CUISINE AND TRADITIONAL DRESS
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Many warungs serve neighborhoods as social centers to meet and talk. People exchange local gossip, discuss rising prices, and express political opinions. During the 2004 political campaigns, one determined candidate opened warungs—bearing his name on the front awning—in every Indonesian province; thus, they were called Warung Wiranto. Warungs now cater to separate social classes. The more upscale resemble outdoor restaurants, with private tables, chairs, and elevated television sets. Some warungs play lively, popular music to draw in fans. A restaurant in Indonesia is a rumah makan (eating house) and some warungs catering to the middle class resemble them. Rumah makans can be humble places to eat, but many are beyond the means of common people. Indonesian Chinese families often run restaurants serving a mixture of Chinese and Indonesian dishes. Rumah makans are common in cities and towns but rare in village or rural regions. Warungs and kiosks, however, seem to exist wherever there are people. Food, Beliefs, and Behavior
Everywhere cuisine interconnects with metaphysical and practical beliefs and social behavior. Throughout Indonesia, people talk about food often, sharing recipes, expressing likes and dislikes, comparing ritual feasts, discussing crops and livestock, or complaining of high prices. The sheer number and variety of roadside food sellers reflect the paramount concern of eating in Indonesian daily life. Preparation, tastes, and customs of eating vary across the islands, as do the values placed upon certain foods. Sociability connected to food also ranges from communal events to singularly private acts. Families might normally eat an evening meal together or separately in different parts of a household. Lunch is usually an informal affair—to the extent that in some areas individuals simply will grab a handful of cooked rice from a kitchen and eat it immediately. Formality or shared activity of eating relates to each society and class. In many areas people eat with their right hands, but most Indonesians use a tablespoon. Breakfast often consists of rice porridge with coffee or tea. Indonesians do not usually linger over meals as do Westerners, and often conversation waits until after eating. When eating together, custom frequently determines that the head of the household or oldest male initiate dining. When guests are present, etiquette requires that the host or hostess express, “Please eat” (Silakan makan) before anyone makes a gesture toward doing so. Some Indonesian families share meals around a table, some dine together on a tikar mat, and some eat alone in private at the back of a house. Moreover, food and eating can relate to real or metaphysical dangers, as people fear poisoning, curses, or spirits