EATING in the ROYAL COURTS

Indonesia is home to numerous dormant kingdoms. So extensive are royal families that I have often found myself dining with a Balinese price or Sumatran princess, but it is in Java where the trappings of royal rule are most closely maintained. The sultans’ residences are the traditional palace complexes, known as Kraton, and important events are celebrated with much pomp and circumstance. The Sultan of Yogyakarta keeps dwarves and albinos at court to harness their mystical powers. In the Palace of Solo, rice towers twice the height of a man are served on feast days.