Sundanese Food in Bandung, Indonesia

I went to Bandung with my second sister for a 4 days 3 nights tour in Indonesia. Bandung is also known as 'Paris van Java' in Dutch or simply 'Paris of Java'. It is known for its fashionable clothes that are very affordable because of factory overflow. I have blogged about my trip here in Protips - my Holidays in Bandung. You can check out 7 beautiful photos taken in this post.

Above is an attractive menu in one of the Sundanese restaurants that we dined in. It is designed in a typical Indonesian style with lots of brown theme to represent wood and basket weaving.

Here is my order of the Sundanese food of ayam bakar or barbequed chicken, some cucumbers, otak (steamed fish with coconut milk, spices and wrapped in banana leaf), sambal (chilly paste with belacan). The cutleries are mostly made from baskets that are synonymous with Indonesian culture. The white steamed rice was served in a bigger basket receptacle.

We went to another restaurant after visiting a dormant volcano called Mount Tangkuban Perahu in Bandung or also known as an upside down boat as it is shaped like that. This is the long table and ambience of the place. There are lots of weavings infused in the furniture that is typical of the culture here.

Most of Sundanese dishes won't make do without cucumbers and 'belacan'. This is not the usual long cucumber that you normally find in the markets but a round type of vegetable that tastes just like a cucumber.

Here is my buffet breakfast selection at the 4-star Aston Braga Hotel in Bandung. Aston Braga hotel is a very convenient hotel to stay as just downstairs are many shops with high-end eateries to cater to the tourists.

This is another shot of the buffet spread consisting of doughs, breads, buns, croissants and your usual fare of breakfast food of carbohydrates for energy early in the morning.

This is the section for fruits consisting of carved papaya, watermelon, pineapple, honeydew melon, etc to add zest, minerals and vitamins to your diet. There's plenty of anti-oxidants here to prevent cancer.

For desserts, we had this 'kuih' or some sweet tangy and soft mouthfuls made from sago and coconut milk.

These are 2 slices of Honey Cake which Indonesia is famous for. It has lots of perforations and is spongy with lots of holes in it. Apparently it is steamed when in liquid form and the bubbles create the perforations to give a soft texture to the bite.

During one of the days of tour, I had vegetables soup as I was down with flu on the first day. Thank goodness, upon arrival, we could rest the whole evening when I recovered after buying some cough and anti-vomit medication from the pharmacist on the ground floor of the hotel.

I ordered this Sundanese food for dinner as my sister insisted on it and she loves Sundanese food - since we could not have in back home in Penang. It consists of tauhu goreng or fried flat bean curd.

Dinner at Clinic Cafe - A Hospital Themed Restaurant

Last night, I had dinner at this hospital theme set up restaurant on the 4th floor of Gurney Plaze. What attracted my attention was the many first time diners thronging to this splendidly designed cafe that looks just like a hospital. Even the waitresses wear nursing uniforms with face masks! You can even find posters normally found in clinics on health and the various parts of the body to educate the masses. The tables and chairs were specially designed to look like those taken from a hospital with plenty of red PVC cushions as backing. There were also syringes and surgery tools exhibited behind glass panels.

This was my order of breaded fish fillet cut in stripes and deep fried till golden brown. Notice the syringe of tomato sauce on the right side. I thought this was very innovative. Even the drinks come in beakers and various shapes that you can find in a chemical lab. The food was not too expensive considering its hospital like ambience and comfortable red soft cushions on the seats. Since it was Malaysia's national day on 31st August, the Malaysian flag on a toothpick was added to the cuisine.

This was another order of black pepper chicken noodles that tasted quite yummy and piquant with lots of black pepper thrown in and served in a stainless steel kidney-shaped bowl. Overall, the food tastes quite good with reasonably good price below RM10.00 a dish. Though we waited quite some time, apparently the cook forgot our order, we were nevertheless not disappointed as after the second reminder, they quickly served the food in 5 minutes after a wait for half an hour or so. But time flies quickly as we were also entertained with flat screen TV shows of Tom and Jerry - a feel good and humorous flick.

Not only the tables and chairs look like those in a hospital, the lights resemble surgery lights in an operating theatre as shown above. I must give credit to the interior designer for putting all these minute details to resemble a hospital setting.

This is the surgery room (notice the wordings behind the counter) that whips up beakers of drinks for the diners. I certainly find this restaurant amusing and even the 'nurse' waitress wear black stockings besides the face mask. This hospital themed food cafe is much better than a toilet theme outlet in Queensbay Mall where you sit on toilet bowls at chairs and food served in toilet bowl-like receptables! I don't even bother to walk inside and try this place.