None of those would work. :)

Intrigued by the pickled grapes and I think I'd skip them - I don't really like fruit with a main course, it makes it all too sweet for my taste.

Pesto pasta is one of my go-tos, but I'd probably skip the extra protein as I think there's enough in the parmesan in the dish. Having it with a good rocket salad would be the way to go for me.

A friend of my wife recommended a new HKG style chinese restaurant. In Indonesia, outside of Bali, it can be challenging finding places that serve pork products, so it’s nice to find a place that does. And unlike my neighborhood in the US, not that many chinese restaurants. No PF Chang, Pei Wei or Panda express on every corner.

A nice 1/4 smoked duck for $5. Stir fried pork for $4. Dim sum for $1.50-$2 for an order of 3 pieces.

i have this idea that the massage or haircut in Indonesia is $1 or $10. I can’t recall. So I’m trying to compare the yummy Chinese (HK) pricing with the haircut pricing. Some carryout places in sf STILL sell dumplings cheaply and I assume it’s a loss leader, plus I’ve spent decades seeing restaurant servers making dumplings (won ton and up) during afternoon downtime. Or any downtime. When I definitely paid $1 for 3 dumplings in the 80s, a haircut then was a $20 bill including $4-6 tip.

Aren’t ALL major nuts oily?

i think of basil being the key for pesto - is there such a thing as too much basil?

I’m pretty sure that the hour spent baking fries and grilling a steak / cheeseburger and heating up pasta with heated Rao’s sauce is the same time required for making pesto pasta with sautéed chicken and pickled grapes; it takes a minute to set the table. I too don’t know pickled grapes but 20 minutes in balsamic sounds pretty awesome if that’s all the time needed! I’ve never pickled :-)

Took about 35 mins total.

The grapes made the dish! Every bite with the grape seemed to bring out the other flavors and counter the 7 cloves of garlic I put in the pesto. :)

While I did get an hour long foot massage in Jakarta 15 years ago for $2, that wasn’t a good experience. I swear the guy was trying to torture me. I enjoy a deep massage, but this was something else. I’ve gotten many massages in Bali for $6-7 an hour. I got a 2 hour massage this morning at my house for 165k IDR, including tip. Which is about $11.50.

Haircuts can be cheap here. I think I pay about $1, or $1.50 total if I want a straight razor shave, at a neighborhood place. A shoulder massage is sometimes included. Service is good, as long as they’re not smoking inside. I can’t tolerate the smoke. I haven’t gotten a haircut at this barber in 11 months.

I still lament my favorite dim sum place in Jakarta being sold years ago. $4-5 for AYCE lunch of 30+ varieties of some of the best dim sum I’ve ever had. Freshly cooked to order.

my supper requires an hour due to the oven fries. In theory oven fries need longer for better crispness. I’m still working on it. If not for the fries, I too could have grilled steak / cheeseburger / corn and heated pasta & sauce in 25 minutes. It’s extremely easy to cook multiple simple entrees :-)

so dim sum dumplings and a haircut cost the same, or about 10% of an outcall massage.

my haircut is a discounted $30 but I think as low as $20. An inexpensive 85 minute massage is about $150 or so.
but in sf, the most I’ve seen for 3/4 dumplings is $5. And a stir-fried pork entree is about $10-14.

either way, dumplings are less than a haircut in my area :-)
the pricing ratios are quite interesting to me!

Pizza - half cheese, half green olive / red onion / red bell pepper
organic raw - Easter egg radish, red bell pepper, cucumber

leftover short rib stew and rice

ice cream with waffle cone for dessert - for me, Haagen daaz fresh mango and Robbins cherries jubilee
robbins ice cream is soft, like Biscoff (Lotus). Haagen daaz and other brands are quite firm. Woah.


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It doesn't seem like you like meat on your pizzas.

You just need to look closer. The trans-migration policy in the 70s-80s meant a lot of Balinese have spread across Indonesia, and have their own small communities where pork is served. In Jakarta, the northern commercial district of Muara Karang has plenty of food stalls selling minced pork noodles, roast pork and even Balinese pork rice. Same as in Medan where there are substantial ethnic Chinese population. On Grab Food app, Hoghock is always an easy delivery option for me!

I said challenging, not impossible.

Firstly, I don’t live in Jakarta. I’d say one out of twenty restaurants in Bandung serve pork. A lot of supermarkets don’t sell it either.

No real pepperoni, pork sausage or bacon at Domino’s or Pizza Hut. You kind of get used to it, but you also miss it.

we symbolically really have an extremely low amount of pork at home. For me, meat on pizza has almost always been pork (Salumi, sausage, Canadian bacon) and almost never beef. I can make some pork sausages for myself at times and overall it’s fine. The non-meat pizza is quite lovely and has enough protein from the mozza.

Plus you have the freedom to travel anywhere to get pork when you wish :-)

Lots of great chicken sausages out there.

we have chicken sausages for grilling and they’re not going on pizza :-)
I am not a fan of the CPK chicken pizza.

Not these days, I don’t. My favorite pizza place is in Bali, and it’s not real easy to get to these days. Normally it would be a 90 minute flight away.