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Prabowo loves 'nasi goreng', Jokowi opts for 'warteg' food
Hitting the streets: Presidential candidates Prabowo Subianto (right in left photo) and his campaign team members enjoy a gig by street singers in Bandung, West Java, last month
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span class="inline inline-none">Hitting the streets: Presidential candidates Prabowo Subianto (right in left photo) and his campaign team members enjoy a gig by street singers in Bandung, West Java, last month. In Jakarta, his rival Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo had lunch at a roadside food stall after performing prayers at Sunda Kelapa Mosque, last week.
When it comes to favorite dishes, presidential hopefuls Prabowo Subianto and Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo share a penchant for street food.
Despite spending most of his youth overseas, Prabowo never lost his appetite for Indonesian food, especially nasi goreng, which is widely available at street stalls.
'Pak Prabowo loves to ask his guests and visiting staff to share a meal in his house, and you can always find fried rice served at the dining table for breakfast, lunch and dinner,' said Dirgayuza 'Yuza' Setiawan, one of Prabowo's close aides and campaign strategists.
Prabowo, according to Yuza, also loves nasi lemak (rice steamed with coconut milk), one of the most popular Malay dishes, served with extra garlic.
Each time Prabowo visited Kuala Lumpur, Yuza said, he would eat at his favorite restaurant, Uncle Don's Warong, at least once.
'While enjoying the restaurant's dishes, Pak Prabowo loves to reminisce about the days he spent in Malaysia with his father,' said Yuza.
In 1957, Prabowo's father, Soemitro Djojohadikusumo, who was among the country's founding fathers, fled the country along with his family following his opposition to Sukarno, whom he deemed too close to communist party leaders and ignorant about the importance of developing the local economy.
For that reason, the young Prabowo had to live and study in Malaysia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom before deciding to join the Indonesian Military (TNI) in 1970, two years after his father agreed to come home and serve as a Cabinet minister in the Soeharto administration.
As he still attains a deep-rooted Indonesian lifestyle, Prabowo looked quite comfortable when long-time friend Aburizal Bakrie, businessman and chairman of the Golkar Party, invited him to eat mutton satay during a recent campaign event in Bandung, West Java.
'Delicious, but you shouldn't eat this too often,' said Prabowo, insinuating that mutton is high in fat.
While Prabowo insists on having nasi goreng at his dinner table, Jokowi has no particular favorite food. He, however, has a noticeable penchant for eating at street stalls.
During his blusukan (impromptu public visits), he is regularly seen eating at a warteg (an acronym for warung tegal, a stall serving dishes originating from Tegal, a regency in Central Java).
He was seen twice taking out Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri to eat at a warteg earlier in the year.
Megawati often chides Jokowi's slim physique, telling him to eat more to bulk up.
'I don't actually like eating much. I also don't have any favorite foods. I eat almost anything,' said Jokowi.
