Hati

Sambal Hati Petai

The word hati means ‘liver’. Indonesians love eating liver, especially chicken liver which is often prepared with chili, fried potatoes, and petai, which in English is named ‘stink bean’. It indeed has a strong smell that is not everyone’s cup of tea (but I personally love them!). You can find hundreds of recipes of this very popular side dish by searching for sambal hati ayam petai.

In Indonesia, the liver (hati), and not the heart (jantung), is the organ that is associated with feelings.

Here are a few phrases that are all based on hati. The most popular and most useful is hati-hati, which, probably surprisingly for most of you, means ‘watch out!’. When you drive through Indonesia, you will find many signs warning you: Hati-hati. Banyak anak-anak, which means ‘ Caution. Many Children’.

However, most phrases with hati do have to do with emotions. The first is senang hati ‘glad, happy’. This is only a very short list. There are dozens more phrases based on hati.