JAKARTA: It is a ubiquitous sight, and sound, across the cities and villages of Indonesia: the bakso vendor tapping a steady rhythm on a large steel pot, quite literally drumming up business.
Bakso, a hearty noodle soup laden with meatballs that costs as little as $1, is an Indonesian icon, beloved by rich and poor alike, including the US President and former Jakarta resident, Barack Obama.
It is sold by four million hawkers according to the association of bakso sellers. And as people congregate around stalls and carts consuming the dish, they debate the most delectable regional variety, the best garnishes and mix of spices.
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They are also fond of speculating about just what is inside the meatballs, with their mysterious rubbery texture and greyish pallor, an interest that piqued after a television expose? revealed that some purveyors were using rat meat.
What may surprise many Indonesians is there is a good chance their bakso contains offal from cattle raised in the vast scrublands of northern Australia.
Beef hearts give the bakso its signature chewy consistency, while other offcuts like tongue, lips and spleen can also find their way into the bakso concoction, mixed in with a little minced meat, flour, fat, spices and preservatives. It is a lucrative business for Australian meat producers. Some 22,600 tonnes of Australian offal was exported to Indonesia last year, worth about $50 million.
Kind of sounds like our meat pies .Go the pies lol
