Happy Travel Log: July 2016

Mid of Jun 2016, we made a trip to Batam Island (Indonesia) for a short getaway. Both of us stayed there a decade ago for working. So it is so nice to have the nice food there and met some friends again.

From Singapore visitors have to take ferry from Harbourfront Ferry Terminal with 45 minutes journey. Ferry Terminal located at Northern part of Singapore Island and toward North, cross over Singapore Strait, it is Batam Island. It attracted some Singaporean investors so week day usually the visitors are business travelers and week end is one of the popular short getaway location for Singaporean.

How to Go
Visitors can choose from various ferry operators at Harbourfront Ferry Terminal, the price almost all the same. We have selected this operator call Horizon. 2 way ticket at SGD 48 per pax.

Horizon (website)
Singapore Counter
1 Maritime Square
#03-47, Harbourfront Centre
Tel: (65) 6276 6711
Email: singapore@horizonfastferry.com

Harbour Bay Counter - Batam
Jalan Duyung - Batu Ampak Komplek
Harbour Bay Citywalk No. CW11
Tel: (62) 778 741 5007
Email: batam@horizonfastferry.com

Another reason we choose this Horizon ferry is because they are one of the ferries can reach Harbour Bay Ferry Terminal which is located at the city of Batam so it is very convenient.

How to Stay Connect
Once reached there, after checked in, we walked to opposite mall basement to get a local sim card. The basement is full with small stalls for those sim card / hand phone / hand phone accessories. After checked with the seller, we selected Telco call Tri. http://tri.co.id/en/starter-pack
The pre paid card cost us Rp 65,000 and loaded in Rp 20,000, total cost Rp 85,000. It has Rp 20,000 talk time and 3GB for data (internet). This Telco stand out from others is because the 1 year validity, we still able to use it if next year we returned to this island again. For the rest, just 1 to 3 months validity unless user re-load again. The disadvantage is this Tri is not an old brand so some remote areas user will have problem to connect. Generally in Batam city it is ok. See another Telco i mentioned in past post: Things to Buy in Tanjung Pinang

How to Go Around
We selected a hotel at area with mostly Chinese resident and with walking distance, hotel guest can reach 2 shopping malls (BCS Mall & Top 100 Mall) and a market. So it is convenient. To travel further, hotel guest can select the taxi that under hotel name, for safety reason.

Where to Stay
This hotel is very popular for Singaporean, most of the guest we met were from Singapore. It located in between a shopping mall and market, very convenient. The lowest cost Superior Room of Gideon Hotel cost us Rp 550,000 per night.

Gideon Hotel (Website)
Komp. Penuin Center Blok AA No. 1 - Penuin
Batam - Indonesia
Tel: (62) 778 430 420
Email: reservation@gideonhotelbatam.com

Hotel room was clean and modern. Room rate come with 2 pax breakfast, but no gym and swimming pool. Our trip mainly is for the local food so it is ok.

View from Hotel.

The yellow and orange colour building is the market. (Penuin Market)

View from Hotel.

The blue and yellow colour building is the shopping mall. (BCS Mall)

After checked in, went to BCS mall settled the local sim card, we headed to long waiting meal - Nasi Padang. See previous post about this local delicious dish: Authentic Nasi Padang
Unaware that Jun is the fasting month of Muslim so those branded Nasi Padang sellers all closed. With the recommendation of hotel staffs we headed to this open as usual stall at 3rd floor of BSC Mall.

Sawaty Masakan Padang (Sawaty Padang Rice Cuisine)
BCS Mall, Jalan Bunga Raya, Baloi, Batam - Indonesia
@ 3rd Floor of BCS Mall, Block E9, No. 2 (beside lift)
Tel: (62) 822 8551 1965

Special for this stall is the rice come with some spicy cracker.

Standard dishes we ordered, including chicken, rendang beef, potatoes, jack fruit curry, egg.

I liked the vege curry at left bottom of this photo. Unknown vege, but chewy, taste good.

Finally this meal satisfied our Nasi Padang crave. Shiok!

Cost: Rp 166,000

That night and following night our dinner was settled at A2 food center. Just located beside BCS Mall. Diners can have Indonesian food as well as Indonesian style Chinese cuisine too. Below dishes we tried:

Fried Prawn

Rp 70,000

Sweet & Sour Fish

Special there was they added pea.

Rp 132,000

Only can find this in Batam or Bintan, locals call it 'gong gong'.

Use toothpick to pull the meat out of shell, dip chili source and dig in.

Cost: Rp 40,000

Previous 3 dishes from Hai San Seafood.

Common drink in Batam / Bintan, avocado juice.

Locals add chocolate syrup on it.

Chendol

Hainanese Kwetiau (rice noodle)

Only can find in Batam / Tanjung Pinang-Bintan, like Singapore style fried kwetiau but top with gravy.

Indonesian style Roti Prata / Egg Martabak

Taste slightly different with Singapore.

Their curry used different spices.

A2 Food Centre

Day 2 morning, as usual, skipped the hotel breakfast and we headed to nearby Penuin Pasar (market) to have our breakfast. Walked around and we selected this kopitiam (coffee shop) that packed with patrons. Name unknown but located in between bag shop and shoe shop.

Unknown Kopitiam
(beside bag shop: Yen'z Collection Grosir & Eceran)
Kopm. Pasar Penuin Block C

Kopitiam located between bag shop and shoe shop.

Tea with Condensed Milk

(Teh)

Ya Kun style / Nanyang Style / Southeast Asian breakfast set

Toast taste (with coconut jam and butter) like Singapore. The egg was free-range egg.

Nanyang Coffee with evaporated milk. Their milk is different with Singapore and cannot be seen here. See my previous post about Indonesian Nanyang style breakfast: Tanjung Pinang Breakfast II

Locals call this 'da mie'.

In Teochew means dry noodle. (干麵）

It replicates the Bak Chor Mee (肉脞面) in Singapore. As the ingredient were different in Singapore so taste slightly different, but i liked it.

Explain:

Bak Chor Mee means “minced meat and noodles” in the Teochew dialect. Originally a soupy dish – minced pork in broth served with mee pok (flat egg noodles) or mee kia (thin egg noodles), the “dry” version – noodles tossed in vinegar, pork lard, and chill with just a bit of wetness and soup served on the side.

Mee Rebus

Local calls it Mee Rebus, yellow noodle with sweet curry-like gravy. Compare to those in Singapore, taste slightly different.Well, this is the fun when eating abroad, taste the difference and enjoy it.

See my previous post about this dish: Tanjung Pinang Breakfast II

Before our trip, I tried to look for any local blog to recommend nice food there. I found this in Instagram: Batamliciouz

I like to reference to local blog instead of Singaporean blog as this give me the true local view on their delicious food. Current trendy food there is the crab dish that serve similar like Singapore Dancing Crab restaurant. Crab dishes are served on table with a layer of plastic sheet to facilitate their cleaning as well as give diners a new experience. Without hesitation, we headed to this restaurant for our lunch.

Hill Cafe Batam

@ Nagoya Hill, Batam

(walking distance from Nagoya Hill Shopping Mall)

Tel: (62) 778 749 3883

Email: hillcafebatam@gmail.com

Crab combo set (medium) with Malaysian source.

Malaysian source taste is curry flavor, salty and spicy. Taste good and nice ambient.

We selected 1 chili spicy level. Personally I felt that still spicy, next round I would order 0.5 chili spicy level. Haha

Cost: Rp 135,000

Friend came and met us during tea time. So we had another round of eating. Friend brought us to the famous Pempek Blok 3.

Pempek Blok 3 (Block 3 Palembang Fishcake Delicacies)

Jalan Taman Indah Blok 3

No. 11, Nagoya - Batam

Tel: (62) 778 452 797

Pempek, mpek-mpek or empek-empek is a savoury fishcake delicacy from Palembang, Indonesia. It made of fish and tapioca. Pempek is served with a dark, rich sweet and sour sauce called kuah cuka (vinegar sauce).

The fishcake come with different form of shape like some with hard boiled egg as content, some fried and tasted like cracker. As they use fish mixed with tapioca so the fishcake texture was not soft as those I tried in Singapore. It was chewy. I liked it.

Pempek

Mie Ayam (Dried Egg Noodle with Minced Chicken Meat)

This is Indonesian replica version of Chinese egg noodle dish.

You only can have this in Indonesia. I liked the chicken and its gravy. Chicken is cooked for long time, so taste good.

The next morning (day 3) before return home, we had our breakfast settled and lunch too. Skipped the hotel breakfast, we went to Kopitiam behind Gideon Hotel. According to friend, the dry noodle (wanton noodle) is an old brand come from Tanjung Pinang. We must give it a try.

Kopitiam Long Shu Siah

Komp. Penuin Centre Blok 0A, No. 1 & 2, Batam

Tel: (62) 778 453 699

Famous Indonesian style Wanton Noodle from Tanjung Pinang

Lontong

Rice cake with coconut spicy soup.

They added thin rice noodle (mihun), different with those I had in Singapore / Batam / Tanjung Pinang.

See my previous post about this dish: Tanjung Pinang Breakfast II

Local version wanton noodle.

The tomato source is different with Singapore, taste good, I liked this.

Before headed to ferry terminal, we bought some pempek and local products for friend back in Singapore. At BCS Shopping Mall, we had their local version of ice kacang at Citra Pempek.

Citra Pempek (Citra Palembang Fishcake)

@ BCS Shopping Mall

Tel: (62) 778 743 5503

Locals call this Es Teler.

Teler Ice

Condensed milk with syrup, avocado and jack fruit.

It is a fruit cocktail. A bit sweet for me.

Next round I would order less sweet version.

See my previous post about this dish: Gado-gado Gembira

Due to the fasting month, street food seller mostly closed at day time. To satisfy our crave of their famous fried stuffs (street food) we had it at ferry terminal. Sit at the local popular cafe (like our Ya Kun / Toast Box) and bought the fried stuffs from nearby stall.

Morning Bakery Cafe

@ Harbour Bay Ferry Terminal Batam

Black Coffee at Morning Bakery

Cost: Rp 7,000

Morning Bakery

Fried tofu, fried banana, fried vege with flour (bak wan), curry puff.

Fried tofu always is cannot missed street food for me. It content with cabbage and bean sprout, coated with a crispy layer. Very delicious.

Curry Puff

Side track to another topic about what to do in Batam. Basically Singaporean go there besides food, mainly for the cheap local products and spa. Local products like crackers, coffee powder, they all can be found in the gloceries store like JC Supermarket (BCS Mall) or Matahari Supermarket (Nagoya Hill Mall) and many more malls there. BCS Mall and Nagoya Mall located at city so they are popular spot for Singaporean. Famous layer cake stalls can be found at 1st floor of both malls.