Serli and the Satay

Our Indonesian exchange student is a big fan of tomato catsup. She has to have a bottle of it on the table for every meal. Not that she really likes catsup, mind you; she only uses it to disguise the taste of American food, which tastes strange to her, and seems rather barbarous. Two weeks ago I served barbecued ribs. One look at those bones sticking out and she couldn't bring herself to eat them, not even with catsup.

Anyway, she found a recipe for an Indonesian dish called Satay--skewered, seasoned chicken bits served with rice and a peanut butter-based sauce. Tonight we bought the ingredients for her and she prepared it. For once, there was no catsup on the table. Turtle threatened to spice it up a little with barbecue sauce, and she promptly told him that it would ruin a good dish and that if he wanted to eat her chicken he absolutely could not use it. After all, nobody has to disguise the taste of that wonderful Indonesian food.

It was pretty good. I'll give her that.