Frog stew: Order No. 24 for this dish.

When on the road, where should you stop for a feed?

Parked trucks are a good guide '€” the drivers know the best places for cheap and wholesome fare. Busses in a restaurant forecourt indicate a broad menu; if the passengers aren'€™t satisfied, they'€™ll travel with a different company next time.

Roadside kiosks selling specific meals, like bakso (meatballs) and nasi padang, an array of pre-cooked foods on separate plates, are usually well marked, so motoring customers know what to expect.

How about a warung (food stall) that only advertises numbers, and where decoding the menu relies on cultural memory '€” or knowledge of fortune telling?

By her own admission Sri Sujayati, 40, is a vendor of '€œextreme foods'€ in the village of Talangagung between Malang and Blitar in East Java. She calls her business Ono Wae, Javanese for '€œalways available'€.

'€œWhen you come here you must know what you want,'€ she said. '€œI don'€™t cheat. The ingredients I use are the real thing. Every dish costs the same '€” Rp 10,000 [75 US cents].'€

Feel like a plate of turtle served with rice? Ask for No. 27.

Prefer something snaky, like python potage? No. 29. If not pre-ordered there'€™ll be a long wait. Cooking a snake takes at least two hours.

Quicker is frog stew, guaranteed to get you jumping. We recommend No. 24.

Bu Sri in her kitchen

A big guy needs something masculine and ferocious. Wild boar at No. 93 should put bristles on any man'€™s chest.

Behind Sri'€™s shop is a sack with the body parts of a big monitor lizard, including a claw. Along with gecko ,this meal is recommended for those with body itches.

She doesn'€™t sell dog meat (No. 11), popular among the Minahasa from North Sulawesi, because there'€™s no demand locally '€” but many other creatures find their place in her pots.

While this writer was unsuccessfully seeking the courage to order a rat or bat pie, two famished construction workers arrived, both keen for a No. 2.

'€œI used to have a sore throat, but it'€™s gone since I started eating snails,'€ testified Tofa, 23. His mate Muntiono, 31, agreed. '€œIt keeps me healthy. My breathing'€™s a lot better.'€ Suggesting the men might give up smoking to achieve the same result was deemed inappropriate under the circumstances.

'€œCustomers come from all around to eat certain animals believing there are physical benefits,'€ said the cook.

'€œEveryone has their own beliefs about what works. Men like snake because it gives them stamina.'€ This is a genteelism for sexual prowess.

There'€™s no suggestion that gambling or anything improper is underway at Sri'€™s wide-open warung on the main road '€” she uses the code as shorthand because '€œeveryone in this area knows what the numbers mean'€. There'€™s no written menu.

This seems to imply that there'€™s a lot going on in Indonesian society that doesn'€™t always meet the outsider'€™s eye, let alone the strictures of the authorities, secular and religious.

Lizard legs: The warung serves exotic animals with healing powers.

'€” Photos by Duncan Graham