A walk at the Galaxy Mall

The central area with some xmas decor

As mentioned in the previous post, I was at the Galaxy Mall earlier today. Attached are some pictures of the aforesaid mall. I've not been there for quite a while, and the new-and-extended mall is quite different now. They are currently renovating parts of the old section, giving it uniform look with the new extension.

New rows of eateries

The final half an hour was spent walking in the supermarket, called Ranch Market. It was here not very long I suppose. The selection of stuff was quite wide (they have quite a bit of imported goods), and the decor was nice.

Ranch market (above and below pics)

Lunch at Galaxy Mall (17/12)

Went out to Galaxy Mall (affectionately called GM) today. They recently added an extension to the place, which include a new food court. There's quite a selection of food there, mostly Indonesian and some Chinese cuisine. Among the Indonesian dishes on offer are Pempek, Semanggi, Bubur Madura, Soto, pork Satay, Rujak Cingur, and Bakwan / meat ball soup. The Chinese food includes Sioke Siobak (Shao Ji - roast chicken, Shao Rou - roast meat (pork)), and Chinese noodles. The soto seller even come with his authentic equipments. You seldom see them in malls nowadays, so it's rather interesting.

The food court at Galaxy Mall

One interesting thing is that in this food court you don't pay at the individual stall. There's a centralized cashier where one make payment at. They will issue you a receipt. Then approach a waiter who will help you 'redeem' your food. I wanted to collect the food with receipt myself, but apparently it is not allowed. Only the waiter can collect the food for you.

Understandably as it is a work day, the food court (in fact the whole mall) is not very crowded. Which is good, honestly Singapore (and Singapore malls) is getting too crowded for my liking, and it's good to go somewhere less crowded for a change.

Traditional stall for soto seller

My choice fall on Pempek, which hails from Palembang, South Sumatra. To describe it, it's a dish made from fish and flour, which is then made into batter, and fried in hot oil. The resulting 'fish cake' is served with cubed cucumber and noodles in a plate of sour-and-spicy gravy. It is not sour like vinegar, somewhat more like pickles, but it also tastes a little sweet. The seller will add sambal / chilli paste as requested.

There are variations of the 'fish cake', some served plain, some with boiled egg as filling, etc. It wouldn't do the dish justice just describing the taste and ingredient here, and I think this is one of the best tasting Indonesian dish around.

My half-eaten pempek (forgot to take pic earlier)

As expected, mall food is not cheap, and Galaxy Mall being rather upclass makes the prices at the food court even more expensive. The pempek costed Rp 20,000 (S$ 2.80), perhaps cheap for Singapore and elsewhere, but in Surabaya that is slightly on the expensive side of things. But believe me the taste was heavenly.

Lunch at Bon Ami (16/12)

Yes, I'm back in Surabaya until year-end. Touched down earlier in the day and had my lunch at Bon Ami. They sell a range of food (mainly Western and Indonesian). I usually go for their beef Cordon Bleu, but felt like having Nasi Pincuk today. Pics as listed below.

Nasi Pincuk

Nasi Pincuk is an assortment of meat and vegetables served with plain rice on a pincuk (banana leaf) - from which the dish derives its name. On my plate there's stewed young jackfruit, beef slices, two types for sambal chilli, sambal goreng tempe (deep fried dried chilli bits, tempe and potato slices marinated in sweet sauce - despite its name, sambal goreng tempe is NOT spicy at all), white rice, vegetables (kangkong, bean sprouts, and cabbage) with peanut sauce, and a lovely piece of cracker.

Mom also ordered nasi pincuk, while dad, because he wanted vegetarian, took the gado gado, which is a mix of vegetables and tofu served with peanut sauce and crackers. It's kind of the Indonesian version of salad.

Gado Gado

I'll post more pictures of Surabaya in the next couple of days.

Xmas dinner at The Line (04/12/08)

I met up with my ex-colleagues on Thursday, we went to The Line for a buffet dinner. As someone mentioned during the dinner, we have planned this for so long but only managed to do this now (despite meeting so often for other things). Nevertheless, it is timely that it is now December already, and so we also celebrated Xmas early, before some of us need to go on holiday.

This counter serves only dessert

And this one only serves Chinese fares

The buffet spread at The Line was amazing. For starters, they serve fresh oyster, lobster, mussels, crab, various kind of sashimi and sushi, and a salad bar. There are also separate section for Chinese dishes (e.g. soup, noodles, dim sum, roasted meat), Indian dishes (e.g. murtabak, roti prata, and what I think is chicken tikka), and Western ones too (there's even a separate table for pasta). The highlight of the night was the fresh seafood. The oysters were so fresh, as they were opened up on the spot. Due to the number of guests that night the guy at the counter had to work hard to catch up with 'demand'. The same happened at the sushi counter.

Of course the dinner will only be complete with an unlimited amount of fruit juice, beer, or wine so that one can both eat and drink as much as he/she like.

To be honest I was quite busy eating, and only managed to take a few shots. But I think if you look at the picture showing the dessert counter you can appreciate the kind of buffet I had that night. This is probably one of my best meals this year (and definitely the most expensive). The night ends with exchange of presents. I got a new Polo Tee from Nat, which will go into service early next year to replace one of my older shirts. *Thanks Nat!*

My new Polo Tee

One pose at the end of the night

Sashimi and Chasoba dinner (30/11/08)

Yesterday was my first time trying to cook Japanese chasoba at home. For those who might not have known, chasoba is Japanese buckwheat noodle infused with green tea. It is typically eaten cold with soy based sauce, and in the past it was a food for the urban poor. In fact why the noodle is eaten cold is supposedly because in the past it is left outside for quite some time, and by the time it's eaten the food would have turned cold!



I bought the ingredients at a nearby supermarket, and the following cost breakdown will suggest that today it is no longer food for the poor. The noodles cost me S$4.45 per packet, the ready-made soba sauce S$6.40 for a 300ml bottle, and dried seaweed for S$2.50. The wasabe cost S$2.50 in a tube, but it's still largely untouched. That was enough for 4 persons, and I still have some of the sauce left. That averages to slightly less than $4.00 per pax.

What I did was very simple. Preheat the boiling water, throw in the chasoba noodles and let it cook for 5 to 10 minutes. When the noodle is cooked take it out of the water and wash it thoroughly with cold running water to make it room temperature. Prepare a container and some ice, then mix the noodle with the ice. Keep it in the freezer for 5 minutes to make it even colder.

I had a ready-made sauce, but will try making my own in future. I mixed the soup base and some wasabi. You can also add chopped radish and chive leaves into the soup.



Because I felt like having a somewhat more luxurious dinner, in the end I went to Shokutsu 10 at Jurong Point #B1 and grabbed some sashimi and mini california maki sushi. The sashimi are salmon (sake), octopus (tako), and cured seaweed (chuka kurage). In total that cost additional $21.40. It was rather expensive, but in the end turn out to be an excellent dinner.