The practicalities of Simeulue

Ok, so people have been asking me about every day things. So here's the go for food:

• Nasi goreng (fried rice), mie goreng (fried noodles), in fact everything goreng... I'm gonna be rolling out of this place! (how can Indonesians be so healthy when everything they eat is fried?)
• LOTS of chili....
• LOTS of rice ... it, or noodles, are served with everything...
• Lots of fish... lobster and shrimp easily available. It's an island after all...
• Eating out is pretty cheap, you can get a good meal of rice, fried eggplant, tofu, tempei, shrimps, chili, cassava leaf, fish, sometimes chicken or beef rendang, for a few bucks. "Bungkus" (takeaway) comes wrapped in a banana leaf and brown paper secured by a rubber band :)
• You can get most veg easily - pumpkin, eggplant, cucumber, carrots, tomatoes, avocadoes, bok choy (but no capsicum, boo!). Although it's all imported from 'the mainland'.
• I love the buah (fruit) here too: pineapples, mangoes, rambutans, mangosteens, mandarins, bananas... apples are expensive and come from Thailand. I don't eat them; there are lots of other, better choices!
• Bread is McDonald's-sugar-loaded-style. Sweet, fluffy, white high-GI stuff.
• Western food - anything like pasta, pesto, olives, cheese, yoghurt, olive oil, meat, proper sliced white bread, in fact all the yummy stuff, we need to get from Banda Aceh.

For the all-important alcohol, our main man on Simeulue is Ranu, who sells it under the counter here at his little Bule (foreigners) shop - he can get tiger beer, Johnny Walker (Red or Black, there's even a choice!) and gin... but it'll cost ya, and you're not allowed to drink it publicly. The other option is to go to the Chinese shop for a more limited spirit selection! I miss a good Australian red.

Other drinks - fruit juice easy to get, and the best of all: avocado and chocolate juice. Like a thickshake - delicious! (sugar hit)

They have a packet drink called 3-in-1; it's a coffee-sugar-powdered milk concoction that has you bouncing off the walls for hours....gross.

Hmm... that's all.