Hello Asean Hive Community
Yesterday I made a post here about having no Frugal approach in my meals. Today I want to continue the topic, but in different form. This time I will share how a frugal approach on a normal food... which I mean a bit pricey one.
I would not tell a story about how I get an expensive meals for cheap, but it is more like getting a food in a discounted price. I know that for most people in Jakarta, the way I eat is so poor, like a poor people.
Most People here still love spending a big budget food and say they deserve it. For example, you can see how 
Now let's check my case in this post. It was from a few weeks ago, so not recently happened. My office started a new custom, which we tried to be "Frugal" by getting meals more cheaper.
One of our approaches was to order food in bulk, for more than 4 people. Usually we could get some price cut, either directly from the store or from online delivery services.
I learn that many people, not only in my office, have been doing this for years. The reason I am not paying attention to it because usually only popular outlet that love giving some discounts, and their price can not be cheap... they are popular! They just wanted to maintain their high revenue.
So that day we decided to get a Nasi Padang...
My coworkers liked to eat nasi padang (padang cuisine) from a reputable outlet. I do not have to spill the name, most Indonesian know what's the name from the house logo in the wrap. Definitely they are pricey, although not expensive for middle class people.
We ordered wrapped rice, which we have our rice mix in a single wrap. Wrapped rice is the most cheap food here, however that is not for this outlet. They wrapped the rice to look it like a cheap or a steal, but the price is already above my budget.
This is how the wrapped rice look like when you open the wrap. The outlet is famous for using their signature padang rice, it is a bit sticky like a japanese rice, but not too sticky. That's why when you open the wrap, the rice is in a a semi box shape.
Anyway we have a custom here, not only my office but in most Indonesian people. We should eat nasi padang using our hand.
And for my custom, I always order a different thing from the other. If other ordered grilled chicken, I would go for fish dish. That time I ordered for a squid curry.
A Squid was never cheap...
I opened my wrapped rice...
For God sake, where was my squid? This was a $2.5 order, more than twice of my daily budget!
Well luckily I had it under the rice. So it was hidden at the first time.
The reason I ordered Squid, because it was on a discount that day. However I knew well there would always be a catch in a discounted menu. The catch for that day was the squid was a small one. It was a single small squid lol.
I had anticipated that trick before, so I had a side dish on my wrapped rice. It was a potato fritters. Only Asean could enjoy eating rice together with potato. So sorry for my friends from other region, this might look so carbo excessive lol.
For some people, they took this sambal or chili paste as a value added. They added some crispy soy cake and anchovy in the chili paste, however for some people, for example my mom who came from eastern Asia, she took this as a leftover food. She doesn't like a scrambled messy presentation on her plate.
I believe most of you who are not from ASEAN might see the same, except people from south Asia. They have similarity to scramble mix everything in one plate.
Ok that is my foodie post today. do you have a good food that is pricey but looked like a cheap one? please share it in the comment below.
Thank you for coming and reading my post. I live in Jakarta, Ex-Capital City of Indonesia. I used to live by making money online, that's why I like being here, on HIVE, and in #PIMP - (Paper In My Pocket) community.
