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.