KennethT

Hey everybody, happy new year and welcome to yet another KennethT SE Asia foodblog. This time around, we went to an area of Indonesia called Komodo, a collection of small islands that are home to the Komodo Dragon as well as some spectacular scuba diving. Unfortunately, this trip was besieged by bad luck practically from start to finish, so I hope this report won't be too disappointing for you to read... although it was disappointing for us, but I think we made the best of it. The good news is that this was another illness free trip! A Festivus miracle! As usual lately, we flew via Singapore Airlines direct from NYC to Singapore on what is constantly touted as the "world's longest flight" - about 9500 miles. The plane is broken up into only 2 classes - business and premium economy. Since we've racked up a bunch of miles lately, we wound up getting their frequenty flyer program Gold Status, which allowed us entry to the Capital One lounge in NY's JFK airport. We wanted to be in there, primarily, as it would be less crowded than the terminal itself and we've been quarantining for over a month to make sure that we arrived healthy. We found a relatively secluded spot in the lounge and you could order snacks, via your phone and a QR code, that would be delivered to your table: Short rib sliders with meat from Pat LaFrida (a well known butcher here in NYC). Food on the flight to Singapore can be found here, here, here and here. Unfortunately, we didn't have a very long layover, shortened even more as we landed a little late... so we didn't get a chance to get chicken rice while in Terminal 2.... instead, we used the brief opportunity to try something that I've been wanting to try for many years but never had the chance to do so. Bee Cheng Hiang is a well known purveyor of bakkwa (started in 1933 in Singapore and have grown to over 300 locations in 11 countries) - a Malaysian/Singaporean barbequed jerky, typically made from pork, but they had a LOT of options. Here's just a few: The meat is first dried into jerky, then coated with some kind of sweet sauce and then grilled. We only tried the classic, original version, but it was delicious and addictive. If we weren't relatively full from the flight before and knowing we would be fed again on our next flight, and then eat again in the airport, etc, we could have gorged ourselves! But instead, we just got 100g to share while sitting outside the gate for the next flight. It's not so easy to get to the Komodo area - there are very few direct flights - most connect through Bali, which is an island just to the west. The Flores Sea is just to the north of Komodo - named for one of the islands of the area. Here is a map of the kinda-sorta western half of Indonesia: The food on the flight to Bali can be found here. Here's the beginning of our bad luck - our flight from Singapore to Bali landed around 11AM, and we had originally scheduled the connection to the Komodo area (the main city called Labuan Bajo) to leave around 1:30, arriving around 2:30... A few months ago, the local airline decided to cancel the flight to Labuan Bajo and we were bumped to the flight leaving Bali at 5PM, landing at 6:15. So that means that we now have 6 hours in the Bali airport, after already flying for over 20 hours with a couple hour layover in between, plus we were working all day on the day we left... so to say we were tired by the time we got to Bali is understating things. The Bali airport has a capsule style "hotel" - it's basically a couple walls full of pods about the size of coffins that you can rent in 6 hour chunks. I neglected to take photos of it, but it's pretty accurately depicted on their website: https://passgo-digital-airport-hotel-bali.kutahotel.net/en/ It's pretty inexpensive and, while not very comfortable, it's definitely better than nothing. After attempting to take a few hour nap, we went to lunch at a Balinese restaurant in the airport, Made's Warung. A warung is a kind of road-side restaurant. They started in south Bali in 1969 and have now expanded to 8 restaurants - 2 in the airport (one in the domestic terminal, one in the international). This is the location in the international terminal, probably around 3PM, hence why it's not so busy. The basket on the table holds a bunch of kerupuk, or Indonesian crackers, of various kinds. There was a tempe based one, a fish based one and a vegetable based one. Lime juice... A Balinese specialty - ayam (chicken) betutu. For being in the airport, it was quite good. Served with a chicken sate lillet (on the stick) which is a minced chicken sate, fried chicken skin, lawar - which is a kind of cooked vegetable salad made with shredded coconut, peanuts and sambal matah - a "raw" sambal common in Bali. Fried chicken, served with sambal matah and sambal terasi (a fried chilli sauce made with shrimp paste) and was served with Some vegetables on the side. Then, finally, the local airline to Labuan Bajo, food from which can be found here. By the time we landed and collected our bags (which was surprisingly fast), and got to the hotel about 20 minutes away, we were so tired we weren't really hungry so we decided not to bother having dinner.

Last one!!!! About 1.5 hours before landing:

Getting to the end of our eating marathon... Breakfast (it's about 10AM Singapore time): Recently flaky croissant (served warm) and Char sieu with wonton noodles. Unfortunately the Chinese broccoli was mushy which is strange - usually it's pretty good. Their sambal is really good - spicy with a bit of a roasted flavor .

Continuing the million meal march, menus for SIN to Newark, NJ, Prem Economy.... Dinner, just served (1:30AM local time), The shrimp were nicely cooked and the aioli was definitely smoky. The bread actually had bread texture and was stuffed with garlic butter. The cake seemed to be the same mango cake they had in the lounge. Chicken biryani from the Book the Cook menu (ordered in advance). As usual, I wish I could get this in NY - the rice isn't oily at all, tons of whole spices, tender spiced chicken.

Some snacks in the lounge... you can't have tea without snacks... Chocolate muffin, vanilla cream puff, mango mousse cake

In the SilverKris lounge in SIN (we got gold status from our points!), tons of food options - too bad we're still stuffed from dinner - but it's got some nice seating to while away the time, plus they have TWG Tea!!!!! Which is great since we need to stay up for at least another 4 hours... A beautiful, delicate Ti Kuan yin. Also on offer is a dedicated Laksa station, various dim sum, savory dishes, serve yourself cocktails like G&T, plus a bar, various wines, etc...

Not yet... I usually start writing it a few days after I get home and can go through all the photos (mine and my wife's). I'm currently in the Singapore airport waiting for our last flight, so I should be home around 20 hours from now, and will then sleep all day and get ready for work on Monday. Trip report should start around then. Keep an eye out in the SE Asian Dining section.

Also, not shown was lunch in the Bali airport around 1PM....

Next up, Garuda Airlines (Indonesia's national airline), Bali to SIN, 2.5 hour flight departing around 3PM: Trio of melon, some kind of mousse cake which was super light and airy. Choice of chicken with rice or seafood noodle. Stewed chicken (tasted like 5 spice). I didn't eat much of it since we were going to have dinner in one of the hundreds of restaurants in Singapore's airport (including the Jewel which is outside the transit area). This is fine since we needed to collect our luggage and check in with Singapore Airlines so we had to go through immigration anyway (takes 5 seconds with their autogates).

First up on our 35+ hour journey home.... Same budget airline, same 1 hour flight, same sweet roll stuffed with chocolate paste.

Mais, bien sur!

If there were any leftovers, I'd humbly request that you send them to me via FedEx....

Either that's a shit load of truffle butter or a really small plate!

Seconded.... I learned the hard way!!!!

Yeah, there were a lot of varieties. Too bad I can't bring any home... But I'll be in Changi for a few hours next week, but I don't know if I'll have the stomach space by then!