BATAM DAY 1

With strollers - both are brothers

Idham trying out the raw duck yolk with tea.

The nasi goreng - Enak Sekali Dong!

Mee ayam dry with a separate bowl of soup

Mutton satay dipped with ABC black soya sauce

The rows of satay sellers. Juct pick your fave!

Idham and Siti. They made great company!

Clowning with street children

Nagoya Hill Mall - behind our hotel

At a card printing shop

Mee Bakso warong asongan vendor

At Puti Bongsi Eating House

Eeeni..Meeni..Mainee Moore.... 20 dishes to choose from

A cobbler to mend your shoes

A stamp maker waiting for customers

An es teller for me once I reached Batam

Blinded by shopping @ the 'Matahari' (Sun)

The two men ordering their Nescafe

The Batam that greeted me after 15 years

'MATAHARI' BLINDED ME!

Stepped on Batam soil after a hiatus of fiftteen years - the days when Zoo Station invaded our shoreline and one of the must place in Batam's itinerary was a stopover at its station. Batam Ferry Jetty was still in it's ramshackled condition and I remember vivdly how we had to carry Nizar strapped in his stroller, above our heads while Thaqif up on his father's shoulders to avoid being crushed by the melee of crowd leaving for Singapore.

We left as scheduled at 8.40 am ferry after making a fuss with the ferry operators. Siti's data was not captured on computer so she could not board with us although we had booked the tickets a week ahead. We insisted on leaving as the four musketeers and finally after throwing some tantrum and mama drama stunts, we got our wishes!

The ferry terminal had taken a complete make over since then. Things are more orderly and there is not much of a hassle in arrival now. Officers welcomed us with a smile and girls clad in batik kebaya invited us to their cafe. The four of us, together with Idham and Siti decided to steal the weekend for a short getaway to Batam, never expecting that we would come back with a totally different kind of experience!

Batam Mega Mall was still in a stupor state, with many shops still closed. We were too early for them, but not Matahari Department store. It was offering great discounts and all hell broke loose with Siti and I as we rummaged through the discounted items. Within ten minutes of arrival, Batam had swallowed me in with her shopping - log, stock and barrel. The husbands were sieving CDs for their music collection at a music store, from Marcell to Metallica and from Guns & Roses to Jonathan Butler.

We tried checking in at Nagoya Plasa at 1.30pm but our rooms were not ready yet. Leaving our baggages with them, we walked towards the nearby Putu Bongsu makan house. I had never been faced with a difficult decision to make - to choose what to start eating from twenty dishes laid in front of me! There was pangang chicken, steam and smoked chicken, chicken fried in batter, rendang chicken, chicken belado, chicken pecel - the same goes for the beef dishes too. The use of spice was mild and not overpowering. Rice was eaten dry with little gravy. But the extra 'kick' came from the green cili sambal.

I love a lot of herbs and spices in my cooking. The 'naked' meat nevertheless disappeared from our eyes as we tried plate after plate of the dishes. We believe in being adventurous with authentic cooking so a little adjustment to our taste buds would enrich our cuisine vocabulary and make us more appreciative of the local culture in cooking. We washed down our lunch with blended avocado mixed with coconut sugar.

After checking in and a quick washup, we walked a short distance to Nagoya Hill Plaza where 'Matahari' awaited us again. I snapped up about six blouses, taking advantage of their offers and currency exchange rate which had gone up - 1SGD to 800000RP. The retail theraphy was like a romance to me - taking me at a whirlwind speed and with love and buying at first sight.

Dinner was along a narrow street beside the hotel. See how convenient the location of the hotel is. The street was filled with vendors selling satay, seafood, egg martabak and mee ayam, bakso, mee pangsit, mee alim and jamu drinks. We tried the mutton and chicken satay dipped with specially prepared ABC black soya sauce mixed with cili padi and sliced onion and peanut sauce. Siti and Idham had mee ayam with bakso while my husband asked for fried rice.

The smoky atmosphere because of the rows and rows of 'pedagang asongan' (mobile vendors) couldn't stop us from enjoying our first night dinner alfresco style at Batam. One satay stick after another went into our mouth, alternating with mee ayam and the fried rice. Mee ayam was served dry with shredded chicken, cube mutton, fried shallots and spring onion. It's then tossed with special sauces and vinegar. You may ask for the bakso soup or its own soup to go along with it. The 'kemangi' leaf is eaten as a salad to it. The fried rice was not oily and in three letters - 'WOW!' For dessert we had Murtabak Manis - similar to Malaysia's kueh Pulau Pinang but it had shredded cheese topping the groundnuts.

The food was superb and the service was fast. Our standing ovation went to Idham for trying out milk tea with a raw duck yolk. We gave the thumbs up for the dinner and the 'Wak Satay.' It was cheap and fulfilled our desire to try real cooking of the local people. As the night crawled in and the street strewn with satay sticks and ketupat leaves, we contemplated of either watching a midnight movie or listening to some live music at our hotel.

We opted to check out the music scene but because the fairer sex was wearing the 'tudung' (scarf), we were barred from entering the disco by the bouncers. I bet they noticed our eye bags were getting puffier and heavier and thought that we might need our beauty sleep to prepare for ourselves for the next day's experience at Nagoya. The midnight show was forgotten and we decided that the body neeed some rest and the legs bellowed for some resting.

Does anyone know why this part of Batam is called Nagoya? Any connection to WW2 when the Japs attacked the region?