Category Archives: Pangkal Pinang

QuikSkoop™: Kantin Nad

June 14, 2012 Rian Farisa 2 Comments

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.

Kantin Nad - Sayur Darat Keladi — Sayur Darat Keladi

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

Pangkal Pinang

QuikSkoop™: Mr Asui

May 16, 2012 Rian Farisa 1 Comment

As one of the highly recommended restaurant in Pangkal Pinang, Mr Asui proudly presents itself as a mighty warrior in Chinese cuisine. Though emphasizing greatly on fish dishes which undoubtedly quite interesting, clearly what caught my attention was not exactly the food. It’s a matter of endurance.

A bright red signboard in front of an alley says out loud that Mr Asui is the place for best culinary experience in Pangkal Pinang intrigued me. This kind of feat is usually achieved by restaurants who have been visited by our culinary idol. Yes, who else besides Mr Bondan Winarno. Apart from that feat, you can easily tell yourself that by this high-profile signboard then I bet everything’s gonna be okay.

But that was just a facade. As we entered the alley, what we found first before entering the restaurant on our right side was the dishwashing station. So we get to see dirty dishes, leftovers, and other foul stuffs there. I can’t recall whether I saw trash bins as well, luckily. Either way, it was a filthy welcome and a brilliant positioning of the dishwashing section. Even the word ‘dirtilicious’ would be too good for this place.

The horror continues with the appearance of their massive dining room. Though we arrived just way past the dinner time but the cleanliness level was even worse than Bantar Gebang. Leftovers, dirty dishes (again), wet tables and messy floor with ants are everywhere to be found. The only one who cared about it was this old man who worked slow, cleaning up the mess like he had all the time in the world while enjoying a cigarette in the process!

Well anyway, if you can bear with it and endure everything that you see and feel, then off you go with the food like I did.

Mr Asui - Tenggiri Bakar — Tenggiri Bakar

The grilled mackerel tail is indeed the signature dish here. You won’t find it arguably anywhere but in Bangka. It takes a while to serve but when it arrives, the humongous size of it, fit for 3-4 people, that came with a friendly price of around IDR 75,000 should trick your tummy into contention for at least many hours to come. Grilled plainly without any seasonings, the fish is then supposed to be consumed with warm rice and good sambal terasi using a good squeeze of local jeruk kunci and bird-eye chilis according to your preference.

Thanks to the good grilling technique, Mr Asui manages to grill the fish suitably, maintaining the moisture inside while the outer skin left burnt. If this huge fish not enough for you then you can pick the salty (to my liking) butter fried squids and stir-fried kangkung using tauco (fermented soy sauce). A decent combination there.

Mr Asui - Kangkung Ca Tauco — Kangkung Ca Tauco

Mr Asui - Cumi Goreng Mentega — Cumi Goreng Mentega

Feel free to also derail from the mackerel since Mr Asui presents other fishes and crabs. Snapper, stingray, garoupa, kerisi, and even chicken could be an alternative. The method of cooking? Boiled, grilled, steamed, fried, and even made into soup using the native recipe of lempah kuning and lempah nanas. Needless to worry, the lempah section would be explained better in the next story.

So again, if you’re up with the messiness, decent dishes are waiting as the prize there. But honestly, I found my next stop at Belitung island that provides even more delicious seafood, clean place, and smiles from the locals. Stay tune!

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MR ASUI

Halal-ness to be confirmed

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

Pangkal Pinang, Sungailiat

Kahvehane: Waroeng Kopi & Roti Bakar Tung Tau

May 4, 2012 Rian Farisa Leave a comment

Though originally known as the land where martabak was born but the native Chinese immigrants seem actually more proud for their kopitiam legacy. Heartbroken to found that so far the best martabak are only found in Java, I decided to just unravel the secret behind Bangka’s famed coffee shop, Tung Tau.

The descendants of Mr Tung Tau who found the coffee shop in 1938 are now more organized than ever. I was pretty lucky to find that they recently have opened up their third outlet, marking probably their most notable advancements in decades.

Originally hailed from the laid back town of Sungailiat, the first coffee shop resides in the business district and still maintains its original look aside from the replaced chairs and tables. Tung Tau seems also satisfied with its rustic and conservative appearance, unlike those kopitiams we have in Jakarta with air-cons, cozy cushions, sleek designs, and elaborated dishes. In terms of the dishes, Tung Tau highlights its famed toasts, coffee, tea, and several simple hawker foods like porridge, fried rice or fish broth noodles.

My first visit was highlighted by the notoriously delicious toasts with exotic fillings. The first one was the combination toast filled with pineapple jam, chocolate sprinkles, and grated cheddar. Bangka and Belitung are famed for using pineapples in many of their delicacies and arguably, you might find the best jam here. Aside from that, they’re using old school bread where some people may refer as ‘roti kadet’.

Warkop Tung Tau - Roti Bakar Telur — Roti Bakar Telur

Perhaps the most exotic selection would be the egg toast. Unlike the usual sandwich we know that filled with omelette or fried eggs but this one is with diced boiled eggs. It’s a brand new thing for me and actually quite appetizing, but you might want to add chili sauce for this. Also the difficulty lies at the process of savoring it. It can be pretty messy and you’d need to come so close to the plate just to reach all the bread and the eggs there.

So what’s left then aside from the toast? Well of course, the coffee!

While the heat of Bangka may be pretty unbearable in the afternoon so what could be better than chilled beverages? Teh tarik and milk coffee would do the trick! The condensed milk could be of any brand but the coffee should be the one processed there, even though I heard that they had their coffee sent straight from Lampung.

Warkop Tung Tau - Teh Tarik, Kopi Susu, Roti Bakar Kombinasi — Teh Tarik, Kopi Susu, Roti Bakar Kombinasi (clockwise)

Fragrant, mild, and blends well with the milk, the kopi susu was thick and since served chilled, it felt as if I taste the water of the rivers in seventh heaven! There’s a trick in doing this and one of my coffee expert friend told me just to boil the coffee for two straight hours. In the meantime, the teh tarik was also very milky and to my liking. It’s not too overpowering since the tea taste was still there. Of course, this would be a fine substitution other than the coffee.

Warkop Tung Tau - Es Kacang Merah — Es Kacang Merah

For a fitting end, the original Bangka’s dessert of es kacang merah should be enough to make you return back for more. Though simply only topped with shaved ice, condensed milk, and syrup, the whole bowl of it was just pure paradise.

While the pricing tags in Bangka-Belitung may be quite similar with Jakarta a.k.a quite hefty, but so far many eateries or café there, however rustic they may appear, are not pretentious and provide delectable delicacies. With Tung Tau at its helm, Bangka may boasts itself as the land of original kopitiam but you might want to hear more from my stories later at eastern of Belitung in the small town of Manggar, the city of 1001 coffee shops. Either way, if you want to look for a land for of coffee appreciation, then these islands here may very well become your haven of temptations.

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WAROENG KOPI & ROTI BAKAR TUNG TAU

Halal-ness to be confirmed

Some menu suitable for vegetarians

Wi-fi available (so far only at Sungailiat outlet)

Address & Phone Numbers: