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Today is the last day of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival. It marks the end of strict vegetarian meals I had for the past 9 days. It also marks the start of having meat on my meal again.

My mum cooked us chicken soup for dinner. And I had a bowl of the chicken soup with mee suah around 9pm. Instantly, the taste of the soup brings to mind Indonesian bakso soup I had months ago.

Bakso in Indonesia means meatballs. It is everywhere in Indonesia, be it in restaurant, coffee shop or road side. In fact, I saw one at Tangkuban Perahu.

I heard most Indonesian loves bakso - the peppery soup with garlic. It can be eaten with rice noodles, fried wanton or chicken feet.

What else? Any Indonesian care to tell us more?

During my last trip, our Indonesian friend brought us to this stall named Baso Malang somewhere in Bandung downtown. Malang literally translates to bad luck but we are lucky to taste unlucky baso. What a joke!

You can choose a variety of ‘balls’; chicken balls, beef balls and fried stuff likes wanton. I choose the fried stuff the most as I don’t fancy balls. wakakaaa…

The soup of bakso is so tasty that I finished it off within minutes and ordered a second bowl.

Indonesia-ok recipe for the soup as follows;

Make a strong broth from beef marrow. Let it cook until its oil surfaces. Add crushed garlic, pepper, salt and a bit of sugar or vetsin (which contains monosodium glutamate). According to the Indonesian way of cooking it’s not possible to give exact quantities of the ingredients. It all goes according to personal taste and, most importantly, feeling.
Finally add the beef balls you already prepared and sliced tofu and let it all cook until the beef balls come to the surface. Finish it off with finely cut celery.

Again, I finished the second bowl within minutes.

Thinking of it, I can’t wait to taste bakso soup again on my next coming trip to Bandung.

Yummy… yummy…yummy….