious Alaska… …in its glorious abbreviated summer – say, around July. All the glorious day long what are you doing? While you are attempting to scan the glorious scenery (and it is certainly grand) you are ...
Well the holiday season is upon us, BLAM! … and it’s next to impossible to escape, frankly. You would have to be an illiterate blind hermit living in the Kalahari Desert not to have heart about THE DEATH OF RETAILING. ...
Ho Ho Ho, and to all a very Merry – Whaa?? Do we not see here a typical encounter between a typical Santa-suit-clad old fellow and some typically-terrified small children? The spectre of little kids sitting on Santa’s knee in ...
‘Drinking is bad for you.’ Now there is one of the very few statements that one can make where there is practically no disagreement whatsoever. Every adult in the world who can read and write – even those who love ...
That we live in an amazing time of change, ever-accelerating, is beyond doubt. Technology has swept through our lives, for better or for worse, influencing thinking, action, attitudes and such basic behavior as shopping patterns (consider the sensational reportage of ...
The telephone rang. And rang and rang. OK, I picked it up, expecting the worst. You see, it was the land-line, which we almost never use, that was ringing unexpectedly – yes, everybody in my house is so lazy and ...
No profession is more stressful than that of medicine. First there is medical school – up to 11 years of hard study and unpaid practice, with incredible abuse from the teaching staff and the ever-present danger of failing and getting ...
Everybody likes music. Most people have music they cannot forget. Some love music. Except Salvador Dalí. Could you ever imagine someone to make an outrageous statement like ‘I don’t like music’? That sort of stunning throwaway was indeed Dalí’s calling ...
COMPETITIONS YOU CAN SIMPLY DISBELIEVE IN “Citizens today apparently have too much time on their hands. Across the planet folks like you and you and him and her are going nuts for something to keep them busy and amused, and ...
Do people listen anymore? And if they do not, is it any surprise? Does it matter? Alas, noise perpetually surrounds us, no matter how far we might try to remove ourselves in nature: there’s that A-330 flying at 33,000 feet, ...
RESIST THE CORPORATE SWEETENER CONSPIRACY Hey who’s this cute fellow? ‘Hi! I’m Clarence the Cancer Cell. Can I be your friend? Me and my pals really want to get along with you. Let’s have fun together. I know I can ...
“LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE” “I do not like hospitals. I always think of them as places where you go to die. “I was trembling a little, naked underneath my hospital gown, but not because I was nervous or afraid. ...
SOME PLACES SHOULD NOT HAVE CELL PHONE ACCESS You pay $18 a ticket to see a first-run motion picture in San Francisco. Hey, come on! The wife and the kids want to go along as well, BAM BAM BAM. Fifty ...
NOT JUST “FAT-SHAMING” – IT’S A BURDEN TO SOCIETY With the rise of big Big Government there has been a parallel increase in what is known as ‘social responsibility’ on the part of citizens, organizations and even local and regional ...
San Miguel, a very ambitious FMCG conglomerate, Philippines-based with a worldwide reach, had a problem in the home market. Their sales & promotion teams were continually being urged by Management to grab more market share (although they were by far ...
Unfortunately, the world’s cities have tended to grow wildly, inefficiently and even crazily, like weeds, or molds, or in the opinion of some disgruntled planners cancers. In many cases as a formerly slow and peaceful urban area fills up with ...
A FOOD-LOVER’S TOUR OF JAKARTA’S ELITE MARKETS PART 4 – CONVENIENCE STORE LAYOUT: FRESTIVE HORNS IN, GRABS MARKET SHARE The locals have fun with the English language, BOO HOO. Remember “Golden Truly” the awful supermarket from the 1980s? That ain’t ...
A FOOD-LOVER’S TOUR OF JAKARTA’S ELITE MARKETS PART 3 – AL FRES OR ALL FRESH? ALL RIGHT ANYWAY them Indonesia Fruit is for sale at roadside stands all around Jakarta. The observant reader will note that I did not write ...
A FOOD-LOVER’S TOUR OF JAKARTA’S ELITE MARKETS PART 2 – STARTING DOWN-MARKET: TOTAL BUAH SEGAR A relative newcomer to the elite fresh-fruit retail business, Total first opened in 2003 in Kelapa Gading, serving an ethnic Chinese-Indonesian clientele which would appreciate ...
A FOOD-LOVER’S TOUR OF JAKARTA’S ELITE MARKETS PART 1 – INTRODUCTION During the 1970s living in Indonesia justified the ‘hardship post’ pay allotted to the dips’n’scribblers, excuse me, the <ahem> Diplomatic Corps and Foreign Correspondents, who were about the only ...
If you are old enough you will remember grocery stores loading all your purchases in big sturdy ugly kraft paper sacks. You couldn’t do much with those once you got home but they were easy and convenient to dispose of. ...
It is an enduring concern for parents: why do their cute little children absolutely love to play with plastic monsters, watch monster movies … … or pretend to be monsters? Or act like monsters? Yes yes yes I know – ...
THE MAD & BAD BIKERS OF INDONESIA [ PART II / II ] Now the chances they take, the chances they take – you think ‘Are they even using part of their brain?’ But in fact many bikers seem to ...
The mad motorbikers of Indonesia [ Part I / II ] Dear Gourmet Reader & Lover of Fine Food & Drink: you will likely have little love for the aggressive two-wheelers muscling by you as you your way through Jakarta ...
A TOAST TO THE ‘TATERS Delicious, Difficult, Exquisite Tubers [An Unlikely History] Can you even imagine a time without potatoes? Unimaginable. Impossible. The very thought shocks and outrages decent God-fearing folk. But in fact… Europe, for all its majesty and ...
STICK WITH SECOND-TIER CITIES There are more tourists touring the planet today than ever (and annoying the local yokels who, if they get rich enough, will in turn fly off to somewhere else – as tourists – and annoy the ...
PART TWO OF A TWO-PART VISIT TO ARID-ZONE USA Nobody in my West Java neighborhood seems to take notice of the potential danger of living between three live volcanoes. Gunung Salak (‘Snake-Fruit Mountain’ – sounds funny in English) blew up ...
PART ONE OF A TWO-PART VISIT TO ARID-ZONE USA Human civilization has had to fight long and hard to create a safe, comfortable, clean environment, out of a vicious, dangerous and inhospitable natural world. Once you try to survive in ...
One of the most popular dishes at Ya Udah Bistro is the pasta – Mamma Mia! You have your choice of spaghetti or fettuccine and you better make up your mind quick Buster because the waitress is shifting from foot ...
Weird & Wonderful Names In Indonesia & abroad Well the mass election season has just passed, though not without its share of conflict and controversy. Amid charges of mass ballot-box stuffing & burning, orders by police and other authorities to ...
Now just look at these alert, strong, arrogantly fit showoffs: the question that arises in the keen minds of the maddeningly healthy bunch you see out running in the freezing rain and doing pushups and chin-ups on icicle-laden bars, as ...
When this writer arrived in Indonesia, precisely 31 years ago, everything was new and exotic… except for that which was not – much of the culture and its artefacts deriving from the Dutch, Chinese, Japanese or other visitors who had ...
by Capt. Wong Wei Corgen Imagine Felix Acero, a long-term expatriate businessman sitting in First Class on a comfortable, glassy-smooth flight on a Singapore Air Lines A-380. Felix is nestled in a kind of deep sofa, just two abreast, with ...
Of all the spectacular and gigantically-expensive failures bedeviling the USA in recent years (over and above their endless unwinnable wars, annoying and enduring racial tension and tolerance of poverty, including hungry children) none is more brutally evident than the so-called ...
THE HAPPY DAY ARRIVES, CHURCH BELLS ARE CLANGING, ALL ARE DRESSED IN THEIR FINEST FOR THE WEDDING CEREMONY… The ring passes, trembling, from fingers to finger, the groom looks soulfully into the sweet, loving eyes of the bride to be ...
Now by the time you force your way through Jakarta traffic and arrive at Ya Udah Bistro you will find these cute little piggies turning cutely on a spit, being roasted to perfection for your culinary delight. Oink oink oink and ...
Well he went and did it. David Goodall was not interested in making headlines around the world but he felt his body was betraying him, he was played out, and he had had enough of life. He was alert and ...
Why are people so fat these days? WHO tells us that nearly 30% of the planet’s inhabitants are blimped out. Get this: Worldwide obesity has nearly tripled since 1975 In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults, 18 years and older, ...
I write these lines on 22 November, a date which, unless you are an American citizen, will mean little. For Americans, however, nationals of the Big Bad Banana Republic, “Greatest Country in the World” as they are reminded incessantly from ...
‘Governments are hypocrites’ growl the Libertarians. On one hand the Nanny State admonishes its citizens to stop smoking and live healthily. Meanwhile governments everywhere collect oodles of moneys from the same smokers, through horrendous taxation of tobacco products. TRILLIONS IN ...
It’s worldwide news: John Allen Chau, a young American dope religious fanatic sorry, I mean “adventurer / missionary”, has been killed with arrows and buried by members of a tribe of primitive peoples on remote North Sentinel Island in the ...
WE CONTINUE THE TALE OF THE FIVE ADVENTURESOME EXPATS IN JAKARTA Once again, the dramatis personæ: Droll Paul, very tall and very droll, a crooked English entrepreneur on the run from the authorities in Perth. A very leisurely Australian run ...
WE CONTINUE THE TALE OF THE FIVE ADVENTURESOME EXPATS IN JAKARTA Once again, the dramatis personæ: Droll Paul, very tall and very droll, a crooked English entrepreneur on the run from the authorities in Perth. A very leisurely Australian run ...
WE CONTINUE THE TALE OF THE FIVE ADVENTURESOME EXPATS IN JAKARTA Once again, the dramatis personæ: Droll Paul, very tall and very droll, a crooked English entrepreneur on the run from the authorities in Perth. A very leisurely Australian run ...
WE CONTINUE THE TALE OF THE FIVE ADVENTURESOME EXPATS IN JAKARTA Once again, the dramatis personæ: Droll Paul, very tall and very droll, a crooked English entrepreneur on the run from the authorities in Perth. A very leisurely Australian run ...
WE CONTINUE THE TALE OF THE FIVE ADVENTURESOME EXPATS IN JAKARTA Once again, the dramatis personæ: Droll Paul, very tall and very droll, a crooked English entrepreneur on the run from the authorities in Perth. A very leisurely Australian run ...
WE CONTINUE THE TALE OF THE FIVE ADVENTURESOME EXPATS IN JAKARTA Once again, the dramatis personæ: Droll Paul, very tall and very droll, a crooked English entrepreneur on the run from the authorities in Perth. A very leisurely Australian run ...
WE CONTINUE THE TALE OF THE FIVE ADVENTURESOME EXPATS IN JAKARTA Once again, the dramatis personæ: Droll Paul, very tall and very droll, a crooked English entrepreneur on the run from the authorities in Perth. A very leisurely Australian run ...
WE CONTINUE THE TALE OF THE FIVE ADVENTURESOME EXPATS IN JAKARTA Once again, the dramatis personæ: Droll Paul, very tall and very droll, a crooked English entrepreneur on the run from the authorities in Perth. A very leisurely Australian run ...
WE CONTINUE THE TALE OF THE FIVE ADVENTURESOME EXPATS IN JAKARTA Once again, the dramatis personæ: Droll Paul, very tall and very droll, a crooked English entrepreneur on the run from the authorities in Perth. A very leisurely Australian run ...
WE CONTINUE THE TALE OF THE FIVE ADVENTURESOME EXPATS IN JAKARTA Once again, the dramatis personæ: Droll Paul, very tall and very droll, a crooked English entrepreneur on the run from the authorities in Perth. A very leisurely Australian run ...
In Part-1 we looked at some examples of policies and attitudes which fail to support tourism. We could call knowhow and commitment to hospitality, the “software” of successful tourist policies. Successful tourism also needs basic “hardware” support . That is, ...
By Mr. Evan Jones Recent announcements by the Jokowi government that Indonesia aims to build ten more Balis is a good idea; tourism brings direct prosperity to places frequented by tourists. The money spent helps the nation’s finances. Of all ...
WE CONTINUE THE TALE OF THE FIVE ADVENTURESOME EXPATS IN JAKARTA Once again, the dramatis personæ: Droll Paul, very tall and very droll, a crooked English entrepreneur on the run from the authorities in Perth. A very leisurely Australian run ...
Grub & grog are promptly ordered from the rich Ya Udah Bistro menu. WE CONTINUE THE TALE OF THE FIVE ADVENTURESOME EXPATS IN JAKARTA Once again, the dramatis personæ: Droll Paul, very tall and very droll, a crooked English entrepreneur ...
Grub & grog are promptly ordered from the rich Ya Udah Bistro menu. WE CONTINUE THE TALE OF THE FIVE ADVENTURESOME EXPATS IN JAKARTA Once again, the dramatis personæ: Droll Paul, very tall and very droll, a crooked English entrepreneur ...
Where would art be without food? And thirsty. And unfulfilled. Think about it. One of the classical memes is that of the starving artist… creating great art. You want to go ask an artist whether he or she would ...
‘Chew Your Milk’, the Yogis say Now did your beloved mother and father use psychological warfare on you, dear reader, when you were a stubborn and rebellious child? When you were really really hungry after a little shoplifting from the ...
by Bakhirun Two rambling metropolises in Southeast Asia – differences and similarities, historical, social and political, stand in an interesting contrast. This writer just spent six weeks in a suburb of Ho Chi Minh (which the locals still commonly refer ...
So foodie superstar Anthony Bourdain has hosted his own necktie party – most unexpectedly, as the fellow was in reasonably good health, and was even taping a series of new programs (which he has left awkwardly in the lurch). Why ...
Grub & grog are promptly ordered from the rich Ya Udah Bistro menu. WE CONTINUE THE TALE OF THE FIVE ADVENTURESOME EXPATS IN JAKARTA Once again, the dramatis personæ: [Tall] Paul, yes very very tall. Snooty, elegant and condescending, as ...
A pleasant, if noisy, late afternoon powwow at Ya Udah Bistro in old Menteng. Eats, drinks, fun conversation. Outside, the usual heavy traffic, zipping down Jalan Johar, scraping and screeching; at a table in the back of the Bistro four expatriates were amused by ...
“Come on now, stop that, quit toying with your broccoli. Don’t look at me like that, like you want to get sick, just settle down and eat that spinach and wakame salad. Do it. Open your mouth. Take a full ...
As once again the Holy Islamic Month of Fasting, or Ramadhan, approaches, from one and all at Ya Udah Bistro, we send out greetings to our valued Muslim clientele, with sincere hopes that they will once again endure and benefit ...
When hoteliers gather together at Ya Udah Bistro to enjoy each other’s company you can be sure they have some tall tales to tell. Horst, Wolfgang and Franz were all seasoned General Managers of five-star hotels in Bali. They had ...
It had been some months since they had sat down together for a fine meal at Yaudah Bistro, the favorite hangout for the three long-time expatriates. Luigi, the son of Italian immigrants, had graduated from Engineering school in Melbourne, and ...
Do you approve of the way cars look these days? Do people even care any more about the style of what they buy? Here’s an example of the most luxurious automobile on the market in Indonesia today: Is it a ...
We tend to hang onto our preconceptions of people and places – and will then be amazed when we discover after a long while that this place or that person has completely changed. Well, ‘place’ anyway. The kid who was ...
One tends to forget pleasant, comforting experiences until they occur once again, reminding us of the possibility of quality in life. The other evening this writer stepped onto a Boeing 777-300, an event occasioned by the need to get from ...
Are manners important? Manners used to be important. Why are manners no longer important? Remember Miss Manners? She got killed in a landslide. Of modernity. By Millennials, who don’t even realize how rude they are being. Too much fingering the ...
…does not exist, dear Yaudah Bistro patron. For thousands of years now the innocent, roly-poly, tasty, obscene and very nutritious sausage has been a FIGURE of Really and truly, honestly, there is no more FUN FOOD than a sausage. Aw ...
Woof! it’s Chinese New Year at Ya Udah Bistro, once again We’re in luck, folks. Well, sort of. It’s the YEAR OF THE DOG coming up on February 16th, and Yaudah Bistro is ready to do its doggone best to ...
Valentine’s Day coming up (at least in Japan and Western countries). February 14th, like clockwork. And are all the cheering, excited masses, awaiting the festivities, romantic in intent but named for a [probably mythological] saint who was martyred? Roses, chocolates, ...
(Heckyll): ‘What a stupid question.’ (Jeckyll): ‘No it’s not. It’s… it’s a rhetorical question. <HIC> A philosophical question.’ (Heckyll): ‘No, it’s a stupid question. Beer is beer. >BURP<And yes I’ll have another Weissbier. Waitress!’ (The dreamy Ya Udah Bistro waitresses ...
Travellers, Be Prepared The two nice wealthy Indonesian ladies were enjoying a romp around Europe without hubby and the whining kids. They had done London and Berlin, snapped photos before the Eiffel Tower and leaned with the Leaning Tower of ...
Ya Udah Bistro welcomes smokers, unlike the great majority of eateries in Jogjakarta and Jakarta; our fresh-air environment (well, considering how fresh the city air is…) is perfect for smoking, before, during or after a fine meal of sausage, ...
It’s not that simple of an ostensibly rhetorical question to answer. There are so many powerfully conflicting aspects to this friendly, aromatic herb. It is pleasurable. It is dangerous. It is socially unacceptable in some societies (most of the so-called ...
There are all sorts of places to go and enjoy yourself and all sorts of ‘suggestions’ as to how Yaudah Bistro should emulate them. EXAMPLE 1: ‘Why don’t you have live music? And have a dance floor?’ Answer: ‘Will that ...
AS WE COMPLETE ANOTHER ORB, we pause to reflect. Now doesn’t it seem to be the zenith of idiocy to ignore the spectacular spectacle of our planet and its mates spiraling up the Void around our blazing star, and instead ...
No no no no that’s not precisely correct there all you rambunctious Ya Udah Bistro pork lovers. It’s actually a fresh invitation:hurry around and zoom by if you want to partake of this succulent special, now aroused once more for ...
Ask anybody anywhere if they are cannibals? POW! You just got a black eye. ‘Hey! Don’t insult my people!’ Except for a few merry Brazilian Indians or the stalwart, warlike Melanesians inhabiting the highlands of Papua New Guinea, you’ll have ...
You work in Jakarta, and not by choice: that’s where you are assigned. Then you have a couple of guests coming to visit you – from France perhaps, or Japan, or Canada. Now immediately the problem of what to do ...
Oh yes, oh yes, he did travel all the way to China, or at least he claimed he did (scholars still quarrel about this, while slurping their spaghetti and pouring wine on each other’s heads), and he returned to Venice, ...
Those expats living long in the tropics are fully aware of how difficult it is to explain the concept of ‘season’ to local acquaintances who have not travelled to a temperate zone: Spring / Summer / Fall / Winter, like ...
This American expatriate deplanes in San Francisco and looks around him with dismay: it seems he has landed in the midst of a herd of elephants. The ‘new normal’ in North America is so gigantic that the traditional classifications of ...
Sometimes you can’t win. My American friend Jim is an example. Jim loves Indonesia; his late wife was from Manado. They lived together here happily for many years. But Jim had one rather serious problem: he could not tolerate spicy ...
Germany’s famed celebration of life with food – drink – music – good company, most prominently in Munich, capital of the State of Bavaria. No, this notice is NOT about Das Oktoberfest, but the next-best-event to it. Welcome to the ...
Indonesians – God bless them – put up with a lot. Terrible traffic, uncertain & expensive medical care, car mechanics who haven’t told the truth since they were born – and they do it without complaining. Compare that forbearance to, ...
Presenting Prost & König Ludwig Weissbier Thanks to the Dutch the Indonesians know how to bake Black Forest cake and fry up bitterballen. They can also brew beer with the best. Now two new brands have foamed up to spread ...
Not simply the ‘call to independence’ – this is actually how Indonesian freedom fighters greeted one another when they met. Not ‘Hello’ but ‘Freedom’! ‘MERDEKA!’ was the keyword, and all rejoiced when the Dutch got the message and went home ...
A Veritable FLOOD of PORK for the Big Event No, no, let’s not talk about flooding – banjir is the last thing we want. Except, of course, for a flood of hungry customers, ready to sit down and devour the ...
The ‘cultural heart’ of Java, the Special Region of Jogjakarta is famed for its royal monuments, performances, fine handicrafts and traditional regional foods. Enriching culinary choices, we now come with quality European and Indonesian dishes, featuring large portions at reasonable prices, as we ...
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