Raos

It being late mid-week, we were too lazy to cook last night, so we ended up having dinner at one of our favourite Indonesian restaurants, Raos in Mount Lawley. The food there is always tasty and it doesn’t cost a mint, either. We had ayam goreng, sayur cap cay and tahu bandung with nasi putih. That’s fried chicken, mixed stir-fried veg, fried tofu in peanut sauce, and steamed rice.

For dessert, they have a variety of interesting ‘ice’ drinks on the menu. M wanted to try the ice teller but they were all out – I had no idea what that is, but have since discovered that it’s an “avocado smoothie with young coconut, jackfruit, and topped with sweet vanilla syrup and condensed milk”. I think I’d have to be in the mood to try that – it’s the idea of drinking avocado that puts me off. I’d stick to ice cendol (green mung bean gelatin teardrops in brown sugar and coconut milk). We were so full after the meal that we couldn’t have fit any dessert in, anyway.

Last night M finally asked the waiter the question that bugs him everytime we go to Raos – what does the name mean? Because Raos is pronounced like the German raus (as in komm raus – “get out”), it has particular connotations for M, who as a child would be told by his parents, “Raus! Vrooot¹! Get [outside and play, stop making yourself a nuisance in the house]!”

This Raos has far more pleasant connotations. The waiter asked if either of us spoke Indonesian, and M pointed at me. The waiter said it had a similar, but not quite the same, meaning as the word enak, which, in Bahasa Indonesia has a couple of main meanings:

1. Good to eat, nice (when you are talking about the taste of food), delicious
2. Nice, pleasant (when you are talking about something that gives you a nice sensation). Kursi ini enak. “This is a nice (comfy) chair.” ²

I love words which don’t quite have full equivalents in other languages. I translated for M, and guessed that it’s a bit like calling your restaurant “Tasty” or “Yummy”. I asked the waiter where the word came from, as it’s not standard Bahasa Indonesia as far as I know. He agreed and told us that it was from the language of the restaurant staff, Bahasa Sunda, Sundanese (which is from West Java).

As we ate I mentioned how there are different words for “full” in both Malay/Indonesian and Chinese. In English, the glass is full and I am full, but the glass is penuh and I am kenyang in Malay/Indonesian. In Mandarin the glass is mÇŽn and I am bÇŽo³. Similar concepts in Cantonese, Hokkien. M shared the Dutch phrase his Dad, W, would say after eating, which translates to something like “Fat (full) tummy” (which I am not even going to try to transliterate here!). I’ll have to ask W to say it at Christmas.

¹That’s my approximation of a Dutch dialect word – I have no idea how it’s really spelt.
²Quinn, G 2001, The Learner’s dictionary of today’s Indonesian, Allen and Unwin, Sydney.
³I hope the tone marks display in your browser.

Categories: food, culture, language