Taste

A cook's hand releasing a pinch of salt into a well used wok of greens
Lagom, or Enough
Secukupnya, lagom: the words we use for the right amount, and what they ask of us. Read more...
School shoes and a uniform near the doorway of an Indonesian home
The Right to an Ordinary Day
Water at the tap. A familiar route to school. Dinner without a contingency plan. The ordinary is something a society has to make possible. Read more...
An Indonesian man and woman looking out to sea
The Luxury of Leaving Without a Photograph
A photograph can deepen attention or turn an afternoon into an assignment. The freedom lies in being able to choose. Read more...
The Luxury of a Known Route
When the feet know the way, the mind is released from it. Familiarity is not the opposite of freedom. It is where a certain kind of freedom begins. Read more...
Eating Alone, Properly
A table for one is not a consolation. Done with attention, it is the most honest meal a kitchen will serve all night. Read more...
The Second Visit
Everyone designs for the first impression. The second visit is where a place is actually decided. Read more...
A returning guest at a familiar neighbourhood cafe counter
The Luxury of Being a Regular
The rarest service is not being treated like everyone else. It is being remembered without being managed. Read more...
Kemenyan, and the Smoke That Raised Us
Kemenyan, and the Smoke That Raised Us
Taste · The Rituals · No. 07 · The hundredth piece Kemenyan, and the Smoke That Raised Us A resin bled from Sumatran bark, burned in Indonesian houses for a... Read more...
The Business Lunch, Rehabilitated
The Business Lunch, Rehabilitated
Taste · The Rituals · No. 06 The Business Lunch, Rehabilitated It was killed for good reasons and buried with the wrong ones. Commerce conducted slowly, at a table, in... Read more...
Incense smoke rising against a black background
Lighting the First Incense
How the workday opens at the bench: one stick, one match, and the oldest use of fragrance there is. On kodo, gaharu, and smoke as a way of telling time. Read more...
Traditional jamu being prepared in an Indonesian home
Jamu, the Drinkable Memory
Turmeric, tamarind, and the bottle lady's morning rounds. The archipelago's herbal tradition as daily ritual, now on UNESCO's heritage list and in every third cafe. Read more...
Morning coffee by a window sill
The Morning Liturgy
Everyone's first forty minutes is a religion, examined or not. An audit of the house's own opening sequence, and the case for designing yours on purpose. Read more...
Water ladle at a traditional purification fountain
Mandi, Twice a Day
The Indonesian bath as philosophy: cold water, a scoop, twice daily, no exceptions. What the mandi shares with the onsen and the hammam, and what it keeps for itself. Read more...
An elderly barber cutting a client's hair
The Barbershop Half Hour
Hot towel, talc, the drape, the chair: the last place men routinely sit still. The Rituals section opens with thirty minutes that have survived every technology aimed at them. Read more...