After our forest walk, Steve and I split from the group, left the others to go home. It’s a small village, weren’t sure what we’d find for lunch but wanted to explore. We walked past a small stand with a woman cooking. I was curious . And she had a lovely smile . A table with cute little tins with something wet and sweet looking with peanuts on top . Looked like a toffee. Even more curious, the cook offered me a spoon for a taste. gula merah? palm sugar? I ask. Yes. Sticky and sweet

She asked for a photo. Then we took another,and now I can call her Ester. We could see fried tofu. Ester showed me the stuffing and by now I’d asked too many questions to walk away ..but There was a quandary I don’t know that anything sitting out here is safe for our tummies and I’m nervous. I said I would have tofu if it was hot and fresh. She says, yes.

I order 1. Just a token, make it 2 says Steve. She says “patience/sabar” gestures to me to sit…and calls her daughter? Sister? Friend? Who rushed off to buy a packet of flour/batter mix. She starts to make batter… I think I better make it worth it. Make it 3. Her daughter?sister ?friend? laughs and asks -5?

4, I say and we stayed at 4.

We bought some fresh cakes ..just 2,no no, make it 4. .

and when I asked about the larger pans she said kue lapis layer cake – oooh I said, that takes a lot of time.

Meanwhile chairs were arranged for us as tamu spesial/special guest. Ester took a video of us while we ate.While we are sitting Ester presented us a plate of kue lapis . It is delicious (gluten free and vegan but I digress).And then more photos of us. And then we took some together…And then those little cakes came out of the oven.. And then I understood I wish I’d taken more photos of the food,the table top oven and the cutest little cake tins, the first thing I had tasted on the spoon had been the batter .

It was such a lovely generous interaction.. sometimes simple things feel magic

But I didn’t realise how generous Ester had been until we detoured after our night walk and bought some more tofu and the young girl asked . “Ester?” Would we come tomorrow to see Ester ? ” I asked what time they open..5 o’clock in the evening. And she repeated evening/late afternoon /sore Ohh, No wonder they had had to rush to the shop to buy flour and heat more oil at lunch time , we had been there when they were doing prep for the night . Blundering travellers ask for things when the locals would know they weren’t open.