In Indonesia, bakso (meatball) sellers have always been creative with naming their creations, but, boy - there are some ridiculously bombastic names today. Here are some of them, with photos from the internet. Please add if I've missed on some good ones. (THREAD)

Let's start with one of the least ridiculous: the Rainbow Meatball. These are meatballs with coloured mozzarella in it. Looks nice but I think I'll pass. Although there should be another thread on how Indonesians use cheese to make everything 'special'. Like on fried bananas.

Satan's Rib. This is one of the most effed up of the 'giant' varieties. It's a giant beef rib with a giant meatball wrapped around one end. Inside the already fatty meatball is the fat/meat from the rib, so yeah delicious oily fatty bouncy but also softy goodness.

Penyet Meatball. This is a hybrid of bakso with East Javanese 'penyet' tradition of deep frying things before putting it on a bed of spicy sambal then lightly crushing it together with the sauce. I loved fried bakso as a child, so this one is a yes for me.

Sewage Meatball. In Indonesian: Bakso Comberan. And 'comberan' is not only the physical sewage you see (and smell) in major cities in Java, but a metaphor for a dirty mind/mouth. Unlike most bakso soup that tries to be as clean as possible, this one is black and full of...stuff.

Table Tennis/Tennis/Volleyball/Basketball. These are meatballs of various sizes named after sports balls to give you an illusion of healthiness. The larger ones are usually stuffed, such as the Giant Meatball: total of 55 kgs, stuffed with 6kgs of chillies and 120 chicken eggs.

Barbell Meatball. This follows the sports theme so I'm putting it here. You can only get it at a place owned by the late bodybuilder/actor Agung Hercules who wanted to share his love for the gym by creating baksos that are shaped like barbells, served in a barbell-shaped bowl.

Before I continue: copyrights don't really exist, in practice, in Indonesian cuisines. The Satan's Rib, for example, might have been created by one maker but now there are various copied versions. Hybridity is the usual rule of the game here - for good and bad. Ok, next bakso.

Grilled Bakso. More of a style of cooking than a type of bakso but I've been looking at baksos for a long time now and I'm getting hungry and these look good.

Your Ex's Grave. As an anthropologist, this is my favourite. It is shaped like a grave and, inside, there is a sausage that is a representation of your ex that you will eat to help you deal with your grieving heart. Also I love this because Javanese humour can be quite wicked.

Bowl of Bakso. As in: the bowl is made of bakso. Look at it. It's disgusting. And the bowl that is made of bakso is served in a bowl of bakso. It's disgustingly meta and I need to try this. But it is also environmentally sustainable. Imagine if your pizza is wrapped in a pizza.

Bakso That Gives Birth. It is baksos in bakso. It is written in prophecy that one day there will be a bowl of bakso that gives birth to baksos that give birth to more baksos ad infinitum that it will break the law of physics and swallow the whole universe in it.

It is also written in prophecy that the only hero that will save us from the Bakso That Gives Unlimited Births is the Crocodile Bakso, a hero no one asked for but turned up anyway with his eyes of chilli-infused bakso, body of a crocodile and blood of molten cheese.

Ok I've spent too long (and too short) on this. I'm doing this because I'm doing a PhD on Indonesian digital cultures and came across all these baksos in my Indonesian Food YouTube research. If you know any interesting YouTube trends in Indonesia, or crazier baksos, please lmk!