Well it’s meant to serve the general public of humble income and not only that they can provide terrific customer service too. For instance, one can actually order any tailor-made dishes from such stalls. As long the chef has the needed ingredients, he’ll be more than willing to cook anything you ordered to appease your appetite.

Now maybe that sounded like a wonderful thing to some but not for me. I think the food quality of such places can be lower. For instance, how can the chef produce something like for eg, a terrific plate of Beef Hor Fun if he hasn’t been doing so all the time?

Or if you were to go to such stalls and shout Mee Pok Tah, even if the chef has the Mee Pok, fishballs and some chili sauce, you trust that he will produce a bowl of Mee Pok Tah better than an actual Mee Pok Tah stall? For that reason I would actually run away from such stalls.

Ok now for something that is as common as prawns, crabs and lobsters, there are many different methods of cooking it. In Australia if you talk about seafood, people usually just eat it boiled, raw or decorate it with some cheese on top or something.

In Hong Kong just like in China, people eat it in popular cooking methods like Salt and Pepper or Chinese style of steam. In Singapore, Malaysia or Indonesia we love eating it in no other ways than to have it spiced up, either with Chili sauce(or sambal) or Pepper. Of course we also have steamed but I think that’s not a favourite cooking method of Singaporeans, agree?

After been to this seafood place called Pangkep33 once, it had left a deep impression and I kept thinking about what is the thing that hit the umami spot so hard that it managed to make me come back one more time for it. This is the only place in my whole trip that I die die must eat one more time before my return is due.

Ok it’s been a really long time since I tasted such fantastic seafood. I think the last time I had was when I was still young and the whole stretch of Upper East Coast Road(near bedok) was a popular seafood place and it was filled with so many seafood restaurants that’s operating from what looked like kopitiam style of outlet. I distinctly remembered the old Long Beach and another one which is called Keng Lock(or Kheng Lock).

During those days, they just have tables filling up the spaces and then people would just appear out of no where during meal times. Orders would be shouted across the open space while cooks would be busy whipping up those delicious seafood dishes and customers would be enjoying eating seafood in absolute satisfaction with the unhygienic environment in oblivion.

Those days are long gone and popular seafood stalls have now upgraded themselves to higher class of eating outlets and so that’s how it’s becoming more expensive to eat really good seafood in Singapore, unfortunately. This place in Pluit, Jakarta seriously brought back the memories of yesteryears, and not only that, the quality of food here can really fulfill every ultimate desire of seafood lovers.

After my first trip, the die die must order dishes were once again ordered. Sambal Mussels and Cumi(Sontong) Goreng. This time we ordered another 2 new dishes which is the Udang Bakar(Grilled prawns) and Cumi Telur Bakar(Grilled Sotong with eggs).

Sambal Mussels: 9/10  

This plate of sambal mussel is seriously something that I think every seafood stalls in Singapore should consider selling. I mean it’s very very seldom that I come across something that can have the satisfaction elevated to such heights by just simply deep frying it before tossing in sambal. Ok for those who don’t know, I’ve said that the mussels here were deep fried and it tasted really really delicious. Ok it is about 3-4 times more delicious than deep fried sotong head, so now you go figure.

Every cooking tricks that seafood sellers have, we already know but this is something that really gave me such a surprise. There are no magic in this fantastic elevation of this mussel dish but yet no one in Singapore is doing it as far I know. If you happen to know any seafood sellers, please tell them to introduce this dish to their menu!

Fried Sotong: 9.5/10  

Cumi Goreng is really that kind of dish that requires nothing more than getting the Goreng right. If you have that delicious goreng recipe, deep fried anything in it and you sure can produce something extraordinary.

This is one plate that really doesn’t make me feel ‘jerlad’ after eating it unlike those that I’ve eaten elsewhere. I think it’s gotta do with the right amount of salt, pepper and sugar. This plate clearly has that kind of goreng aroma that can forever make me want more and more without ever getting sick of it.

Grilled Prawns: 9/10  

Prawns are easy to taste good when grilled, agree? Well somehow when the shell goes on top of the charcoal or fire, it can be turned into some kind of really good flavour thing where you can lick and lick and chew and chew without realising that it’s actually only shell and are not meant to be eaten.

Ok now I think one of the reasons why grilled seafood taste better here is because they still use charcoal to grill while in Singapore, they grill anything on top of flat pan like those used for frying Pratas. That type of grill unfortunately can never outclass this charcoal kind and this is undoubtedly one of the best I’ve had in a long long while.

Grilled Sotong: 9/10  

Sotong egg is already hard to come by in any kind of eating place, yet here they are serving it grilled! Fwah! I tell you, this dish is seriously a gem! Ok this taste nice I think also due to the charcoal flavour. But honestly doesn’t the photo look appetising? Well let me tell you that it actually tasted 3 times better than how it it looked! Ok it’s not exactly that soft, as with any sotong that you try to grill.

It’s a little bit chewy but if you can accept that, then beneath that chewiness, is this clustered soft thing that has this fantastic texture and flavour that can seriously make you shout OOh La La! Ok by the look of it, I think they uses nothing more than butter to grill this squid but a lot of skill is required to grill something like this to perfection and clearly here, they’ve got a grilling master behind it.

Well the only strange thing here is that we have to pay for the belacan. But like anything good, it’s definitely worth paying for and I suspect it’s to do with cutting down on wastage but this belacan is a little special in the way that they were served with tiny bits of mango on top.

Mango Belachan Chilli: 9/10  

If you’re thinking why they are serving it on this kind of rock plate instead of the the mini sized plastic plate, then let me tell you that this is how in the past traditionally people were served chili during the caveman era where plastic had not existed.

Sambal Kangkong: 8/10  

Ok ok I made that up but doesn’t it make sense? Just like why we still use Banana Leaf or Opeh leaf now is because in the past people used it too.

Our seafood meal: 9/10  

Ok now, I have reasons to believe this is simply the most extraordinary and delicious seafood place on earth. Not only that, this meal only cost us Rp 160 000($20+). So it’s not only outstandingly sedap, it does provide really exceptional value too! And while I was leaving, I saw some dishes on other tables like deep fried fish and chilli crab which looked really really delicious. If ever I am compelled to come back to Jakarta again, Pangkep33 must be the reason!

Price: SGD$4-5 a dish

Recommendation: Sambal mussels, Kang Kong, grilled prawns, grilled fish, goreng cumi, goreng cumi telur.

Conclusion: Needless to say, the best seafood I’ve had interms of authenticity. This is the real flavour of the past, something that I think doesn’t even exist anymore in Malaysia. If you ever come to Jakarta for a holiday, here is a die die must go place for dinner.

Likes: Very very authentic and very very affordable. This combination is hard to come by.

Dislikes: Nothing though the place is a little run down.

Address		Overall Rating
Pangkep 33 Seafood Barbeque Kafe Tenada Muara Karang Raya Dining Hours: 18:00 – 23:00 Daily Phone: (021)7078 5432 or 0815 180 7869 Pangkep22@gmail.com		Food: 9/10   Value: 9/10   Service: 8/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 8/10

But then again, in Indonesia, there isn’t a lot of choice for breakfast except some Kuehs or some kind of soupy stuff like they call it Mee Bakso. Well Bakso means balls and things like beef balls with noodle soup is quite popular here as far I can see. But really I can’t see how it’s comparable to our soupy stuff like Bak Chor Mee or Kuay Teow Soup. Well I guess soupy stuffs need a bit of getting used to and I can imagine Indonesians coming to Singapore and thinking our own Bak Chor Mee looking strange too.

Anyway when we were in Bandung, due to the fact that we had to check out early(we wanted to have more time to see the city before we leave for Jakarta), I didn’t have to toss any coin because the markets were probably not opened yet at that hour. So we happily headed to the breakfast lounge and were surprised to be greeted by Indonesian kind of breakfast.

I took a plate of chips with a piece of Ayam(chicken) and a bowl of Burbur(porridge).

Well if you’re wondering, yes people here do eat chips as part of a meal, I’m not exactly sure if it’s a side dish or staple but in most food places, they have a tray of chips and they can actually order it and eat it on their rice. Well it didn’t tasted too funny really to eat chips with porridge. It goes quite well actually, with the crispiness of the chips soaking into gluey porridge before it goes into my mouth. Now if this thing ever become famous in Singapore, then you read it from here first, Ok?

Back to Jakarta, one of my last meals here, I requested to whack the Ayam(Chicken). So I was brought to this restaurant called Pondol which is somewhere in a sleepy town called Grogol which is somewhere in the West Jakarta.

Now after lamenting how tiny the chicken pieces here were, in one of my last few opportunities, I decided to order everything at one go. Ayam Goreng(Fried Chicken), Ayam Bakar(Grilled Chicken) and Ayam Satay.

This place is really famous for it’s Ayam as I was told. During lunch time, you can really see the crowd just appearing out of no where and the staffs were just really busy getting all the orders and delivering food to tables. That’s the kind of sign that really tells me that people are all coming here for good reasons.

The Ayam here was quite alright except that I was faced with a new situation. I can barely tell which is the Ayam Goreng and which is Ayam Bakar.

They both came with the crunch that made our Ayam Penyet popular here and both doesn’t look grilled or fried. Anyway so now you can see that the crunch that we’re so familiar with when eating Ayam Penyet isn’t quite that native to Ayam Penyet. It’s just one of those things that they can add it to any Ayam dishes.

Ayam Bakar: 7/10  

The Ayam here was good which somewhat tasted more like honey chicken. The Goreng(crunch) wasn’t as fantastic though, tasted more like tiny pieces of deep fried flour. Nothing much to rave about.

While i was at it, I ordered a Gado Gado to go along and I must say that it’s totally different from what I know of Gado Gado and far from what I expected. First they don’t use satay or peanut sauce but a kind of chilli sauce to toss the entire plate of vegetables.

Gado Gado: 6/10  

No sign of beancurd, egg or cucumber but yet with some strange vegetables which I can’t recognised, not an iota. Well the whole plate looked more like Acar to me. As I know Acar is actually a form of salad and here, they called Gado Gado a salad dish, so maybe that’s the missing link.

The satay here was well above par. We requested that the sauce be poured at the side instead and for once I finally can see how nicely grilled were the satays and it not only looked good, it tasted fantastic too.

Ayam Sate: 7.5/10  

One thing about satay here though is that the satay sauce seems to have a lot lesser peanuts added into it. So something I can definitely say for sure is that our Singapore satay sauce taste much better.

Pondol came across as one of those kopitiam style eating outlet where they’re quite serious about delivering good food at affordable prices and the tremendous crowd at lunch time is a testament to that.

Price: SGD$1.50 per dish

Recommendation: Satay

Conclusion: Not only super cheap but authentic. The kind of eating place where you wouldn’t need to worry about being overcharged.

Likes: Satays were grilled to perfection.

Dislikes: Gado Gado doesn’t taste like Gado Gado.

Address		Overall Rating
Jalan Muwardi 23, Grogol. West Jakarta, Indonesia. (021) 5634358		Food: 8/10   Value: 8/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 6/10   Cleanliness: 6/10   Overall: 7.5/10

Now you may ask how much better, unfortunately I was stopped from taking photos in most food courts here but imagine the best decorated food court here in Singapore and probably you might think of say Food Republic?

Well I seen so many better ones there that would had beaten Food Republic hands down. Even their malls had better designs. I think it’s all down to having designers whom are more creative.

I think eventhough Singapore is so much more developed in terms of infrastructure, creativity unfortunately is something you can’t just learn by the book or work hard for. It’s gotta do with the space you are allow to create and unfortunately the tight control culture here had it’s cost and it’s clear what’s missing amidst the development over the past few decades.

The most impressive of all foodcourts I saw has got to be the Peta Wisata Makan which is called Eat And Eat and it’s theme is ‘Creating Food Adventure’.

Map of the foodcourt

Value card for using purchase

This chain of foodcourt is operated by Marche. The layout of the food court is quite unique in that they have food from all different Indonesia provinces. They have signs that say this food is from Surabaya, and this food is from Medan etc. They even have quite a big range of food from Singapore.

But can anyone tell me since when we go to Tiong Bahru for Hokkein mee?

Hokkien Mee from Tiong Bahru?

Nasi Lemak stall from Katong?

Nasi Lemak stall

How about this, Katong Nasi Lemak. I think they know Laksa doesn’t sells well here due to the fact that Indonesian really loves their rice, so much that every fastfood’s meals here are served rice by default.

Newton Chai Tao Kway

So now you know that if you read anywhere in Singapore that says Ayam Penyet from blah blah blah, then chances are that the blah blah blah place probably isn’t famous for that food.

YTF stall in Jakarta

In Singapore I love Ampang Yong Tao Fu so much but yet I have friends from KL telling me that the real Ampang Yong Tao Fu actually doesn’t taste like that.

Kway Chap stall

Even in Singapore I hardly eat at foodcourt so it will really take a lot for me to eat at one here.

Unfortunately after looking at those dodgy Singapore foodstalls, I can’t help but wonder are the rest of those stalls from Indonesian provinces also the same……

Rojak stall

We did however had a Klappertaart which is some kind of pudding from Hanna’s Klappertaart.

It’s essentially slices of coconut meat in some kind of pudding and topped with a layer of chocolate and sprinkled with something that looked like grounded walnuts.

It smoothly melted in my mouth and was not too sweet. I wish there was more nutty flavour at it’s toppings though. But for Rp15 000($2), there can be no complains really.

Klappertaart

Hanna’s Klappertaart looked like one of the latest craze as far I can see. If you can read Bahasa Indonesia, find out more about it here http://www.klappertaart.com/about.html

Price: SGD$2 each

Recommendation: Klappertaart Coconut Pudding

Conclusion: Was smooth and the texture was amazing.

Likes: Smooth.

Dislikes: Wish there were more nutty flavour.

Address		Overall Rating
Hanna Klappertaart Peta Wisata Makan foodcourt somewhere in West Jakarta.		Food: 7/10   Value: 7/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 8/10   Cleanliness: 8/10   Overall: 7.5/10

Anyway so far after so many meals, I haven’t found Indonesian food to be any spicier than Singapore food so when my partner suggested bringing me to try Manado food which is very very spicy food, my face litted up with a grin.

Manado is at the north part of the Sulawesi island and the food there is famous for it’s spiciness more than anything else. So I was really glad to be able to finally try some local food that is not only deliciously yummy but spicy too.

Now, all along I thought spicy is like what we always had in Singapore, spicy to some people but delicious to others, especially me!

Inside the restoran

Curries on display

Meat on display

Vegetables on display

So I was brought to this restaurant which is called the Beautika and I happily ordered away most of the curry dishes like Chicken Curry, Beef Rendang, Cumi Bakar(Grilled spicy squid) and Ayam Sate while my partner added a curry fish.

Chicken curry: 8/10  

Beef rendang: 8/10  

Grilled sotong(with eggs!) and chicken: 9/10  

Now I was really excited. I love curries and I love spicy food so this meal had so much curries and is the undisputed spiciest food of Indonesia therefore I must love Manado food!!!!!

When the food arrived, it all looked really similar to what I used to have here at any Nasi Padang stall. The curry looked nice, the smell was fantastic and so I began to enjoy this ’spicy affair’.

I started by taking a spoonful of every curries(chicken, beef and fish) and poured over my rice. I tried the rice and the taste was quite good, comparable to some really good ones we have back here but it isn’t really that spicy unfortunately.

Our Manado meal: 7.75/10  

It was about approximately 3 to 4 mins after I started eating, I must had been like eating 10 mouthfuls of rice, pouring curries over it possibily 5-6 spoonfuls. Something starts to tickle my throat and there’s this funny tingling sensation that tried to crawl my throat. I ignored it and continued eating the curries and rice. By now, I was in the thick of action, eating chicken, beef and fishes and the grilling stuff with spoonfuls of curries from here and there.

Now it’s at this moment that something starts to conquer my throat like how a Tsunami tried to conquer the Indian Ocean. It came really really quick and in a matter of seconds, in full swarm, the spiciness just shot up and had me screaming for water! I took the ice lemon tea which was beside me and gobbled it in record time ever, it must be lesser than 20 seconds. And it’s not over yet. In a matter of seconds, another wave of spiciness hit me and had me asking for more water from the waiter(which happened to be the boss) nearby. I have never in my life waited so long for a bottle of mineral water, I don’t know why, that moment I waited seemed like 2 hours long.

When my mineral water arrived, the spiciness had drained me so much that my hand was shaking while trying to open the bottle. Somehow the bottle can’t be opened and for a moment I thought the waiter that delivered was trying to play a ‘not so funny’ joke when I really need water! Ok, funny thing always seems to happen at the wrong time, there was no prank, it was just a difficult bottle to open or maybe I was just too anxious that I tried to turn the wrong parts of it. I drank half of the bottle at one go and believe or not, for the rest of the meal, I didn’t touch any of the curry.

Meanwhile my partner was seriously enjoying her meal and her ice lemon tea was still left untouched. That almost left my jaw dropped because I can’t believe this meal had lowered my ability to consume spicy food to child play while leaving her ability untouched.

Now when I say I love spicy food, I really mean it. I had eaten every spicy food in Singapore, Malaysia and other countries and nothing in the world had conquered me. When I ate Mee Pok Tah, I asked for more more more more chilli. When I ate BBQ Stingray, I ate the chilli on top as if it were rice. When I ate Chilli Crab at JB, I drank the chilli sauce as if it were shark’s fin soup. I say again, nothing, absolutely nothing in the world had done me in!

But this silly Manado food had clearly did. I have no idea why people would want to make it so spicy. The spiciness level here is clearly brought up for the fun and nothing else. This food would had tasted so much better if the spiciness level is what I can feel comfortable eating. So my question once again, why make it so spicy? I think this is really one food I really love to see my Aussie friends eating and probably they’ll die eating it.

Ok the spiciness aside, the food was really good. The grilled sotong was good with eggs in it and the chicken sate had a lot of that ‘charcoal’ flavour. The curries was really really good and I was enjoying it until the spiciness decides to spoil it. Well if you’re wondering why my partner wasn’t affected by the spiciness, she revealed to me that she didn’t touch the curries at all and only ate the meat with rice. Ah ha!

So there you have it everyone, when you’re brought to eat Manado food some day, avoid the curries because it’s not meant to be eaten unless of course you can really eat spicy food but if like me, you have conquered all spiciness in the world and think that you’re ready, then let me tell you that this episode had humbled me and made me understood the real meaning of the word ‘SPICY’.

Desserts, nice or not?

Desserts, sedap right?

Desserts, very cheap also

Spicy food aside, Manado food really has a fantastic spread of desserts.

The colors are so wonderful and made me wanted to try a bit of everything but unfortunately my throat was skillfully thrashed by the curries that I had to leave that idea to another time.

Price: SGD$3-4 per dish

Recommendation: Grilled spicy Cumi and Beef Rendang

Conclusion: Very very delicious food that somewhat is similar to our Nasi Padang. Spiciness level is really high and had made my tears flowed down my cheeks relentlessly half way through the meal.

Likes: Grilled stuff and the curries(though spicy but really delicious).

Dislikes: Too spicy lah!

Address		Overall Rating
Jl. Adbul Muis No 70A Tanah Abang V Jakarta beautika.net		Food: 8/10   Value: 8/10   Service: 8/10   Ambience: 8/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 7.5/10

When I was in Perth, eating Singapore food outside is actually something I dreaded doing because in Singapore we are even choosy over which stall to go to for Char Kway Teow or Chicken Rice, so how can a stall out of no where in some Australian town suddenly can whip up a delicious plate of something? Well from my experiences the kind of standard they can produce is not any better than what I can, so that’s why I found learning how to cook something myself is actually easier than to scour for delicious Singapore food when I was abroad.

Then not forgetting there are the wonderful Cantonese cuisines all over the place. If you were to put a Singaporean Cze Char and a Cantonese Cze Char side by side, out of 10 times, I will walk into the Cantonese Cze Char 10 times. It’s not that Singaporean Cze Char is lousy but just that Cantonese Cze Char is far more superior.

I was initially quite taken aback when my partner suggested we go to try some Thai food. Eating Thai food in Indonesia sounded like eating Nasi Padang in China. Ok I know certain food are sold internationally like Pizza and Pasta where you can get really good ones in any countries. Well for some reasons I find a plate of Char Kway Teow more tasty than a plate of Pasta and that kept me wonder, why Char Kway Teow is not eaten internationally but Pasta is. I look forward to the day I can eat Char Kway Teow in Italy and we can buy dry Kway Teow from supermarkets and hopefully by then someone had invented some kind of Char Kway Teow(plus wok hei) sauce where you just need to toss with it to eat. Ok that sounded really lame but really, I don’t understand the popularity of Pasta as far the taste is concerned. I think more likely it is popular because it is easy to be prepared.

Ok now I am quite a big fan of Thai food and have tried terrific ones in Bangkok and Phuket and had some really good ones in London too. The thing with food ‘exporting’ is that when a food arrives at foreign land, something that can be eaten cheaply in the country of origin are suddenly been sold at skyrocketed prices. I can guarantee you that a meal of Thai food in London can cost more than a meal of Cantonese food but yet I know for a fact that those kind of food don’t actually worth that much except that they’ll try to package via a higher class of eating outlet and then would charge you a premium price for it. I am usually quite put off by this kind of ‘product packaging’. It’s the same story with our local seafood where the good ones would move to East Coast Beach and start to up their prices because now thay have higher overheads blah blah blah, of course we all know their main reason for doing so is higher profit margin.

So when we arrived at Siam Garden, the first thing I look out for are the prices because the last thing I want is to spend $10 for a plate of Pad Thai.

You would also feel silly if you were to buy a Roti Prata for $5 in Shanghai. The prices here are reasonable which ranges from Rp20 000(SGD$2+) to Rp40 000. I was fairly surprised though to find that they don’t have a Tom Yum in the menu but only a Tom Yum Kung. For those who don’t know, Tom Yum Kung is not the original Tom Yum but another version of it where coconut milk is added to the broth.

I didn’t like this Tom Yum Kung but unfortunately that’s the only Tom Yum they have on the menu. My partner ordered the Pandan Chicken and I added the Pad Thai and a Stir Fry Beancurd with Seafood to go with steamed rice.

Tom yum koong: 7/10  

Padang Chicken: 8/10  

As expected the Tom Yum Kung is too creamy for my liking. The Pandan Chicken is outstanding though most Pandan Chicken I had are always outstanding, I think this is one dish that is very hard to fail and yet easy to be outstanding.

Stir Fried Tofu with Seafood: 6.5/10  

The Stir Fry Tofu with Seafood is great but however I thought the flavour was a little too ‘Chinese’. This is really the kind of flavour I can get easily at any Chinese restaurant so to find it in a Thai restaurant is a little disappointing because I’m coming to a Thai restaurant to eat Thai food.

Pad Thai: 6/10  

I loved Pad Thai absolutely and the key to it is to have substantial wok hei and enough wetness and sweetness, something that is very similar to Char Kway Teow but unfortunately the Pad Thai here was mediocre at best. It is not wet enough, oily, not enough peanuts, just don’t have that Pad Thai flavour. They seems to sprinkle the peanuts on top for fun more than anything else. This place just doesn’t serve food that is Thai enough unfortunately. Khor Thod!

Price: SGD$3 onwards per dish

Recommendation: Pandan Chicken

Conclusion: Food are reasonably priced but taste are carelessly tweaked which resulted in mediocre quality.

Likes: Affordable prices.

Dislikes: Not authentic enough.

Address		Overall Rating
Siam Garden Ruko Green Garden Blok ZII/32, Jakarta Barat – Indonesia. Green Garden		Food: 6/10   Value: 7/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 7.5/10

Kemangi Nasi Lemak

Kemangi Nasi Lemak’s menu

Kemangi Nasi Lemak counter

Kemangi Nasi Lema’s menu

Nasi Lemak with Kemangi leaf.

Kemangi Nasi Lemak

Beef Soup

Pork Satay

Chicken satay

Overall Rating

Food: 6/10   Value: 7/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 8/10   Cleanliness: 8/10   Overall: 7.5/10

Now the truth is Nasi Padang was not on my to-do list in this trip initially but after seeing like almost a hundred stalls of it along the streets of Jakarta, I really can’t resist not trying even one time and finding out for myself(and you readers) how lame it can really go in this style of selling where the food you’re buying can so easily be ’sabotaged’ or ‘tainted’ with something else by someone you don’t even know!

Ok, with all the courage that I have(probably 5 times more than what is needed for me to try for a bungee jump), I finally walked into a Nasi Padang stall. Now I’m glad to say that this one is quite reputable and they’re not the average ones you see on the street where the seller sits there trying to fend off flies all day.

They’re the Restoran Sederhana which is one that is quite popular locally with franchises all over the country.

When we walked in, we were quickly ushered to a table and while we were taking our seats and adjusting our butts, a few staffs over at the counter started to bring something like 20 dishes to our table and stacked it up like trying to form a pyramid with the plates.

You’re right if you say that they’re trying to provide a good service. You’re right too if you say that way of serving may entice customers more, at least more than it sitting at the counter which is far from their view. You are also right if you say that hygiene issues are highly compromised here. From memory, certain Chinese food in the past were also served this way but it will be quickly taken away once the customer rejected it instead of sitting there until he finished his meal.

Food stacked up on the table

When the dishes fully arrived on the table, I see many exotic dishes and was very reluctant to try them. I instead went for things that I’m familiar with while eating Nasi Padang in Singapore like Goreng Ayam(fried chicken), Ayam Bakar(grilled chicken), Perkedel(fried mashed potatoes) and Beef Rendang. I didn’t touch any of those fish or vegetables dishes as I thought they really looked very different from what I thought they should look. My partner instead went for things like young jackfruit in coconut curry and lamb tendon which I found the taste to be quite acceptable but yet a little too exotic for me to whack them like how I would to a Ayam Goreng.

The chicken here is very small(once again!) so I really had a good run at it eating 4 pieces at one go. 2 pieces of fried chicken and 2 pieces of grilled chicken, and you know what? After eating them I still didn’t feel satisfied!

Somehow I felt that 4 pieces of this highly dehydrated chicken meat(actually there are more bones than meat) are not even comparable to one terrific KFC drumstick I used to eat in Perth!

They really should be calling this chicken bones and not chicken meat because I don’t even see where’s the meat, all I did was pop one piece into my mouth and then it became a tedious job trying to look for the next good piece out of the bone. Well I reckon I would need 10 pieces of this ‘chicken bones’ if they were to sell to me a ‘Nasi Ayam’ using this. The chicken here is really like our pigeon in Singapore where we deep fried them and sucking them hard, biting the bones along but then again the bones here are too big to be bitten so I really can’t do much with it except licking it while trying to see how many more they have over at the counter :O

Restaurant counter

Now if you ever stepped into a Nasi Padang stall here on your own, you should know that there’re certain unwritten rules that need to be observed. First you should never use your own spoon to take anything from the dishes if you are not going to take the entire plate. Well if you’re wondering, yes you can have half of the food on the plate like for example, 1 piece of rendang from a plate that has 2 pieces. You can even finish up all the gravy on it leaving the 1 piece there and you’re still going to be charged for just 1 piece. But the thing is if you’re going to do that, you better use a new spoon just for that dish because that is the unwritten rule that every customer that enters a Nasi Padang stall knows. You should only ever use your own spoon to take something from a plate if you are going to finish the whole plate. Ok if you ask me does everyone follow this rules, then I don’t know but I know for a fact this rule exist to safeguard the hygienic interest of every Nasi Padang eaters.

Well the unfortunate thing about Nasi Padang here is that I see the same displayed dishes from day to night and 90% of the time, there are no customers in the shop. It is no doubt that they hardly finished selling everything they have on display everyday and so what they do is to keep the food in the fridge and then display them again the next day. Well if you’re wondering how long do they display those food before they think it should be thrown away, then I will tell you that I also want to know because the Beef Rendang I had here tasted more like beef jerky.

Nasi Padang meal: 7/10  

Well so after trying this authentic Nasi Padang, I still prefer our own version of Nasi Padang for 3 reasons. First strangers cannot sabotage your food. Second, we seldom were sold overnight food. Third, sellers in Singapore usually use food warmers to keep the food warm all day but here it is being displayed in the see-through glass display shelf from day till night with no sign of any effort on their part to keep the food warm and fresh.

Our meal costed us a mere Rp80 000+ which is just slightly over SGD$10. And this is a reputable one, so therefore it should be a lot cheaper at others. Somehow this meal has got me all the strange feelings similar to if I were to be fed maggots. I wonder does every tourist who walked into a Nasi Padang stall here felt the same way?

And lastly, if anyone thinks this can actually sell in Singapore and are willing to invest in it, then go here to find out more about the franchise information.

Price: SGD$1-2 per dish

Recommendation: Perkedel and chicken(though small but quite delicious)

Conclusion: Very different from what we have in Singapore. It’s just like if you were to go to Fujian to eat Hokkein mee then you would also find it different from ours but it is just different, for good or worse is a relative judgement I suppose.

Likes: Cheap and you can see all the food on the table and decide there and then which one you want to eat.

Dislikes: Some of the dishes looked funny.

Address		Overall Rating
Restoran Sederhana somewhere in West Jakarta		Food: 6/10   Value: 7/10   Service: 8/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 7.25/10

Now other than being cheaper and fresher, seafood at these nearby shores also taste better. For me, their sambal chili always taste that bit more ‘pang’ and their goreng whatever(goreng sotong or prawns) can put me in awe of the wonderful smell like how KFC can. I don’t know about you but these were my personal experiences of eating Malaysians or Indonesians seafood. Their deliciousness just seem a notch higher than what we have here. Of course I’m not going to bring those hygiene issues into this discussion although I must admit that it all might just have some connection!

Now if you look at the map of Jakarta, you would see that the north part of Jakarta is infact off the sea so it is really no rocket science that if you want to eat good seafood, then north of Jakarta is where you should head to, particularly the Pluit area.

I was brought to this seafood place that looked more like a makeshift kopitiam with about 40 tables all lining side by side, all of it occupied with customers.

Other Diners at Pangkep 33 Seafood Barbeque

Now that brought back sweet memories of what was the Long Beach restaurant at the corner of East Coast Road near to an army camp. In those days, that little corner had nothing but tables and chairs filling up acres of space and whenever I was there, the crowds were never missing. They even had the space 3-4 times bigger than that area just for cars to park. This little restaurant called Pangkep 33 at Pluit, Jakarta brought back memories that I thought were long buried dead.

I left my partner to do the ordering and she miscellaneously ordered the usual stuff like Fried Kang Kong, Sambal Mussels, Goreng Sotong, Ikan Bakar(grilled fish) and Black Pepper Crab.

The star of the night has to be split between the Goreng Sotong and the Sambal Mussels.

The Goreng Sotong(It is called Cumi and not Sotong in Indonesia) had that fantastic goreng smell that is so typical to Indonesian or Malaysian kind of seafood but yet can never be found in Singapore! I loved that kind of goreng absolutely, I could imagine those gorengs making anything, the best dish in the world dosing in those salt and pepper kind of seasonings you can find in cantonese cuisines.

Sambal Mussels: 9/10  

The Sambal Mussels is simply the best mussels I’ve eaten in my life. It’s not so much about the sambal but those mussels were deep fried before they were tossed in those sambal sauces and for me that is something really really so simple to do but yet can escalate the taste of mussels to 10 times better! Thumbs up to whoever that came up with that style of cooking mussels!

Ikan Bakar(grilled fish): 8/10  

Sambal Kangkong: 8/10  

Black Pepper Crab: 7.5/10  

The rest of the dishes like Ikan Bakar, Kang Kong and Black Pepper Crab were equally good though not as outstanding as the Goreng Sotong and Sambal Mussels. Now I must tell you that the total price of all these dishes are………*drumroll*…………Rp 120 000….which is lesser has SGD$20. I kid you not! OK after we left, it took me a while to realise that they actually forgot to add in the Pepper Crab as it was ordered separately, otherwise the bill should be something like Rp 180 000 to Rp 200 000 which should be around SGD$30+. Heck! That’s still a good price nonetheless! Where in Singapore you eat crab, sotong, fish, mussels for SGD$30? Not even in JB! Ok maybe in some ulu cze char place in some JB kampong you can find but definitely not this kind of quality you will get.

Belachan and chilli: 9/10  

So now you can see why I’m really in love with Indonesian seafood and I managed to make my partner promise me that she bring me back to this place again before I’m out of this city! *evil grin*

Price: SGD$2-3 per plate except for fish and crab which is charged by seasonal rates

Recommendation: Sambal Mussels!

Conclusion: Very authentic seafood place that wants to sell you nothing except good seafood at a very affordable price(super cheap price if you are Singaporean!).

Likes: Sambal Mussel!

Dislikes: Absolutely nothing though the hygiene factors can be a bit of concern but since seafood comes from the seawater which is one of the dirtiest thing in the world, then really there isn’t much complain from me!

Pangkep 33 Seafood Barbeque		Overall Rating
Pangkep 33 Seafood Barbeque Kafe Tenada Muara Karang Raya Dining Hours: 18:00 – 23:00 Daily Phone: (021)7078 5432 or 0815 180 7869 Pangkep22@gmail.com		Food: 8/10   Value: 10/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 6/10   Cleanliness: 6/10   Overall: 7.25/10

Well it still beats me as to how this style of selling can be widely accepted by people here but I’m glad to say that fortunately there is a difference between a Nasi Padang stall and an Indonesian Zhap Cai Peng stall.

Nasi Padang is infact quite a luxury food where you get all the ‘ho liao’ such as Rendang, Curry Mutton, Ayam Goreng and all. They even have some exotic food like lamb’s brain or lamb’s tendon etc. Hence Nasi Padang is not exactly our Chinese’s version of Zhap Chai Peng, it is more like our Cze Char stall’s kind of standard except that everything are already cooked and put on your table. In a Nasi Padang stall, there is also no menu and you cannot order things like Mee Goreng or Nasi Goreng.

They infact have another form of ‘Zhap Cai Peng’ where they all call it the economy rice and in such a stall, you get really simple food like stir fry beancurd, stir fry veg, mashed potatoes, curry chicken etc.

Now in this kind of stall, there is actually a menu where you can order anything like Char Bee Hoon or Char Kway Teow etc. The good thing is that in such a stall, you are not going to be served like how a Nasi Padang stall does but instead you pick your own dishes on your rice and they would charge you at the counter. Sounds a lot more hygienic doesn’t it? Ok my mission begins here as I attempt to discover how and whether the closure of Nandos( the best grilled chicken in the world in my eyes) has anything to do with the chicken in this kind of food stall.

If you ask any Singaporean about how much they know about Indonesian chicken, they would probably tell you Ayam Penyet. I have to tell you that this dish actually is more common in Singapore than in Jakarta. I can’t recall where I see any stalls selling Ayam Penyet here so far but yet I see many stalls selling this thing called Ayam Bakar. Well if you don’t believe me, you try google for ‘Ayam Penyet’ and you’ll realise that the top links all belonged to Singapore websites. Now I don’t know why Ayam Penyet is so popular in Singapore but here it is clearly not. All I see here is Ayam Bakar or Ayam Goreng which is sometimes called Ayam Goreng Kremes which looked exactly like how you see Ayam Penyet in Singapore with the bits of ‘gorengs’ accompanying the chicken.

Ok I was brought to this Indo ‘Zhap Cai Peng’ stall and my partner told me it’s quite good so I decided to have a go at their Ayam Bakar and Ayam Goreng while my partner had the ‘Zhap Cai Peng’.

The spread

Ayam Bakar is technically rice with grilled chicken, some vegetables and chillies( though some place wrapped all them up with banana leaf and left to grill again).

Ayam Bakar Set: 7.5/10  

Mine at this stall came in the banana leaf style and as I opened the leaf, there was a strong smell of lemon grass filling the air. Now it is rather unusual and even my partner was finding it strange that my Ayam Bakar did not come with grilled chicken but some potatoes and chili prawns instead. She reckoned that they could had got my order wrong or something along that line. Since my whole packet of rice looked really tasty, I didn’t bother asking them to change to the real Ayam Bakar.

Inside this banana leaf was this yellow rice that has this nice ‘lontong’ soup fragrance with bits and pieces of herbs all over it and then there are chilli prawns and potatoes. I must say that this is quite a mean dish and it is by far the best packed rice I ever had. Beats any Nasi Lemak or Malay packed rice by a few hundred yards at least. It was served with a bit of sambal and some keropok(those kind that has a bitter taste). This thing only costed Rp 10000 (approx $1.30).

Our Indo Zhap Chai Peng: 8/10  

My partner’s economy rice was top class itself. She ordered chilli sotong, stir fried long beans with tempeh and some kind of coconut grilled chicken. A fantastic combination. Hers costed a bit more, like Rp15000(approx $2). But for $2 it’s one of the most delicious plate of rice I’ve tasted alright!

Ayam Kremes: 6/10  

The Ayam Goreng Kremes came and looked exactly like how Ayam Penyet is being served in Singapore. I tried the ‘gorengs’ first and it indeed had that familiar Ayam Penyet taste and so now I know this is the thing they called Ayam Goreng Kremes while Singaporean called Ayam Penyet. Well of course they have a right to laugh at how we tried to reinvent their food for whatever purposes. If you ask a Beijing residence to come to Singapore to try our Peking Duck I’m sure they would also laugh at how the original taste had been reinvented. Heck, if you were to go to any western country and try their ‘Singapore’ food, you would also laugh at it.

A fantastic Indo ‘economy rice’ meal that cost us no more than Rp38000(approx $5) with fruit juice included. Can’t ask for better value in this but however I have a tiny complain. I am wondering why chicken here is so skinny? It’s like their chicken had not been eating for 1 month before they decided to slaughter it. Well my partner said kampong chicken is like that and here you can only get kampong chicken and it is healthier. Well if it goes on like this, I may need 5 pieces each time to satisfy my ‘Ayam’ needs.

Price: About SGD$1-2 per dishes

Recommendation: Chilli Sotong!

Conclusion: Very very nice Indonesian food served at kopitiam price. The ultimate traditional food that every other Indonesian really eat and yet no hygeine issues are compromised here.

Likes: Excellent balance in taste.

Dislikes: None!

Address		Overall Rating
Somewhere in Grogol, Jakarta.		Food: 8/10   Value: 9/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 6/10   Cleanliness: 6/10   Overall: 7.25/10

Something I have always wondered – why didn’t we have a branch yet in Singapore for this kickass grilled chicken? Now this food is even available in Malaysia and Indonesia, so there really is no excuse. If this food are eaten by Malaysians and Indonesians then why won’t Singaporeans? Are there any relevant people or investors listening?

Ok so undoubtedly Nandos became one of my prioritised to-do things in this trip and so we happily went to look for Nandos at Mall Taman Anggrek for dinner on our first day. The sad thing is that we found that the store there had closed and infact as we found out later on that all the Nandos in the entire Indonesia had closed! It was quite difficult for me – this great Nandos fan – to imagine it not having business and had to cease it’s operation. How can the best grilled chicken in the world for me not wanted to be eaten by Indonesians? OK the only excuse I can find for them is that their own traditional kind of pang gang (grilled) chicken is more delicious than Nandos and therefore they’ve been kept away, now that escalated my interest in the local grilled chicken galore amidst the dusk of my Nandos dream.

We ended up having Chicken Story cum KFC for dinner at the Senayan City food court. Chicken Story is an Indonesian fastfood chain where they serve different styles of grilled chicken in different kind of sauces.

Chicken Story’s chicken reminds me of buffalo wings. I ordered chicken pieces and chicken wings in different kind of sauces and all of it had that familiar bbq smokey flavour with no sign of use of any local chili sauce eventhough on the menu it read ‘SPICY’. It didn’t tasted too bad except that they used a lot of MSG in the marinating as evidence from my thirst thereafter.

Their KFC here taste exactly like Singapore’s version. It had that similar ‘dry’ and ’small pieces’ visual effect which made it somewhat looked unappetizing. So if you’re looking for something juicy, oily, big and finger licking good kind of KFC, I’m afraid you have to head north to Malaysia or Thailand instead.

Chicken Story BBQ chicken: 7.5/10  

It is interesting to note that most of the fastfood’s meal set here comes with rice instead of fries. I’m just thinking why aren’t they get tired of eating rice in their own traditional meals and still want rice for something like fastfood but anyway even the Mcdonald’s speciality here is fried chicken with rice so it really does tells you about how much they love their chicken and rice. That elevated my interest in the locals ‘chicken’ affair and I’m on a mission to find out what exactly is happening to this ‘chicken & rice story’.

Price: About SGD$3 for a set of 6 wings or $1.20 for 1 piece of chicken piece.

Recommendation: Chicken Wings

Conclusion: Very well marinated but uses of too much bbq sauce made it too similar to buffalo wings. No Indonesian kind of chili sauce used in the grilling process hence it didn’t taste like Indonesian food.

Likes: Uses charcoal for grilling.

Dislikes: Uses too much MSG.

Address		Overall Rating
The Chicken Story Senayan City Food Studio Level 5, Jak Sel		Food: 6/10   Value: 6/10   Service: 6/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 7.25/10

I don’t know about you, but I am never a fan of those kind of food where I have to do my own cooking like those Hot Stones or whatever food that I can watch it sizzled in front of me. The thing is I find no joy in trying to stone fry my own steak and risk having the bits of oil jumping at me and most importantly those kind of meals are not cheap either. It may cost you about the same as those meals where you have a real chef doing the cooking for you. So where is the real value of such ’self cooked’ meals? For me there is none except that unless you love watching how your food are being cooked more than actually eating it. Well I believe there are actually people who are like that, that’s why there is a demand for this kind of meal, agree?

Ok upon reaching Jakarta, my partner suggested eating Pepper Lunch and I can’t help but were thinking “Why would I want to come all the way here to eat something that can be found in singapore easily?

Nonetheless we made our way to the Pepper Lunch outlet at Mall Taman Anggrek which is one of the biggest shopping centre at the west side of Jakarta.

Now according to my assessment, there are very little value in such ’self cooked’ meal because it cost almost the same as one that has a proper chef cooking it for you but I would have a different opinion of it if it were to cost the same as a fastfood meal and it is infact being sold in Jakarta for only around Rp 50,000(SGD$7).

I can’t resist eating Pepper Lunch for the first time for only a fraction of what it would cost me otherwise in Singapore. When we were making our orders, I had such big grin on my face that the cashier must be thinking that I’m interested in her :p

Hamburger Steak: 7.25/10  

Well after finished eating it, I had the crazy thought that if only I can eat this 2 times everyday for the next few days then I would had recouped my Jetstar ticket in value )

We had the Curry Beef and Hambuger Steak. Both set didn’t tasted too badly. The meat was well marinated and though I quite like it, it’s not something that I would be happy parting $16++ for in Singapore.

Price: SGD$7-8 per set

Recommendation: Hamburger Steak meal

Conclusion: The beef were well marinated and were full of flavour. Other than watching your own food being cooked, I can’t see any more value in this than one that has a proper chef cooking for you.

Likes: Beef were well marinated.

Dislikes: Oil flying all over the place when it’s sitting infront of me.

Address		Overall Rating
Mall Taman Anggrek – Jakarta Level 4 No.401C		Food: 7/10   Value: 7/10   Service: 8/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 7.25/10