Sunday, April 30, 2017

D'Bintan Kelong Seafood Restaurant within the Bintan Resorts Vicinity @ Bintan Island [Indonesia]

In the short two days, one night Bintan trip with my polytechnic classmates, a friend proposed having dinner at a kelong restaurant and although i have reservations, given that the standard of seafood in Singapore is one of the best in the region; i must always go back to the basic blogging advice of "never try, never know". 

The cars arrived on time to pick the twelve of us from Angsana Bintan; for free transportation, we must spend a minimum of one million rupiah which we figured would be achievable since there were a total of eleven adults and it worked out to be about slightly more than S$10 a person! 

Within fifteen minutes, the cars dropped all of us outside the 'grand' entrance of Bintan Mangrove which was very near to the local market; hm... did the person mistakenly bring us for a different thing!?  It didn't help that i was feeling rather hungry at that time.

Guidelines for your reference before you enter the mangrove attraction; don't think i have the means and capability to hunt animals or even fell the trees.  

There was a slight drizzle; definitely not the best time to visit the mangroves. Nevertheless, the person bringing us in didn't say a single thing and i guess then that there shouldn't be any mistake that we needed dinner. 

A few structures in sight; okay, so that's where our dinner would be! 

Wrong again! We would require a boat ride to the kelong restaurant and this would be the place where we would take the speedboat.

Need insect repellent? You may purchase it from the above shop within the jetty, together with snorkeling sets, sandcastle kits, caps, snacks etc. 

This jetty is actually the starting point for the bintan mangrove discovery tour which was the gold award winner for PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) 2003. p.s. i did note that it's been more than ten years. 

All of us had to put on smelly life-jackets that had been reused many, many times! Okay, i exaggerated a bit; it didn't smell that bad once the boat sped away.

Preparing to board! 

Boat ride was only about five minutes and if not for the sky's continual tearing, it would have been pleasurable to have the nice sea breeze brushing against our face

Arrived at the restaurant - it's not exactly kelong in my opinion since i was expecting something in the middle of the river or offshore but this was connected to the mainland. Oh well, i had faced similar situations before so it might be my misconstrued perception. 

It was a relatively small restaurant with just about five to six round tables and aside from one small group, we were the only customers. Strange to have such low numbers on a Saturday night! 

These structures next door appeared new and seemed to be chalets with balcony. 

Live seafood - grouper and crabs! We actually wanted to go with the live grouper but it was too big at about 3 kilograms and if i recollected correctly, it's going to be very expensive! 

Operator got us a smaller one which we thought would be more manageable on both our tummies and also wallet. There's absolutely no problem in attaining the minimal spending of one million rupiah! 

Orders were made (menu would be shared towards the end of this post) and it's now just a waiting game for us while the chefs whipped up the delicious dishes for us.

Boom - the lights went out. It's not a marketing gimmick to let us have a romantic dinner and our group was actually quite chilled about the power failure; we even joked that we might not even know what was served to us since we can't really see under the candlelight! 

The lights came on just in time for us to take a picture of the blackberry juice; thought it looked more purplish than black. Anyway, it was pretty good with a strong yet sweet berry taste. 

Salted Egg Sotong (Large) - in spite of the bright yellow coloring, this didn't taste heavy of salted egg yolk even though it was appetising enough for us to overlook the lack of it. 

Gong Gong (Large) - my first time trying the dog conch and i must say it's interesting; like eating crab meat with a harder texture. Kind of regret not trying it for the past 37 years. 

Broccoli with Mushrooms (Large) - average.

Cereal Prawns (Large) - Even though the prawns tasted accepted, the cereals were just not fried long enough on the wok as i could hardly get a whiff of the aroma that's supposed to make this dish irresistible.

Chicken Satay (20 Sticks) - well seasoned and nice although they didn't feature the sweetness we were more accustomed to in Singapore. 

Salted Egg Crab (1 Kilogram) - this was surprisingly good with shell that you could probably use your teeth to chew through and reminded me of the non-creamy, crunchy one at Yi Jia South Village Seafood Restaurant. Only problem; not sweet enough.

Chilli Crab (1 Kilogram) - even though the crab was fresh, i didn't quite like this as the spiciness was just a hint and it's actually quite salty. 

Steamed Grouper - the best way to eat a live fresh is to steam it alive! The statement may sound extremely cruel but holds true among the Chinese. Poor fish must be in agony. 

Despite my expression of pity towards the fish, it was downright the tastiest fish i ever had in my whole life; it was so fresh and sweet that we should have gone with the 3-kilogram one! 

=====

Location
Within the Bintan Resorts Vicinity
Bintan Island, Indonesia

To Book for the Kelong Dinner
Email : spadbs@gmail.com 
WhatsApp / Line / WeChat: +62 813 6381 0181

Packages
My friend actually shared the link that he visited to book for the kelong dinner. There are packages for those who prefer to have massage plus dinner plus firefly tour etc. You may click here for more information.

Menu 
As above. p.s. i think i missed out a few pages.

Pricing
No individual pricing as i forgot to ask for the receipt from our class treasurer. If my memory serves me well, i think we spend about 3 million rupiah on our meal. 


Patisserie G - Time for Desserts after Dinner! @ Millenia Walk [Singapore]

On the few occasions i was at Millenia Walk, i always noticed a literal full house at Patisserie G despite the many such dining establishments in close proximity; hence, we were ecstatic to find it almost empty on a Friday evening and decided to have desserts! 

We just had tendon at Kohaku and there's no way we could stomach another main course even though i vaguely remember a friend informing that it's famous for its egg dishes. Whatever, there's always room for sweet things after meals! 

Local newspapers and magazines for your reading pleasure; shall keep this in mind as a future reference in case i need to wait for someone at Suntec area and the person is late.

Birthday treat for me and another friend who was also borne in the month of April - much thanks to you-know-who-you-are! Blessed to have so many friends who love to fatten me up! 

Small French Hot Chocolate -super thick and you would be excused for thinking it's just melted high quality chocolate. Personally, i think i would prefer the cheaper, thinner and milkier version.

This was mine although i couldn't recollect what it was; maybe mocha? Tasted unexceptional; hence the random elimination from my over-packed brain. 

PG Dome - notwithstanding the laughter from the staff, i am insisting this should be called pokemon ball. There was a sourish sweetness to it that complemented perfected with the almond sponge! I rarely enjoy sourish desserts but as you can attest, there's always exception.

The G Spot - with sexual undertones, i am wondering what would be the answers given by parents when their young child asks what does the G stand for. I can tell you it is an abbreviation of Gwen; owner of Patisserie G. 

Never a fan of chocolate cakes; this caught my attention for being so similar to ferrero rocher, albeit in an artisan cake form and you know what's the best thing? It's not cloyingly sweet and as the name somewhat suggests, it hit the right spot. 

======

Location
9 Raffles Boulevard,
Millenia Walk #01-40/41,
Singapore 039596

Website

Menu for Brunch and Drinks
As above.

Pricing
Small French Hot Chocolate - S$4.50
Mocha - S$6.00
PG Dome - S$9.00
The G Spot - S$9.00 
(Subject to GST and Service Charge)