A Little Love

So, Jakarta showed me a little love about a week ago with a great find. I can't believe that I am just now sharing this. Anyways...

Since we have been here, we have been having to adjust our normal breakfast menu because some of the things we were used to having on a weekly basis, namely Pillsbury biscuits and cinnamon rolls, are not readily available and therefore somewhat expensive. So far I have only found them at one import store for something like $4.50 for a can of biscuits and $7.50 for a can of cinnamon rolls.

(On a side note: the scary thing is that when I just looked up how much the cinnamon rolls and biscuit were and saw that the biscuits would only be around $4.50, I thought to myself, "Hmmm. That is not bad. I should get some of those." Shows how my perspective has changed about the prices of food and how badly I miss that convenience. The prices of our normal foods here are just so different and things do not all have the same mark up. Some are a lot more and others are very comparable. And if you can find the Indonesian equivalent, they are much less. Overall, I think our grocery bill is manageable.)

Another staple of our breakfast diet, Eggo waffles, is also more expensive here, about $4.50 for a 10 count box. So we decided that we should try to find a waffle iron to add variety back to breakfast. It seemed like a fairly simple thing to find, but once we started looking, changed our minds. I went to several different stores with no success. We found 1 sandwich maker, which seems to be a popular item around here, that looked like it might convert to a waffle maker but of course they were out of stock.

Then one day Justin and I were shopping at a new store and I spotted a true waffle maker on display. My heart raced with excitement. It was the first I had seen. So I began combing the shelves to find one in a box. After digging around, I found one tucked behind another box and covered in dust. SCORE!! So I went to show Justin my find and he asked me how much it was. In my excitement, I had managed not to see one of the zeros at the end of the price and was sad to find out upon further inspection that it was going to cost around $60 USD. Ok. I don't need one that badly. The search would continue.

Then it happened. I was walking through one of the department stores in the mall. I spotted 2 waffle makers from a distance. Having been burned by no stock and high prices before, I didn't get my hopes up. I decided to check them out anyway. Much to my surprise, one of the waffle makers was only around $20 USD and they had it in stock. YIPEE!! I did have to think twice about buying it because the words for "on" and "off" were written in German on the front. At least I think that is what it says. I had to wonder if the instructions would be in German too. I decided that I had made enough waffles in the past that I could figure it out without the instruction, so I made my purchase and left the store with a smile on my face.

When I got the waffle maker home, I was happy to discover the instructions were in English. Bonus.

Oh, and did I mention that the waffle iron makes heart shaped waffles. Gotta LOVE it.