D

o you believe in the continental drift theory? I do, especially when it comes to America drifting toward Lombok.

Even though you don'€™t notice or feel it, continents or islands are either being pulled apart or pushed toward each other imperceptibly under your feet, as in the case of America and Lombok. It is happening now and you don'€™t have to have lived some 250 million years ago to see it.

In fact, two months ago, America finally arrived in Lombok '€” landed in a big way '€” in the form of the second and newest mall in the capital Mataram, complete with branded stores including ACE Hardware, Polo Ralph Lauren, Starbucks and an even bigger KFC restaurant.

The mall is not only selling American goods; some of the stores have named themselves after pieces of Americana '€” including Montana, Wrangler and the Boston Pharmacy.

The new mall is called Epicentrum '€” maybe because it'€™s where you are supposed to get sucked in by the urge to shop, the impulse to buy and your shop-till-you-drop instincts all at once. And why not? Even the new KFC is promoting bigger chicken wings, breasts and drumsticks '€” all finger lickin'€™ good.

Lombok got its first mall in 2000, called, you guessed it, Mataram Mall. America has landed there too '€” to a lesser extent. There is a KFC there already, which used to be called Kentucky Fried Chicken when all the chickens came from Kentucky.

Now the two KFCs are competing against each other as well as against a few guys cruising the streets nearby the malls on two-wheeled pushcarts with their own versions, called Kenthakhy and Crisphy.

And of course, there is a McDonald'€™s on the premises, called Mac-D by the locals, and a Pizza Hut, called Pisa Hoot, right across the mall.

The locals in Lombok are called the Sasaks and there are some 3 million of them '€” and on some days, it seems as if they are all at one of the two malls.

During holidays, bus after bus comes in from the poorer eastern and Central Lombok regions to go to the malls. It'€™s probably a kind of travel through time for them; they leave their poor, 17th century villages in the morning and arrive in 21st century America at noon.

Inside the mall, most of them run around from floor to floor or shop to shop, gawking or window-shopping with screaming children in tow. Exhausted, they eventually form a long queue at McDonald'€™s for a soft, white ice cream because that'€™s what most of them are curious about or what they can afford.

Those without any change to spare or who are unimpressed with that bit of Americana, go out to the parking lot, spread their mats out and feast on their own home-made goodies wrapped in banana leaves. It'€™s the locals'€™ favorite picnic called bekele.

If you get close to these squatting masses, your nostrils must be prepared for the strong smell of mashed, red chili peppers. The Sasaks don'€™t eat without them and the island is called Lombok for a reason.

Lombok has its own unique and powerful cuisine. I am sure you have heard of ayam Taliwang (Taliwang chicken), named after a small town in Sumbawa, Lombok'€™s sister island.

The dish is now world famous and all over the internet. It is grilled chicken smothered in, what else but'€¦ hot pepper sauce. Tourists gobble them up with a vegetable dish called plecing, which is made from water spinach and bean sprouts, smothered in, again, the same hot sauce.

The sidewalks are full of makeshift, burlap-covered small tables with rickety chairs with shaggy-haired tourists sitting, gobbling up food while locals go to the mall.

But the real piece of America not only came to the mall, but also to my house when a couple of American friends visited. They bought everything, including Lombok'€™s famous hand-woven songket fabric, and did everything, including eating the skinny chickens.

In between these adventures, they spent a lot of time on their cell phones texting back and forth with family in America, trying to decide which kind of big chicken (or turkey) they would have for Thanksgiving dinner upon their return.

So, America finally came to Lombok alright, and the distance has shrunk too, to a few electronic bits, and bites. See, continental drift really happens, even if you don'€™t notice it. Catch my drift?

'€” Ziad Salim