Bangka-Belitung may be not your usual destination even in Indonesia. What everybody knows is just Bali, Bali, or Bali. No offense but many other islands and beaches in Indonesia surely could use more credits. Apart from the beautiful landscapes, one surely shouldn’t miss their proud diet of seafood. Here comes!

After scouring all over Pangkal Pinang and Sungailiat for kopitiam delicacies, coffee, and anything else, finally it’s time to settle the deal with Bangka. Our helpful but not-so-knowledgeable guide brought us to a canteen, a particular one where people from all over of Pangkal Pinang sought for, the one with extensive local authentic dishes served. Though this may be a bit exaggerating but it’s indeed a quite busy canteen when we arrived. People of many backgrounds came, like us tourists for instance and mostly government workers.

It’s pretty much a self-service there or at least notify one of the waitresses who also busied themselves with cooking. You have to see the menu first before thinking about anything else. What I’m saying is that Bangka and Belitung are famed for their seafood dishes and cooking these also attracts flies in particular. It happened during my visit to Mr Asui in my previous post and honestly, the cleanliness always come at the last place of priorities for any restaurants here I suppose. While they’re pretty slow at clearing tables or cleaning up things in the dining areas, I still found the place actually quite decent as a canteen and they do have a neat kitchen.

So the menu consists of genuine dishes such as ikan lempah kuning, ikan lempah kuning nanas (known as sop gangan in Belitung), lalap rusep (fermented anchovy sambal) instead of lalap sambal that usually found in Java, and so-called vegetables soup using bamboo shoots, taro, corns, and uncommon things found in Java cooked mostly with coconut milk or using the proud Bangkan sambal terasi (fermented shrimps). If you’re in doubt of experimenting, familiar dishes also available such as

One thing that I like about Kantin Nad is that they serve everything hot, unlike canteens with their ready-to-serve food. So it took a while but when they arrived, it was all fresh, smokey hot and certainly inviting. The highlight of the day was definitely the ikan lempah kuning nanas. It’s basically a snapper or mackerel soup with a very Indonesian ingredients such as turmeric, galangal, lemon grass, chili and tamarind to create a distinctive spicy and sour flavor then added with shaved pineapples for a more fresh, tangy approach. Try to combine it with warm rice and imagine how heavenly that would be!

While the other dish may be too difficult even for me. Though I consider myself an aficionado for any kind of food but sayur darat keladi may be too much. It’s a vegetable dish consists of pucuk idat (unknown yet in English), taro, and cooked with a hefty amount of terasi making the dish possessed a very distinctive smell and flavor. Perhaps the one at Kantin Nad was a bit too exaggerating in the quantity of the terasi. While the composition is actually adjustable but it was a bit too late. Anyway, it’s worth the try.

Now that my little adventure in Bangka is now relatively over, thanks to Otak-Otak Amui who happened to close its restaurant due to unknown reason for weeks according to my guide. It’s time for an island hopping to Belitung the next day and that means another post next time. Ah, one more thing, I might visit Kantin Nad some other time even if that means I have to push my wife a bit out of her comfort zone for something like this. She’ll be okay though. 😀

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KANTIN NAD

Halal-friendly

Some menu suitable for vegetarians

Wi-fi unavailable

Address & Phone Number: Jl. Kp. Bintang Dalam no. 93/12, Pangkal Pinang – Bangka // (0717) 423 772

Opening Hours: 10 am – 1o pm.

BB Pin: N/A

Email: N/A

Website: N/A

Facebook: N/A

Twitter: N/A

Atmosphere: Your quite modern Chinese cuisine restaurant – provincial style, feels like entering a food war battlefield.

Ambiance: I imagine it would be loud during dining hours.

Service: Helpful with low cleanliness awareness.

Pricing: IDR 150,000 – IDR 200,000 for two