Eating Out in Jakarta: McDonald's Delivery service

This isn't really eating out... more like eating in... but... I thought I would just post this for any hungry people out there in Jakarta who are also too lazy/tired to battle yet another traffic jam.

A long, long time ago when my cooking expertise was severely limited to boiling eggs, cooking Maggi mee and tossing salads, I had McD Delivery service in KL on my speed dial. I could recite the menu by heart. Then Dear Hubby taught me how to cook and little by little, I grew less dependent on McD Delivery.

Every now and then though, I will be struck by McCravings which can only be satisfied by a large value meal order of a Big Mac. So when we moved to Jakarta, I was delighted to find that Jakarta also had a McD Delivery service.

One day, I decided to put the service to the test. I called them up and placed my order in my best Indon-B. Malaysia. This was when I discovered that the Indonesian McD menu is a little different from the Malaysian version. For one thing, it doesn't have apple pie on its list of desserts. Their default size is medium and if you want a large, say "Upsize", don't say "Large". The chili sauce provided is a little different, it tastes sourish and I don't like sour in my food as a general rule. And you can request rice to come with your McD meals instead of fries. McD to me is a fun, gweilo food and should be served with fries, not rice which is my staple home food. Can't imagine the friendly McD employee saying to me, "Would you like rice with that?"

Anyway, all went smoothly until they asked me for my address. I read out my address to them, "... Jalan xxx 1A...." (I pronounce my A's as "ay" as in "day") The friendly voice on the other side asked me in Indonesian, "Is that A for apple or A for elephant?" I was stumped. You see, in Bahasa Malaysia, apple is spelt epal and begins with an E... just as elephant should. I didn't know if elephants were called alephant in Indonesian either which doesn't make sense since I was quite sure they were called gajah just as we call them back home. How was I to answer this question, the trickiest I've been asked since I arrived here in Jakarta???

Finally I said, "Er... er.. A for apple.. like apple juice?" "Terima kasih!" (thank you!) sang out the friendly voice at the other end who then proceeded to assure me my order would arrive in half an hour's time.

I learnt a few lessons that day. One is that no matter which corner of Jakarta you're tucked into, the clever lads who deliver the McD's will find you. The other is that the Indonesian language pronounces its alphabet differently from us in Malaysia. A is pronounced ah, not ay. E is pronounced ay, not ee. And there's no such thing as alephants.

Call McD at 14045 for their delivery service and delivery areas. You'll love(-in') it.