This means that, unlike in the U.S., where breakfasts are usually light and sweet, like cereal or coffee with a pastry, breakfasts here are usually heavier and savory, and include rice, some chicken and some fruit. That took some time to get used to, but now I like it, and prefer a heavier breakfast, instead of something light and sweet. I am still getting used to how Indonesian diets are different from mine in the U.S., but all of the food is good, and needing to make my own has helped me appreciate how much work goes into each tasty dish.
Snacks
Also, many meals come with fried rice-flour chips (kerupak), which are light and have a nice crunch to them. When I go to grocery stores to buy snacks, the options are basically between different kinds of kerupak and sweet biscuits. And there are so many kinds of each!
Fruits and Vegetables
Like the snacks I mentioned, there are so many different kinds of fruit, here! I do not know the names of half the fruits I have seen, but they are all delicious. (In the title I said that there is fried fruit. The only fruit I have seen fried are bananas, which are sweet and starchy, and are similar to the banana chips you might find in the U.S., but stronger.) You might have noticed that I have not mentioned vegetables. That is not because there are no vegetables, or that people do not eat them. It is just that vegetables are served less frequently and in smaller amounts than in the U.S. I cannot fail to mention that Indonesians like their hot peppers, and much of the food is cooked with peppers, or comes with a side of ground pepper sauce, which is called sambal.
