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Post by hwinpp on Jan 21, 2012 5:13:58 GMT
Pochentong Airport's new F& B outlet, used to be a bar, now it's fusion cooking.  After arriving in Kuala Lumpur, breakfast at the airport, curry laksa.  Then over the Straights of Melacca to Jakarta.  And a rainy arrival in Jakarta.  We arrived in Manado just before midnight, 3 flights and 15 hours after leaving Phnom Penh. The next morning, this is the area our hotel was in. Lots of angkots, the public transport system. No motorbike taxis or tuktuks but a few cyclos around.    After working in the morning we were free for lunch and went down to the sea for, what else, sea food. Morning glory/ trakuen/ kangkong with papaya flowers.  Fish roe curry.  Plantain fritters.  Grilled fish.  Fried squid.  And the best drink around, coconut water with palm sugar!  In the evening the opening ceremony. Security was worse than last year in Phnom Penh.  Waiting for the vice president of the republic.  And here he finally was, giving his speech.  |
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 21, 2012 6:33:11 GMT
Gad -- 15 hours & 3 flights! You all must have been fried.
That hotel area must have made you feel as though you'd gone back in time. It looks green & quiet & there's hardly any traffic.
Beautiful food pics, as always. The morning glory dish & the grilled fish are speaking loudly to me.
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 21, 2012 6:41:39 GMT
It is very quiet and green. Manado is in the real tropics, with rain all year round, sometimes three times a day.
We weren't very happy with the choice of the venue for this fair.
Manado is difficult to reach and the infrastructure is lacking. The Indonesian ministry of tourism chose it to give the lagging dive industry a bit of a kick start. Good for the dive industry but not good for the participants at the fair.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2012 11:20:16 GMT
Oh I love this HW!! (Pity about the lengthy flight...) The food does look scrumptious. I love the tropical lushness!! And it does look quiet. Thanks for this HW. Good to see you still out and about and generously taking time to fill us in on your whereabouts and tempting us with your always wonderful food pics and reports.  |
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 21, 2012 13:32:44 GMT
A bit more coming up ;D The view from the restaurant.  There has to be at least one sate meal in Indonesia.   And pretty girls galore.  As the province of North Sulawesi is 85% Christian, pork is widely popular and very well prepared. Just look at the crackling!   Wild boar.   A simple meal of grilled mackerel, rice and veggies.  Potato pancakes, left by the Dutch, very good, as good as in Amsterdam, except it's served with sweet and sour pickles.  Something I wouldn't order again, sweet and sour prawns and rambutans...  Leaving Manado for the three flights back to PP, including an overnight in Kuala Lumpur this time   And back over Cambodia, very different from what it looked like in October.   |
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Post by tod2 on Jan 21, 2012 13:43:59 GMT
"Morning glory/ trakuen/ kangkong with papaya flowers."
I love seeing all the strange and wonderful ingredients in the dishes you photograph... papaya flowers? Well that's a new one for me even though I've eaten Asian dishes most places!
Makes me want to rush over to the paw-paw tree in my garden and pluck some ;D
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Post by bjd on Jan 21, 2012 13:57:59 GMT
Do they drive on the left in Indonesia?
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Post by tod2 on Jan 21, 2012 14:01:05 GMT
; Potato pancakes, left by the Dutch, very good, as good as in Amsterdam, except it's served with sweet and sour pickles. HW - I worked for a Durch company for a few years when I left school = don't think they exist anylonger. Were called Royal Interocean Lines. This is where I got heaps of introduction into Indonesian dishes. The staff were regularly invited aboard ship to have Rijstaffel and of course the end of the year Xmas party was a splendid affair on board one of the major liners in port at the time. (Straat Malacca, Straat Magellan, Straat Johor, etc etc.) A first for little ol' innocent me was the way the Dutch men loved their runny Brie & Camembert cheeses. (I understand them completely now...) Also, it was my firsy encounter with sate` and most seafoods. I was interested to see the potato pancakes classed as Dutch and confess I don't remember them- well you had better tell me where to get them in Amsterdam as I am headed right THERE! |
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 22, 2012 5:08:31 GMT
"Morning glory/ trakuen/ kangkong with papaya flowers." I love seeing all the strange and wonderful ingredients in the dishes you photograph... papaya flowers? Well that's a new one for me even though I've eaten Asian dishes most places! Makes me want to rush over to the paw-paw tree in my garden and pluck some ;D I've posted a close up here before but could never get a local to tell me clearly what it as. But this time I had an Indonesian colleague with me and she spelled it out. Do they drive on the left in Indonesia? Yes, strangely enough. The steering wheel is on the right. ; Potato pancakes, left by the Dutch, very good, as good as in Amsterdam, except it's served with sweet and sour pickles. HW - I worked for a Durch company for a few years when I left school = don't think they exist anylonger. Were called Royal Interocean Lines. This is where I got heaps of introduction into Indonesian dishes. The staff were regularly invited aboard ship to have Rijstaffel and of course the end of the year Xmas party was a splendid affair on board one of the major liners in port at the time. (Straat Malacca, Straat Magellan, Straat Johor, etc etc.) A first for little ol' innocent me was the way the Dutch men loved their runny Brie & Camembert cheeses. (I understand them completely now...) Also, it was my firsy encounter with sate` and most seafoods. I was interested to see the potato pancakes classed as Dutch and confess I don't remember them- well you had better tell me where to get them in Amsterdam as I am headed right THERE! You can find them anywhere people come together, sold by mobile vendors. They look exactly like the ones I photographed except in Indonesia they don't have the cream.    We had some discussion about potato pancakes maybe a week ago, Don C calls them latkes  |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2012 18:42:03 GMT
Those are clearly different from the ones that I have eaten, but they look damned good! I have used sour cream on them on occasion and it can be a quite tasty addition.
Your photographs out the hotel window in Manado look exactly like the photos I have taken countless times. The lush vegetation and the tin roofs enchant me.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 22, 2012 18:58:09 GMT
Oh lord, the piggy parts, both domestic & wild, look scrumptious! Also, that's a lovely view from the restaurant & I absolutely love the in-flight photo with the winding river. I looked up the morning glory: Ipomoea aquatica, known as water spinach, water morning-glory, water convolvulus, Ong-Choy, Kang-kung, or swamp cabbage, is popularly used as a green vegetable especially in East and Southeast Asian cuisines. <-- wikipedia Longer article w/pics here. It is very quiet and green. Manado is in the real tropics, with rain all year round, sometimes three times a day.
We weren't very happy with the choice of the venue for this fair.
Manado is difficult to reach and the infrastructure is lacking. The Indonesian ministry of tourism chose it to give the lagging dive industry a bit of a kick start. Good for the dive industry but not good for the participants at the fair. HW, would this be a place you'd have enjoyed visiting outside of work? |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2012 19:02:54 GMT
Speaking of which, my friend Emmanuelle convinced me to accompany her to Malang. It was nice but it certainly seemed to be off the major tourist track. One night it proved so hard to find a restaurant that we were actually forced to eat at McDonald's, which mortified both of us. Is Manado of the same caliber?
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 23, 2012 2:36:21 GMT
It is very quiet and green. Manado is in the real tropics, with rain all year round, sometimes three times a day.
We weren't very happy with the choice of the venue for this fair.
Manado is difficult to reach and the infrastructure is lacking. The Indonesian ministry of tourism chose it to give the lagging dive industry a bit of a kick start. Good for the dive industry but not good for the participants at the fair. HW, would this be a place you'd have enjoyed visiting outside of work? Oh, definitely! I'd have chosen a hotel in town, saves on having to find taxis to get there and back, took a minimum of 30 minutes every time! I'd have gone outr to the islands, the volcanoes, taken one of those light blue minivans on a complete tour. It would have been niceer. Speaking of which, my friend Emmanuelle convinced me to accompany her to Malang. It was nice but it certainly seemed to be off the major tourist track. One night it proved so hard to find a restaurant that we were actually forced to eat at McDonald's, which mortified both of us. Is Manado of the same caliber? Not at all, food stalls and restaurants all over the place, local markets and huge malls as well. There's life on the streets until at least midnight (which was how long we had to wait to get a taxi, so I know). |
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Post by lola on Jan 26, 2012 2:51:06 GMT
Excellent, HW. Downright mouth watering. I'd like to try a breakfast of that airport curry.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 27, 2012 17:35:08 GMT
HW, I assume you're home again now.
When you go on these junkets for your work, how much of what you do is prescribed for you -- which restaurants, hotels, sights, etc., and how much do you get to choose for yourself? Also, do you often feel frustrated by not having enough time to explore?
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 30, 2012 6:32:43 GMT
Yes, I've been home since 17th but a virus has stopped me from being more active since then.
I'm completely free in choosing my restaurants but the hotels are subject to approval by the accountants. I get around that by staying at cheaper hotels in Vietnam and then splurging a bit in Indonesia because hotels in the latter are better value.
The reason I don't explore Indonesia more is that it's not in my programmes. Meaning I get clients from there but don't send.
Vietnam, on the other hand, is in my programmes, so I need to know what I'm selling to my clients and therefore need to explore. Same goes for Laos, which I'll be visiting for the first time since 2000 this summer. Actually I've been there twice in the last couple of years but only for 2 days on each visit.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2012 14:56:57 GMT
I'll be curious to know if the development bug has hit Laos or if it is still a sleepy backwater.
I read a very disturbing article over the weekend about how Hoi An, Vietnam has been ruined by being on the World Heritage Site list and having 20 times more tourists than it did 15 years ago. The business people are thrilled but apparently many of the things that made Hoi An so charming are being lost.
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Post by bjd on Jan 30, 2012 16:11:48 GMT
The son of one of my friends just spent 3 weeks in Laos. They had planned to cycle, but in fact spent most of their time on boats. They also found there were lots of tourists and spent between 5 and 30€ on lodging. To no surprise, the cheapies were quite dirty. They hadn't expected it to be so touristy.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2012 18:42:05 GMT
The last time I was in Laos, I paid $1.75 a night for my room in Luang Prabang. The first night was rather depressing because I was on the ground floor with the numerous rats -- not in my room but in the communal bathroom with the big hole in the wall. Goats could have wandered in if they had been so inclined.
After the first night, there was a room available upstairs, and I absolutely loved it -- and no wildlife up there. It was one of the first times ever in a cheap place that I had a night table with a reading light. In almost all modest hotel in Southeast Asia, you have to make do with the garish fluorescent tube on the ceiling.
One thing that impressed me about the place was that the old man in charge actually had a large collection of 25-cent pieces to be able to give proper change when people paid in USD.
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Post by bjd on Jan 30, 2012 20:07:02 GMT
I don't know how long ago that was, but they ended up staying only one day in Luang Prabang because it was so busy.
Mind you, I don't know what their expectations for this trip were.
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 31, 2012 7:17:50 GMT
I don't know how long ago that was, but they ended up staying only one day in Luang Prabang because it was so busy. Mind you, I don't know what their expectations for this trip were. Doesn't surprise me. Luang Pabang is even fuller of tourists than Hoi An. And the World Heritage status they got is even more controversial. Best to stay in the south, where nobody goes, or people find too boring, or contains no attractions. If that's the kind of Laos you're looking for. But a lot of them need their 24/7 3G internet, their convenience stores, the possibility to not be alone (imagine backpackers asking 'will I be alone all the time off the beaten track?'), their hot water, etc. And therefore end up with all the others on the standard trek. |
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Post by imec on Feb 1, 2012 3:16:32 GMT
I WANT that bowl of laksa! |
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Post by hwinpp on Feb 1, 2012 10:35:16 GMT
LOL! I'll get another one just for you next time I'm going over, Imec.
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