INDONESIA & BEYOND: Malang Food

Indonesia has many hidden gems. There are many places in this country that offers beautiful scenery and mouth watering food. In this case, Malang offer a variety of good food. This is my first visit to Malang. Malang is the second largest city in East Java province, Indonesia. The small city is about 1 hr flight away from Jakarta and 2 hours drive from Surabaya - 2nd largest city after Jakarta.

Restaurant #1 - TAMAN INDIE RIVER VIEW RESTO

Our business partner brought us to this restaurant. It is located in the middle of a housing complex. The restaurant's concept is like Bebek Benggil in Bali. Huge open space with the 'padi field' ambience. It is a pretty restaurant IF mosquitoes are not alive in Indonesia. This whole 'green' ambience is luring all the mosquitoes there and I got bitten by at least 2 mosquitoes. GRR..

The restaurant serves traditional javanese food. Food taste average. I think there are many other restaurants in Jakarta that have better food quality than this. Here are some of the food we had.

ES GANDOL TALI MERANG - PUDDING, MILK, NATA DE COCO, SWEET PERALS, SYRUP AND ICE

PISANG GORENG KEJU - FRIED BANANA WITH CHEESE

FRIED CHICKEN WITH RICE, TAMARIND SOUP AND CRACKERS.

IGA BAKAR COBEK - SEASONED GRILLED OX RIB

NASI KUNING TAMAN INDIE - STEAMED TELLOW RICE WITH ROASTED CHICKEN, CRISPY POTATO CHIPS, NOODLES, SPICY MIXED VEGETABLE, FRIED EGG AND PRAWN CRACKERS.

Restaurant #2 - Hot Cui Mie

This is my favorite meal in Malang. This also happens to be our partner's restaurant. The restaurant is known for the chicken noodle called HOT CUI MIE with edible bowl cracker. The one that I had is just the regular chicken noodle with fried wanton. This is my all time favorite chicken noodle - perfectly seasoned minced chicken paired with chewy home produced noodles.. YUMM :)

Restaurant #3 - Rawon Nguling

Our 2nd day in Malang starts with a heavy breakfast at Rawon Nguling. Nasi Rawon is a traditional Indonesian beef black soup served with rice. We also ordered Nasi Gule Kambing - Stew lamb with rice. Since I am not a big fan of lamb, I cant really say much about the stew lamb with rice. On the other hand, Nasi Rawon is one of the best I've tasted so far. SO GOOOOD~! The flavor itself is right - neither too rich nor too bland. The beef was definitely boiled for a long time because you can taste the richness of the beef broth when you drink the soup. Yumm~ We also ordered chendol for our drink. Chendol is a traditional Indonesia dessert with green worm-like rice flour jelly an coconut milk.

CHENDOL

Nasi Gule Kambing

You can order the sides - they have perkedel, tempe, and brain. :X I did try the brain - it tasted soft like tofu.

BEST Nasi Rawon

Nasi Rawon

Restaurant #4 - Malang Es Puter

Our final meal of the day is of course dessert! I am not sure what this ice cream is called, but this is a homemade ice cream sold from a house. This is my dad's favorite ice cream in Malang. I think selling this ice cream is just a side business for them because it is literally sold from a house with only one box of freezer. Nonetheless, the ice cream taste fresh and good! :)