Jakarta Tuesday - August 13

Today absolutely flew by. In the morning we tackled a subject that we had very little direction on, forcing us to cover all angles. That may or may not have been intentional by our management, but we talked through a lot of the challenges and have a very solid plan, as well as some open questions we need upper management to decide. A very productive morning. After lunch, our afternoon was even more productive as we addressed probably the single most difficult challenge we face from an application perspective as the merger moves forward: integrating our security platform and the ability to recognize a person - contractors and employees - by one, unique identifier.

For lunch, we returned to the same restaurant we visited yesterday. It is the first restaurant in the mall we've found that has both A/C and a non-smoking section - both of which we very much appreciated. I haven't discussed the food experience here as my allergies prevent me from being very adventurous, however, I have witnessed some interesting choices by my colleagues, as well as even more interesting items on the menu.

Culinary delight varies by culture. Island and coastal nations favor seafood, jungle nations favor exotic fruits, and vast, flat nations tend to favor large game. When travelling, cuisine always affords an interesting glimpse into the culture and the history. In Jakarta, we've encountered the following gastronomical curiosities:

1) Pizza. Sounds safe, right? No such thing as a bad pizza? Try pizza with clams and broccoli. Or lobster, salmon, and mussels. The vegetarian pizza wasn't olives, sun-dried tomatoes and onions. No, in Jakarta the vegetarian pizza is cucumber, carrots, eggs and broccoli.

2) Desserts. I've heard of some interesting dessert choices - fish eyes in the Inuit tribes; raw sugar cane in the Caribbean; even fresh fruit as a dessert instead of as part of the meal or a snack has raised my eyebrow. I was ill prepared for - coconut ice cream surrounded by creamed corn, green beans, sweet pinto beans, and pineapple; something one of my colleagues actually ate. They also had green tea ice cream, an ice cream with those same sweet pinto beans. Apparently there is also a "dessert" that smells so putrid that many people often vomit from the smell before eating it, and some Asian countries have actually banned it in restaurants. Not sure I'm interested in that one. Milkshakes, I was unfortunate to learn, are literally shaken milk. If you want an ice cream shake, you need to ask for an ice cream shake.

I have also found I much prefer mango juice (which I knew from my summer in Cuernavaca) and guava juice to orange or apple juice. The orange juice served here is fresh squeezed, too, which is far better than the store bought variety. Despite the palette challenges, I find that I am very pleased with the food. I thought I would lose weight while here because I'd be eating vegetarian to avoid any allergic catastrophes - but I think I'll return home heavier than when I arrived.

Tonight, the hotel is having an "Australian BBQ" at the pool. We were trying to determine what that would mean for food, and the only thing we could come up with is "Shrimp on the Bar-B" and probably kangaroo and dingo meat - though we are definitely hoping for steak and Yellow Tail Cabernet.