Would you like some rice with that? (Lori)

Every once in a while, for one reason or another, our family has dinner at the McDonalds in Jogja. We know, from our travels throughout North America, that the menu at this global establishment varies depending on region. However, it was a pleasant surprise that we could, in fact, order chicken mcnuggets, Big Macs, and French fries, that taste very much like those in Canada (actually a little better, although this may be fading memory). If no one has reserved the party room, our kids can even use the play place on the second floor (it’s really, really small) where the walls are painted with pictures of Ronald and the gang. These similarities make us remember home, but there are plenty of strange and wonderful differences that remind us where we are.

Even though they serve some western fare, burgers and fries take a back seat to chicken and rice here. Yes, in a country where you can buy rice and chicken every few metres, some people come to the golden arches, and just order it again. In fact, it’s probably tastier at the nearby foodstall, and costs half of what it does at McDs, but for some reason it’s the most popular thing on the menu. Most meals include rice, rather than fries. In fact, I found out a little after the fact that none of the Happy Meals include fries. I was ordering our meal, based on the pictures from the display panel (the itemized menu is hard to find and almost impossible to read) when I realized that fries weren’t anywhere to be seen. Who wouldn’t assume that a happy meal included the things? Don’t Indonesian children have them with their chicken porridge? Other non-western items include (but are not limited to) spaghetti, sundaes a la Jogja (ice cream and jello), chicken porridge and hot sauce.

Hot Sauce is given with every meal, and is also available in those pump dispensers next to the napkins and straws. One would think that ketchup would be available too, but it turns out that this is flawed foreign logic. Actually we are proudly getting used to the taste of hot sauce with our food. I’ve been thinking about it as a ruler of our acclimatization. Even though it feels like we haven’t made many strides in our quest to become more fluent in bahasa Indonesia, we can eat dinner like the locals. And yes, I would like some rice with my Big Mac, please.