So Cal Iron Chef Report 
Special Episode		May 28, 1999
"Indonesia Expedition (Part 1 of 2)"

Greetings, Iron Chef fans.

This week and next is a special IC show. It is unique through seven
years of IC show in that it does not involve any competition.

It started out with President Kaga announcing his old friend, the King
of Indonesia Hamunk Buono X (this is probably a horrible misspelling,
someone help me) invited Iron Chefs to come prepare a dinner for him.
Just like that, Iron Japanese Morimoto and Iron Chef Emeritus Michiba
were sent to Klaten Palace in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. If you have to
know, the city is on Java Island.

I speculate the truth is more like Iron Chef show aired in Indonesia,
probably on a Japanese language TV and became popular, and someone got
the idea to bring them to cook dinner for the king.

But in Indonesia! This is the country facing extreme crisis in both
political and economic fronts. How do they have time for a decadence
like this? Well, according to the (Kaga's) narration, this is the only
area in Indonesia that keeps a relative peace. And that is all because
of the presence of the king. He is rumored to run for the president post
in the upcoming national election.

Day1 -- 6 Days to the Feast
---------------------------
Arrived at the Klaten (the name of the king's palace/castle/mansion),
the two were given VIP treatment. The king himself was absent for duty,
but the queen and all female members of royal family welcomed them. They
were brought in for a meal of Indonesian royal feast.
They include:

 - Rice and Coconut Pancake
 - Nasi Tupan
   This one needs a bit of explanation. It is a combination of nine
   different cooking on a large plate. Nine is considered a lucky
   number in this country. The food include herb steamed chicken,
   sweet sautee of ground beef, etc.
 - Herb Steamed Banana

Now, because it is impolite for a servant to stand higher than the
guest, the serving ladies were bringing in the food dishes in strange
kneeling motion. That's understandable with small dishes like the pan-
cake. But it looked like a real work when they were bringing in the
large plate of Nasi Tupan, where four or five of them are kneeling
together carrying it. I wonder if they dropped the plate, they'll be
beheaded....

After the meal, they were shown the ball room (Manis Room). This is the
same room the foreign dignitaries are entertained, including Japan's own
emperor Akihito.
The ball room is at the deepest part of the palace and only used for the
most important occasion (like when the tetsujin prepares dinner....)
They are to prepare the dinner as people watch them there. Michiba said
"I have to be careful not to show anything dirty here..."
The queen told two tetsujins that his husband is tirelessly working for
the people, and she wishes the two to prepare a delicious meal here to
encourage him.

5 Days to the Feast
-------------------
They prepared the room at Hyatt Regency Yogyakarta, but shortly after
they checked in, the Grand Chamberlain (the same man who greeted the two
at the airport) came to ask if the two will appear on a TV show (of
course, they knew that).
The show is called "Resep OK Rudi", or Rudi's OK Recipe. Apparently the
theme of the show is for housewives to show up in the kitchen studio and
show their proud recipe, then the host of the show, Choiruden (Rudi)
will slightly modify it, presumably to improve it and present it to the
audiences.
Michiba and Morimoto were the guest stars that day. To relax, the two
had a drink of sake (rice wine). Now, for those of you didn't know,
Michiba loves sake. Once he starts, he can't stop. Once before when they
did "Best 50 shows of Iron Chef" special, he showed up drunk and said
all sorts of things the he probably shouldn't have said it. The show was
a lot more enjoyable because of it.
Now, by the time Rudi's show started, he was really in a good mood. Can
he cook anything decent in that condition? They prepared Java style
chirashi sushi (type of sushi where ingredients were mixed with rice,
instead of on the rice). Unlike usual Japanese style, they used long
grain rice (the common kind of rice there), used lemon and lime juice
instead of vinegar, used ham, peanuts and chili for spicy flavoring.
Morimoto did thin baked egg (usu-yaki tamago) which collected a lot of
attention. Not only he did it very skillfully, apparently that was
unusual thing to do there.
It was a hit with the audience / tasters in the studio. Rudi did his
thing to "improve" the recipe, but well, they moved on (well, that
sounds arrogant on Tetsujin's part, but really, I don't know how to be
nice about that one other than just being polite...)

3 Days to the Feast
-------------------
After returning to the Klaten, they met with the Palace chef who knows
the taste of the king. She was a young lady, whom Michiba immediately
decided to take along to look for the Coconut flower (see below).
Morimoto was chased away to Bali (a small island east of Java) to look
for fresh fish.
According to the chef, the king:

- does not like garlic.
- loves fish and vegetables. Fish are brought in directly from Bali.
- Traditionally, Palace food use coconut flowers.

Michiba and Morimoto's dinner ingredients acquisition trips started.

-- continued to the next week

-ICR