Kota is the name of Jakarta’s old town, and it’s where you really see the influence of the Dutch. I love the history around here; there are monuments and statues, old wooden framed doorways in picturesque buildings and a big town square from when the Dutch ruled Batavia, as Jakarta was once known. Around here too is some great street food and I am drawn to a cluster of women, sitting around baskets of blanched vegetables. There’s a different one in each basket and they include cassava leaves, snake beans, water spinach and bean sprouts. The women serve these, mixed on a plate, with the crispiest of corn fritters and a lovely peanut sauce flavoured with tamarind, galangal, shallots, makrut, chilli and shrimp paste.