Nasi

I can say no to bakmi (used to like it quite a bit but not rewarding enough compare to my cholesterol/sugar)....never liked bihun...it's harder to say no to kwetiau...although I get by with shirataki noodle.

I think I can survive my spike just eating half a small croissant....will try to experiment with cauli-pizza. I did have the real thing and my 2 hour post prandial was okay, but now I also focus on my 1 hour post prandial and I am pretty sure a slice of pizza can shoot it through the roof..trying to make the glucose curve as well rounded as possible.
 
after almost 7 years here my tongue and body are rejecting nasi......... just about can't handle it any more
Before you complain about Indonesia rice (nasi), let me tell you how horrible Malaysian rice tastes! It's like rice that is 5 years past its expiration date and then cooked with a cold fusion process.
:doh:
 
I missed this post when I posted earlier. I became overweight when in the US..I thought moving to Indonesia I would lose all the weight. It was the opposite. Too stressed and depressed to do anything...and tough to find healthy eating option. Thank goodness it has changed a lot since then. I was sick a lot, and back in 2014 I was gently warned by the doc (during my medical check up) that my blood sugar was getting up there (borderline)...fast forward to 2018 after four years of just stress eating...lots of martabak manis, all the good Indonesian desserts...following my UGD trip, I took a blood test the next day. A1C was 10.8. Thank goodness I'm pretty determined to control my diabetes...started out still eating white rice but strict portion control (7 tbs for lunch, and 7 for dinner)...after a couple months...5 tbs each..and later on switched to beras merah/beras coklat. (p.s i am not even sure what beras merah is in English...). .my doc was impressed with my discipline and lowered my meds three times..now down to only two metformins a day. January 2019 my A1C was 5.5, up a bit from November it was 5.3. I'm supposed to know my latest result from my check up in a day or two...but tracking my A1C using my excel at home...if my calculation is correct, I hope to be around 5.2-5.3 again. I check my glucose twice a day (morning and dinner).

Many people here are still quite uninformed when it comes to diabetes..and don't get me started on not wanting to listen..so many ignorant comments (either from family, friends, coworkers, etc)...from "Oh diabetes ya? don't drink sugar you'll be fine". "You're eating only that much rice? Aren't you starving yourself?" I got so much flack for losing weight (about 15 kgs lost total in 6 months i admit some of it stress related but I maintain it now). BMI down to 24.5 although still a bit high but doctor gave me an 'ok'.


Congratulations on getting your blood sugar under control. Most culturally Asian people I have known in my life could not go cold turkey on white rice. They mixed 50/50 white/brown. It was good enough for most of their blood sugar testing. I like the added texture in some dishes, but I am not a native rice eater. As long as the main dish has strong flavor, like rendang, I don't even notice much of a difference. I have seen it cause some domestic fights over such a simple thing.

I am interested in the experience you have had with trying to educate native Indonesians about diabetes. I have not had this, but the few people I know that have get a lot of push back. Indonesia has one of the highest diabetes death rates in the world for a not overweight populous. Considering it is largely preventable, there really needs to be better education on the subject.
 
Rice 2, maximum 3 times a week for me.

Eat western style 80% of the time.

As mentioned above, rice for me is just a bland, tasteless feed . Now, if you speak about paella or so, thats different !
 
Or risotto.

Some desserts as gâteau de riz and mango sticky rice are also not bad...
 
Last edited:
Congratulations on getting your blood sugar under control. Most culturally Asian people I have known in my life could not go cold turkey on white rice. They mixed 50/50 white/brown. It was good enough for most of their blood sugar testing. I like the added texture in some dishes, but I am not a native rice eater. As long as the main dish has strong flavor, like rendang, I don't even notice much of a difference. I have seen it cause some domestic fights over such a simple thing.

I am interested in the experience you have had with trying to educate native Indonesians about diabetes. I have not had this, but the few people I know that have get a lot of push back. Indonesia has one of the highest diabetes death rates in the world for a not overweight populous. Considering it is largely preventable, there really needs to be better education on the subject.

White rice: Granted...if I eat nasi padang (either the ayam gulai or rendang)...nasi merah can't beat the real thing....but still I'd rather sacrifice a bit than seeing my glucose spikes high. I don't really speak to that many people...so my sample size is pretty small, consisting of people whose one parent has diabetes, people with diabetes themselves, people with diabetes in family, people not have diabetes (yet) but consume lots of rice, indonesian desserts and at risk of being diabetics.

From my limited experience sharing my story, this is what I gathered:
1. They see eating as one of the simpler/easiest joy of life...if you say 'don't eat..this..that' it takes a way their enjoyment, especially during a party...if you can't eat 'well' during a party, the party is not as fun (I guess kinda like alcohol when I lived back in the US..).
2. They hate the word diet...it takes too much discipline. I keep telling them, the problem is that word..'diet'. I don't use that word...I say I change my way of eating. I like knowing what food makes me sick, what food makes me feel 'good'.They see diet as a temporary thing and there needs to be a 'clear' purpose "Oh wedding is coming up, need to look good to fit in this dress", "Oh need to diet otherwise, the doc won't operate me". They just won't diet especially for a long term health since it's too long to see the benefit.
3. Unless they are really sick in the hospital, they depend on the meds as a simple fix...even then, when they're sick they always have family members taking care of them and use that opportunity to gather around in the hospital room...making it a family reunion (happens in my family too).
4 Happens more with older people....they just plain don't listen to younger folks..or they're just afraid to go to the hospital (blood tests).
5. I've even heard "Why are you dieting so much, you look sick...you eat like poor people".
6. They think diabetes=pure white sugar. I've seen people say "Oh i don't eat sugar anymore, i drink coffee with 'special honey' it's healthy'. Missing the point that honey is considered high concentrated sugar, granted it has more nutrition than sugar, but it still spikes the glucose...maybe not to certain people, but I just play it safe and I dont have honey instead (and use tropicana sugar free honey once in a while).
7. Those who inform themselves.....still use outdated American Diabetic Association or other conventional organization...say two hour post prandial of 180...I use American Endocrinology's number which is 140..even that I try to maintain it under 120...and recently i am paying closer attention to my one hour to see which food that cause the spike over that..
8. They just don't know how to see the bigger picture. I've told them okay, you just basically restrict your refined carbs...(white rice, bread, cakes, refined sugar, added sugar)..replied with "What do you eat then??" I say "more veggies, protein, etc" replied with but you eat very little? I say "No...I eat less PER SERVING but I eat often..." They reply "wah if I eat so little like that, I will be hungry all day" I say No...you can eat AGAIN in a couple hours when you start feeling a bit hungry...and they reply "but that means I eat a lot!" they just can't differentiate between eating smaller meals, snacking vs eating twice the whole day...too time consuming maybe.
9. Some did ask me what's my good secret since they needed to lose weight...I told them..."Discipline" they usually say "Too hard"...and again rice and noodles are two biggest staple in Indonesian daily meals so taking them away means they "have not much to eat with"....and some prefer to eat the 'real thing' rathen than eat say..shirataki noodle (fake noodle according to them...if you're eating fake noodle, might as well eat the real thing).

That's all i got so far...again this is not a generalization of all...but the people who I happen to meet. Some of these obviously apply to other nations at all (I belong to a facebook diabetic support group) some just say they're depressed but they use food as comfort particularly the bad ones.
 
We do reduce rice and other carbs consumption but fried rice is still in our regular menu, 2 - 3 times a month.

Last week I had laparoscopy surgery to remove my gallbladder following ERCP treatment.
Side notes, generally I'm in good shape, no obese, no diabetes, BP and cholesterol are in normal level, average 50km per week jogging or treadmill, VO2 max 46.

Without gallbladder, the capability to process fatty food could be significantly affected.

No gave up. Last night, 5 days after surgery, I eat my "healthy nasi goreng".
So far so good, no diarrhea, no nausea, no upset stomach.

Here is my recipe for 2.
1.5 cup white rice, cooked with 1.5 cup water, add safron if you like.
1 chicken breast, remove all fat, cut into small cubes, then marinate with soy sauce. Garlic powder and white pepper.
1 onion, slice medium. 2 heads garlic, finely slice.
2 red chilli pepper. Remove the seeds, finely slice
100 grams peas and 1 carrot thinly sliced.
Pre-heat wok with 20 cc cooking olive oil in medium heat. Stir fry garlic, onion, red pepper, then add marinated chicken cubes, carrot slices, peas and keep stirring until chicken fully cooked.
Add rices, oyster sauce, fish sauce (nampla) stir in low heat for a minute and salt to your taste. Switch off.
Ready to serve, sprinkle with virgin olive oil and white pepper.
 
Last edited:
Good to see the gallblatter removal didn't have so much negative side effects. It seems to be very personal; some people can eat whatever they like afterwards and others get into trouble with everything.

Of course the problem here is that so many things get fried. And trans fats and saturated fats are not ideal. I switched back from margarine to real butter btw. Interesting you're using olive oil on the NG.
 
Good to see the gallblatter removal didn't have so much negative side effects. It seems to be very personal; some people can eat whatever they like afterwards and others get into trouble with everything.

Of course the problem here is that so many things get fried. And trans fats and saturated fats are not ideal. I switched back from margarine to real butter btw. Interesting you're using olive oil on the NG.

Yes, it is nasi goreng special edition.
Usually (before surgery) I use sunflower oil + sesame oil: or Gee for nasi goreng kambing, yes very unhealthy.
Will see in next 2 - 3 weeks if my belly can handle nasi goreng kambing.
 
We do reduce rice and other carbs consumption but fried rice is still in our regular menu, 2 - 3 times a month.

Last week I had laparoscopy surgery to remove my gallbladder following ERCP treatment.
Side notes, generally I'm in good shape, no obese, no diabetes, BP and cholesterol are in normal level, average 50km per week jogging or treadmill, VO2 max 46.

Without gallbladder, the capability to process fatty food could be significantly affected.

No gave up. Last night, 5 days after surgery, I eat my "healthy nasi goreng".
So far so good, no diarrhea, no nausea, no upset stomach.

Here is my recipe for 2.
1.5 cup white rice, cooked with 1.5 cup water, add safron if you like.
1 chicken breast, remove all fat, cut into small cubes, then marinate with soy sauce. Garlic powder and white pepper.
1 onion, slice medium. 2 heads garlic, finely slice.
2 red chilli pepper. Remove the seeds, finely slice
100 grams peas and 1 carrot thinly sliced.
Pre-heat wok with 20 cc cooking olive oil in medium heat. Stir fry garlic, onion, red pepper, then add marinated chicken cubes, carrot slices, peas and keep stirring until chicken fully cooked.
Add rices, oyster sauce, fish sauce (nampla) stir in low heat for a minute and salt to your taste. Switch off.
Ready to serve, sprinkle with virgin olive oil and white pepper.

One time I told the maid to make fried rice using brown rice/nasi merah mix...and later on when I ate it..I asked her if she mixed it with white rice, she said not at all..I was surprised! The spices and a bit of kecap manis/soy sauce did a lot of wonders! I bought Tropicana slim sugar free kecap manis today, we'll see if that kecap, brown rice, and your recipe can result in a great nasi goreng! I still might just eat no more than 40 grams though.

Also...do you eat bread at all? I can limit on white rice, but man...I've been trying out different 'keto bread' recipes, so far...all failed.
 
@Wisnu your "healthy" nasi goreng is almost identical to mine with the exception that I use more cabe, less onion and cut up green beans instead of peas
 
This talk of "beras coklat" is brown rice, right?

Funny how we all have strong opinions about something as simple as rice, and they are all different. I for one love beras merah (it's just red rice in English, as you would expect - I buy it under that name now that I'm back in the US), am not too keen on plain brown rice, and as to white rice, there are too many categories and cooking methods to express a blanket preference.

Here in Hawaii they wash white rice 6-8 times before cooking. The result is a sticky, gluey mess that is delicious - like a good, fragrant, sticky Korean rice. Health wise it's probably awful since there are no nutrients left, just empty carbs.

When I was growing up in mid-west/east coast America in the 1960s, we thought of rice as something vaguely suspect (I think it was slightly more popular on the west coast thanks to heavier Asian influences).

On the rare occasions when rice was served, it was always converted rice. That's rice that's been pre-processed, including steaming under pressure. The result is a very "individualized" grain that doesn't stick to itself at all. (Apparently it's actually more nutritious as the pressure-steaming forces the nutrients into the kernel instead of allowing them to be washed away.) It's pretty gross stuff. Only when I started eating in Asian restaurants did I start understanding how rice can be tasty.
 
@Wisnu your "healthy" nasi goreng is almost identical to mine with the exception that I use more cabe, less onion and cut up green beans instead of peas

The nice thing with nasi goreng, you can modify and or add any ingredients to your taste, practically no limitations. You can have relatively healthy nasi goreng, or not vet healthy but super delicious.

When we lived in KZ, I love kazy (horse meat sausage), terasi (shrimp paste) and green chilli peppers for nasi goreng. Not very healthy though.
 
Also...do you eat bread at all? I can limit on white rice, but man...I've been trying out different 'keto bread' recipes, so far...all failed.

We do eat breads, 2-3 times a week. We are not into keto. Typically my wife use whole wheat and or unbleached white flour or kamut flour if we can get it.
Her sourdough bread is good.
My carbs intake is still (relatively) high but I burn lot of calories every day.
 
This talk of "beras coklat" is brown rice, right?

Funny how we all have strong opinions about something as simple as rice, and they are all different. I for one love beras merah (it's just red rice in English, as you would expect - I buy it under that name now that I'm back in the US), am not too keen on plain brown rice, and as to white rice, there are too many categories and cooking methods to express a blanket preference.

Here in Hawaii they wash white rice 6-8 times before cooking. The result is a sticky, gluey mess that is delicious - like a good, fragrant, sticky Korean rice. Health wise it's probably awful since there are no nutrients left, just empty carbs.

When I was growing up in mid-west/east coast America in the 1960s, we thought of rice as something vaguely suspect (I think it was slightly more popular on the west coast thanks to heavier Asian influences).

On the rare occasions when rice was served, it was always converted rice. That's rice that's been pre-processed, including steaming under pressure. The result is a very "individualized" grain that doesn't stick to itself at all. (Apparently it's actually more nutritious as the pressure-steaming forces the nutrients into the kernel instead of allowing them to be washed away.) It's pretty gross stuff. Only when I started eating in Asian restaurants did I start understanding how rice can be tasty.
I'm still not sure what 'red rice' is called in the US...cause I tried googling beras merah (literally "red rice") I couldn't find anything...the result pulled in spanish red rice. Maybe it's the way my red rice is cooked (or the brand) it's too dry and hard by the 3rd day...so I miix it with the brown rice and make nasi goreng out of it....the soy sauce seems to soften it quite a bit. What do you call nasi merah there Pusp?
 
"Wild rice" is totally different - it isn't "real" rice, it is something else entirely (though quite good).

This is what I buy in the US, that seems the same as a good quality beras merah from Indonesia:

 
I usually combine the red rice with a nice jasmine rice - either 50/50, or 2/3 of one kind and 1/3 the other. I don't pre-soak, I just cook it in the rice cooker with twice the water. So, for example: 1/2 cup red rice, 1/2 cup jasmine rice, 2 cups water, turn on rice cooker, and voila!

The result meets my personal preferences - it makes a rather sticky, clumpy result, that has nice chewy bits in it that kind of "pop" when you bite through the grain. If that's not your thing, you could make it drier with less water, or have less distinct chewy bits by pre-soaking the red rice. I haven't experimented with making it come out differently because I'm pretty content with the way I do it now.
 
So it IS called red rice after all!! I'm using a carb/calorie counting app, and it was frustrating that I couldn't find it in the beginning...until i just tried my luck and entered 'nasi merah' it actually recognized it!

I don't like my rice hard...or like a dry, long grain rice back in the US...I like it somewhere in the middle...maybe i do need to add more water to it..but for now, making nasi goreng out of it helps quite a bit.
 

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Follow Us

Latest Expat Indo Articles

Latest Tweets by Expat Indo

Latest Activity

New posts Latest threads

Online Now

Newest Members

Forum Statistics

Threads
5,966
Messages
97,385
Members
3,035
Latest member
Les 819
Back
Top Bottom