Rumah Makan Padang

Before this Indonesia trip, I gathered somewhere that one of the most largest franchise restaurants in the world (?) is Rumah Makan Padang. In Jakarta alone, there are about 20,000 Padang restos. It said also that almost in every street in the cities of Indonesia, you could find one. Our challenge then was to find one in the small island Bintan in Indonesia. During our mini tour of North Bintan , I actually totally forgotten about it cos I wasn't supposed to look for places to eat cos a certain restaurant was already included in our packaged tour.

A food window display had reminded me thu' of this resto. We passed by a local town in Bintan and saw  the window set-up ( photo above) looked familiar. .



It was a Rumah Makan Padang. I was just not sure if this one was a franchise of the original. But I bet from the window display it surely looked like an authentic one.

This kind of restaurant is actually famous for its various dishes with a combination of coconut milk and chilies. The cuisine had originated from the capital city of West Sumatera which is Padang. I had watched this franchise resto being featured in an Asian food channel. Saw how a table was served with massive small plates and bowls of dishes. The customer paid only for the ones he consumed. That's the way they do ala carte there. How convenient! Everything is just right on your table and no worry about the rest of the plates you haven't touched. The dishes were also mouth watering, the likes of rendang, sambal, sate pandang, etc..

Yet, I failed to experience one. Our time was limited and in the course of this trip, we ate either in the hotel resto or in the resort_ no Rumah Makan Padang. But ofcourse I had the region's specialties like beef rendang and sate. Maybe next time.

Kropek

This was in a ferry terminal in Indonesia. While waiting for our boat, we grabbed for some snacks. I picked a can of  Pringles and was amused by my friend's choice.



She had been munching the same chips since we arrived in this island.

It's kerupuk. Called "kropek" in my country. It's commonly known as prawn cracker and very popular in Indonesia. I've seen a lot of it being sold in every store there.

I also saw lots of it being used as plating accessory/side item in most dishes in this country.



I rarely eat one, actually I forget already the last time I had it. Here in our country, it's usually being sold in the streets which gives a question of culinary hygiene.

Selera Restaurant

At Nongsa Point Marina & Resort in Indonesia, we took our lunch at the Selera Restaurant located at the wing of the hotel lobby.



The restaurant succeeds the white domination theme of the hotel.




For me the focal point of Selera is the picturesque  marina spreads infront of the restaurant. However, that day the rainy weather got in the way. I bet, from this focal angle, on a sunny day the marina would be a sight to behold.

I was pretty excited ( I swear I was! I always try to put on a poker face whenever, haha ) to taste Indo dishes. I might have had some of them in SG and Malaysia, but I couldn't specify at this point..

From this menu, the most I was familiar with was _ "goreng". Only because, back home_  mi goreng instant noodles are staple and would always occupy a big space in our weekly grocery cart.

Bestfriend was quick to order her favorite nasi goreng. I cut my confusion and mirrored her choice. She had it a lot of times here. .case closed, haha



Nasi Gorengkoe. Rice with chicken satay, fried chicken, fried prawns, sliced omelette, local pickles and prawn cracker. It's a chef creation and lemme warn you _ everything in the plate was spicy, yes even the rice... haaaahhh, waterrr please!!!!



Rendang. As usual my brother default dish would be meat!! Specifically something beef. Rendang is a popular Indonesian beef stew. The plate was served with rice, local pickles and prawn crackers.



Here in our country, I could compare this plate to our local tapsilog/tocilog/bangsilog. When you get to visit the Philippines, you try our original version of nasi goreng, okey.

Bintan's Lunch

"gosh, if I could cut my eating habit as infrequent as I do posting here in my food blog_ I would surely hit my weight goal". - just me again feeling apologetic for not updating this blog, haha.

Anyways, I just came home from another set of trips and those photos I took?, well I gotta start sharing them to you or they'll go add up to the bulk of piles still waiting to be blog.

In Indonesia, we availed a package tour of  North Bintan and as I promised there in my travel blog, in here would be the food post. I'm not sure if the lunch that came with the tour could already be a basis of the island's authentic cuisine, but for sure I had them all over Asia.

At Aneka Seafood, we were served  the following :

calamares with sweet & chili dipping sauce. The coating was nice and already hot and the squid was bursting with freshness. The dip thu' was a lot chilier than we usually have at home. So it's dipping a hot dish in a hot sauce.. wheeew.



kangkong. I'm not sure if it was with sambal, maybe. I'm not so familiar with sambal, but I heard_ there, they like to mix sambal in their kankong dishes. Again this is one hot dish.

fried fish. Don't ask me what fish please. I don't know, but it looks familiar like our local talakitok. Well, obviously, I was so unsure of the details of the dishes. No one near to us spoke English. Everytime, I tried to throw question to the server, he would just politely smile. . total silence followed.

Anyway, I like this fish dish with tasty garlicky toppings. Among the dishes, this was the only one normal, I mean in my personal "hot" standard.



That's all. Only 3 viands and rice.



Ofcourse, each of us enjoyed fresh coconut water in the shell. It was also a good match  to the hotness of the dishes.
If you want to see the place, jump here please.