KennethT

Dragonfruit doesn't really have much flavor in the best of times. Most places serve it with a slice of lime to squeeze on top. In Saigon, they served it with a dish of salt and chilli with lime juice so it made a paste for dipping. I like it because it is full of water - it is super hydrating, plus it's refreshing, especially with the squeeze of lime. BTW, the color is just as vivid on the way out! Something to be aware of so you don't worry thinking that you have intestinal bleeding....

We got to the airport about 20 minutes before the desk opened to check our bags, so we waited around a while. Once done, we moved through the essentially empty airport (our flight may have been the first of the day) not really finding anything to eat for breakfast, and to be honest, we weren't really hungry anyway. Most of what was available was coffee and pastries like croissants, etc, nothing local. But Batik Air gave us the same sweet roll with chocolate on the flight to Bali - Once in the Bali airport, we went to the other Made's Warung as it seemed like the best local option: This place was packed - we had to wait a few minutes for a table... the setting also wasn't nearly as nice looking as the one in the other terminal. But the food was still good, despite how crowded they were.... A very good ayam (chicken) betutu. I had been planning to make this at home, but now I definitely have to. Fried chicken with sambal matah and a sambal goreng, plus lawar (mixed vegetable with shredded coconut) and peanuts. Next up, a flight on Garuda Airlines (Indonesia's national carrier) to Singapore: Once we got to Singapore, we went through immigration (painless and fast using the autogates) since we had to check our bags in on our Singapore Airlines flight. While we were in the public area, we decided to go the Jewel for dinner and wander around a bit since we had several hours before our 11:30PM flight home. After taking all we could of the crowds, we made our way into the Jewel's basement to try a Nyonya restaurant new to us. Unfortunately, Violet Oon closed her restaurant in the Jewel a few months ago and moved it to the Dempsey Hill neighborhood... great for Dempsey Hill, bad for us - we loved that place! Here's where we went: Some menu shots - it was set up to look like an old newspaper, but you ordered through a QR code you scanned on your phone. I had wanted to try their mee siam - we had it at a Nyonya restaurant in Penang and wanted to see how it differed... Berempah chicekn with mee siam. Their version was really dry and tasted more of dried spices rather than the penang version. In the spoon is a calamansi which is quite acidic and very different from a lime. Now I need to grow a calamansi tree.... sigh.... This is the curry sliced fish. I don't know what the fish was, but it was a white fish that was really meaty and had no bones. There was so much fish lurking in here, and the broth was fantastic - coconut milk and dried spices.... One of the best parts about it was the tofu skin floating on top which absorbed the curry like a sponge.... I also got a teh tarik (pulled tea made with sweetened condensed milk). I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't very frothy by the time it was delivered. Behind it was the "tingkat" which are bowls to accompany the curry. The top is rice and the bottom is Sambal potato leaves, made with tons of shrimp paste (it IS Nyonya after all!) They had some desserts but also had a serve yourself cendol stand: Cendol is basically shaved ice with coconut cream and palm sugar syrup with little squiggles of pandan flavored agar. We were so full though, we didn't partake....

We were really impressed by the reefs that we saw - they were all in great shape and yes, the area is known for currents - you can see why! Those currents are actually nothing compared to certain dive sites. One site, called shotgun, is known for so much current that you need to use a reef hook and rope to hang on for dear life while watching sharks and other pelagics cavorting in the nutrient rich water. Then, you let go and get swept away. Many thrill seeking people come to Komodo just for that type of experience, but we wouldn't do that dive, even if we were allowed to go there - we feel like we don't have nearly enough experience to deal with that and it's just too risky. To paraphrase Donald Glover.... we're getting too old for this sh*t.... Honestly, we love traveling to this part of the world - yes, the jetlag is a pain, but it's definitely manageable. Plus, usually there is at least something extremely compelling to come here. This trip should have had tons of mantas, black and white tip reef sharks, possible whale shark sightings and more so that definitely would have made the travel worth it. We wouldn't have come all this way just for the house reef, but you make the best of what you have, right? Plus, there's a reason I named this report "take 1".....

After lunch, we were debating what to do for the rest of our last day. Unfortunately, they still weren't allowed to take us out to either Komodo or Rinca islands to see the dragons or to Padar for hiking and amazing views. We weren't thinking of snorkeling since our wetsuits were still drying and we wanted them to be dry in time for the flight the next morning, otherwise they add a LOT of weight to the suitcase! It then occurred to us that we could rent wetsuits from the hotel rather than using our own for one last snorkel - so after getting fitted, back into the drink we went! Most of the coral gardens were basically the same as I've shown already, but we did see a huge school of trevally just before getting out of the water... So happy we decided to go one last time - it was pretty cool to feel surrounded by these rather large fish - each one was maybe 1.5 - 2 feet long. For dinner, I risked another tuna tataki (with no bad effects later) And another round of prawn spring rolls And we split the Thai-ish red curry and nasi campur Fruit and a last tiramisu.... We went to bed early since we had to wake up at 5AM to pack before meeting our boat at 6:15 to get to the airport. The next morning, the hotel offered us a takeaway box with breakfast, which was very nice of them since they just opened, but we declined, thinking we'd get something to eat in the airport - we should have plenty of time there as we were leaving early on purpose just to make sure we made that flight - if we missed it, it would cause a huge host of problems...

They may not, but I can! Especially while it's still cold outside but I imagine this stuff to be pretty temperature tolerant, bacteria-wise.

I thought you'd get it....

@ShelbyThis is the place I've passed by a million times but never tried. That will have to change soon!

Don't forget the beef fat!!! You should be frying your eggs with tallow, and then drizzle melted butter on top.

The next day was our last day before flying home - so this means no diving as you really shouldn't dive 24 hours before flying. This is where the last of bad luck happened. Originally, our flight from Labuan Bajo to Bali was supposed to leave around 1:30 in the afternoon, but that flight was changed to leave around 3:30 which would cause us to miss our connection in Bali to Singapore. So instead, we had to rebook the flight to one that left at 9:50AM. If we had been able to take the original flight, the plan would have been to dive in the morning since we'd be on the surface long before the 24 hours cutoff. One of the reasons we came to Komodo was to see manta rays - they are huge - 10 feet across and gracefully glide through the water and are practically everywhere in Komodo this time of year as it's on their migration path. There are some dive sites where you'd see 10-20 of them lazily circling around.... So, of course, the hotel was able to get permission to go back to the same place we dove the day before that morning, but this time, it was early enough to do 2 dives at slightly different sites in the same area - and, of course, they saw a few manta rays!!!!! Anyway, we didn't hear about this until the boat got back in time for lunch, so in the meantime, we had breakfast: Jasmine tea - finally! I hadn't had any since we were in Labuan Bajo as I like to stay as hydrated as possible when diving so I stay away from caffeine. pineapple and I think this cake was chocolate flavored, but I'm not 100% sure.... The last of the pancakes The last of the poached eggs After breakfast, we decided to take a short hike to the top of the island - the hotel put in a "panoramic viewpoint" which is really a 1 square meter slab of concrete.... View from the panorama After getting back and changing out of our now sweaty clothes, it was time for lunch: Soto ayam for me... Last nasi goreng for a while.... I just asked for the fruit platter but without the watermelon (I'm not a huge fan): Must have lime with dragonfruit!!! My wife's fruit platter:

After lunch, they were able to take us to a dive site close by, but not the house reef. It was a nice dive, but I didn't film anything too different from what I've shown already, so I won't bother posting any video. If anyone wants to see some, let me know and I'll put a few up for kicks.... Just before dinner, a nice sunset: We both got the prawn spring rolls We also both got the beef rendang... I found it interesting the lack of vegetables served, so I asked if we could get a side of stir fried vegetables - like the bok choy they had in the soup for lunch, or some water spinach (how I missed you!) or some cassava leaves (more common in that area) and they brought: Oh well.... better than nothing.... Dessert: No dragonfruit that night

After lunch, we didn't have much to do, so we basically just lay around... I don't think that agreed with me because my stomach started feeling not so great as dinner time rolled around... I think eating all those desserts and not getting much activity was getting to me... who knows... Anyway, that was NYE and of course, they'd have a special menu... After seeing the fish in the local market, we decided that the sushi platter was not a great idea. Yes, I know, chances are that it would have been fine and they weren't getting their fish from the local market, but we really didn't want to take any chances, plus I wasn't feeling 100% and my wife didn't really want to eat that much either... I also didn't think my stomach was up for the Chicken Kiev so I asked for some ginger tea and some plain grilled chicken.... Ginger tea - interestingly, they added some lime juice to it Plain grilled chicken with some vegetables Chicken Kiev We decided to not get dessert either, but they wouldn't let us leave before getting the special fruit platter: Snake fruit, bananas and mandarins. Mandarins are a NY tradition for Chinese (usually lunar new year) and Russian NY, evidently. The snake fruit (salak) is similar in Indonesia. I'll stand by what I said years ago, I still haven't found a snake fruit that I enjoyed. The next morning, I woke up feeling better - not 100%, but at least 90. So, breakfast... pineapple and a pandan chiffon cake - I think the green was food coloring - there was no pandan flavor evident More ginger tea Slightly eaten pancakes... my wife's poached eggs not pictured.... After breakfast, and more ginger tea, I was feeling quite a bit better, so we decided to do another house reef snorkel right after breakfast, when the current was going in the other direction, so we'd see the other side of the house reef. As you'll see, the current was a bit strong that morning - as you see things going by, we were just floating - not kicking at all.... Soft corals waving in the current Lots of fish under the dock..... Afterwards, lunch.... More ginger tea... just in case.... I had the chicken burger - it seemed to be the same chicken cutlets that they served me for dinner the night before More nasi goreng I had the creme brulee - but only had about 1/3 of it

Wow! That is really windy!!! Do you have some kind of tractor that you can use to try to pull the deer stand back upright?

I somehow neglected to take photos of breakfast the next morning - my wife had 2 poached eggs and I think I had pancakes with (gasp) maple syrup!! Really, they couldn't make some palm sugar syrup!?! How much did it cost to bring maple syrup over there!?! We got the ok to be able to dive the house reef that morning. There isn't a lot to see there, but I looked at it as a chance to practice my buoyancy, and they were using the opportunity to get us to help them do some reef cleaning - aka picking up trash that finds its way in there... Reef with puffer fish Colorful reef shot More reef aquarium..... Lunch after the dive: This was the wonton noodle soup... I think they said that it was from Shanghai or something... dishes on the side had soy sauce and sesame oil. Do I have to say what this was? For context, here's some shots from the beach.... Most of these surrounding islands are uninhabited or barely habited.

Looking at the whole plant and pot, I wonder if it has gotten root bound, in which case, it will always be a little wilty because there can't be enough root mass to support the plant. I really like fabric pots since it's impossible for it to get root bound - instead, the fabric air prunes the roots, which encourages more branching - you wind up with a giant super dense ball of roots. I always cut my basil flowers - they're so pretty, but I always thought that if I didn't, the plant wouldn't do as well.

Ha! Yeah, we thought that was hilarious - but definitely not the first time we've seen something like that. I don't know how she could sleep with that smell though... I guess you can get used to anything. Yeah, it's funny how certain things are so common in one place, and then in another so close by, it's like they've never even heard of it. Lime juice (it's really a limeaid, but called lime juice) is so common in Singapore and Malaysia. The fact that it's so rare in most of Indonesia is interesting. I guess it's kind of like sweet tea or grits being a big thing in the south US, but no one has ever heard of it (except on TV or in books) in NY.

I think I've walked past a place in NYC that makes it, but I've never tried it. Next time I'm in Chinatown, I'll try to take one for the team... for research purposes only, of course.... Funny - I never noticed it when I was there, but looking at the photos now, it seems like all the trees in the pots are dead... I can't imagine them being dormant, like we get in winter - how would the trees know when winter was? It's always hot, the amount of sunshine varies by like +/- 20 minutes all year since it's so close to the equator... maybe they go dormant during the rainy season? I've never heard of trees that did that but who knows... Everywhere else was so green.... I think it had sweet soy sauce in it - that would be common in Indonesia, but since the hotel catered to mostly Europeans, who knows, it could have been balsamic vinegar!!! Ha! But we didn't try it, so I don't know for sure.... Ha, more like 3 planes! For those outside of NYC, LA, SF or Seattle, probably 4 at least!!

After lunch, we were told that they'd be able to take us on a dive of the house reef around 3PM.... Spotted stingray.... Batfish This looked like a hawksbill turtle For dinner a few hours later: We both got the prawn spring roll.... Nasi campur - next to the rice ball are two corn fritters, on the stick are two chicken sate lillet (really dry) and two pieces of chicken with some fried tempe with sweet soy sauce and some tempeh chips This was kinda like a Thai red curry with chicken Ice cream - it was a little icy, like it had melted a bit and then refroze - not surprising as it had to survive going from the store to the car to the boat then a 30+ minute boat ride, then to the pier and then finally to the kitchen all in 85-90degF.... Fruit platter - pineapple, watermelon, dragonfruit

Breakfast the next morning - at this point, we were hopeful we'd be able to go out for some dives - there was a plan to leave at 7:45 for a 2 tank dive (1 dive at 8, the next after a 1 hour surface interval on the boat after we surfaced, so probably around 10-10:30). Good pineapple and dragon fruit Mie goreng (fried noodles) with chicken sate covered in a sweet-ish peanut sauce. I forgot to take a photo of my wife's poached eggs. Unfortunately, the morning dives were cancelled as they were not given permission to move the boats by the harbormaster... Instead, they offered us the ability to snorkel the house reef, which was really nice. Due to the constant currants, you shouldn't just jump in the water to snorkel as you'd drift far away and then it's a lot of swimming up the current to get back. So they took us in a zodiac a ways away and dropped us off so we could just have a nice drift snorkel back to the pier. This shows some of the coral garden and a puffer fish More coral and a green turtle - when the camera breaks the surface, you can see the turtle's head pop up to take a breath I had thought this was some kind of grouper, but was later told that it was a lipstick fish I was so impressed by the coral gardens in this area. So many different types of hard and soft corals - most with only minimal bleaching if any at all. After the snorkel, it was basically time for lunch. View from our table This is the beef wrap. The menu said that it was beef with "capsicum" which I assumed to mean chillies, but no, just bell pepper slices. Another nasi goreng.... More tiramisu... And a creme brulee....

The rest of the afternoon was spent unpacking, getting our dive equipment set up, etc. As we were seated for dinner, we had a few wild guests join us... I got the tuna tatake for an appetizer - only realizing midway through that most fish in the area is not kept on ice in the market so probably not the best idea, but I never got sick, so whew! Prawn spring rolls I was hoping that the hotel would have a lot of traditionally grilled fish, but no.... Fried squid, a single prawn (I think it was fried also) and more grilled tuna. Served with a tomato/shallot/chilli mixture and a sambal goreng (normal fried sambal). The beef rendang, which was probably closer to gulai than rendang but it was pretty good - definitely not like a true Padang rendang though. On the side is a very small piece of eggplant covered in sambal - that's about as much vegetable as we get here!!! We forgot to take photos of dessert.

The dive hotel sent a car to pick us up from our hotel just before noon, and then proceeded to take us to the marina to meet the hotel's speedboat. After pickup up a few other groups, we got to the hotel around 1PM, so they brought us to their restaurant for lunch before check in. The hotel is small - maybe only 20-25 rooms set up as separate cottages along the beach on an otherwise uninhabited island. Since you're pretty much stuck there and there are no other options, the room rate includes full board - breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast had menu choices plus a buffet with fruit, cereal and pastries. Lunch was main dish plus dessert while dinner was appetizer, main dish then dessert. Lunch menu - they put prices on it just in case someone isn't getting the full board thing I guess... I got (no surprise here) the soto ayam (chicken soup): My wife got the fried rice, which she'll get for lunch every day.... It came with a couple pieces of chicken sate. Dessert menu: They didn't have any mango, so I got pineapple with sticky rice... and tiramisu which was very light and had no alcohol At one point, one of the guests said with some kind of slavic accent (there was at least one couple that were russian who we spoke to, but several other couples had similar accents but we never wound up talking to them so I don't know where they were from) that a tiramisu typically has cherry vodka in it but he understood that they wouldn't put alcohol in it since many people there are Muslim.

Tomatoes are pretty common in Indonesian food - but mainly as an acidic component - so I've never seen them used ripe. They're either just barely red or even still slightly green, or used completely green as it is a component of the sambal ijo - which is green chillies, green tomatoes, shallots and garlic. Tomatoes served as garnish is probably for the tourist thing. I have no idea about the leaf cones - again, I suspect that's for the tourists - I've never seen them in local restaurants, but have seen them in restaurants geared towards (and priced for) tourists. non-cake bread is my little joke. Much of the bread in SE Asia has a texture that resembles cake. It's rare to find bread that has actual bread-like texture and crust. The seaweed butter is a compound butter but I have no idea if they used fresh seaweed or rehydrated dried seaweed - there were no hard pieces or anything like that, but to tell the truth, if I had my eyes closed, I wouldn't even know it was there. It tasted like normal butter. I think they were using it just trying to be fancy.

Breakfast the next morning: I found it interesting that one of the featured dishes is from Jakarta, not from the local area.... but it was good nonetheless... Uduk rice (center) and starting at 11:00 going clockwise: braised tofu, tempe cooked in sweet soy sauce, fried chicken, shrimp chips, sambal terasi (made with shrimp paste) More great pineapple I'll take palm sugar in any form I can get it! After breakfast, we had to pack and get ready to transfer to the dive hotel which was located on an otherwise uninhabited island right near the Komodo national park.

You're a better man than I... after an 11 hour drive and a cold house, I'd want to get delivery!!!

Dinner back at the hotel: More menu Non-cake bread with seaweed butter This is the manuk butuk from the "local specialties" section of the menu. The chicken is marinated in a spice paste with turmeric, shallots, etc., then wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed. I definitely need to make this at home - it was delicious. It was served with: and now a shot under the cone: Rice with corn. I've never seen this anywhere else so far in Indonesia - it seems to be a local thing here. Fried duck with mixed vegetables, sambal ijo and sambal merah. This is the other local dessert from the area: Serabe kinca - little puffs of rice flour dough (like a round pancake) with shredded coconut and palm sugar syrup. This reminded me of a street item we had in North Bali years ago - we were visiting a waterfall in the middle of nowhere and on the trail coming up from the bottom was a woman sitting off to the side with a charcoal brazier and a pancake pan (looked like an takoyaki pan) where she made these little pandan flavored pancakes that she covered with some shredded coconut and palm sugar syrup. So simple, but so good.

Breakfast the next morning: Fried noodles, squid stew (really tender) with sambal ijo Beef rendang, sambal ijo, boiled cassava leaves, shrimp chips Really good pineapple After breakfast, we decided to hire a car/guide as we wanted to go to a local market and then a local restaurant to try a non-hotel version of se'i. Since there are no non-motorbike taxis in the area, we would have had to have the hotel call some kind of car for us to take us to one place, then again when we're finished to go to the next place, and then one more time to go back to the hotel - at 150,000IDR each trip. For 600,000 total, we could have a car with guide for a half day. So, for the extra $10, we thought the guide was a great deal, plus we wouldn't have to wait around in between. It turns out that our guide's father has a pork stall in the market and his cousin has a vegetable stall! So he was very happy to give us a tour and he had a ton of information which we were really happy about. Some vendors outside the market: My wife was able to get some video walking through the market - the beginning felt like a horror movie! You can see that a lot of the stalls are empty - our guide was saying that a lot of vendors don't want to pay the market fee and have been setting up outside the market instead. Some more market shots: Fruit - unfortunately, no one had any unripe mango (mangga muda) that the region is known for Above - kaffir limes, below - cabe merah besar (big red chillies). The small chillies don't have a name in Bahasa, only a name in the local language as it's only grown there. They are supposed to be really really spicy and are featured in a sambal called sambal lu'at - which we'll see later. I didn't realize that parrotfish (the blue-ish ones) were edible but I guess they are... also note the lack of ice around anywhere.... Dried fish area Live ayam kampung (village chickens). These chickens have gotten a lot of exercise so they are flavorful but tough... they're commonly stewed for over an hour before either served as is, or drained and then fried, or drained and grilled. Next stop was a local se'i restaurant. Se'i is a local specialty - years ago, it was made with deer meat as they live all over these islands - even the uninhabited ones. Nowadays, it's made with pork since it's considered tastier and juicier, or beef for those who are halal. There are two very popular se'i restaurants - the most famous one was closed that afternoon, so we went to the next best: Se'i babi (pork) Om Bai Some menu shots: There's a sink outdoors by the parking lot to wash your hands.... A common drink there - orange juice on ice - our beloved lime juice is not common in Indonesia. This is the se'i with sambal lu'at. Holy crap that stuff was spicy. Served with boiled papaya leaves and A soup made with kidney beans, pork stock and some of the smoked pork. All in all, this was really good - much better than the hotel's version. Smokier, and a lot less grizzle. Oddly enough, the soup reminded me of my Jewish grandmother's chicken soup - but she used to make her soup with tons of onion and parsnips which gave it quite a bit of sweetness, and this soup was the same - I'm sure they weren't using parsnips, but it could have had a lot of onion and they also could have just added sugar - that would not be surprising. The boiled papaya leaves were also interesting - they had a nice bitterness to them, and it went well with the smoked meat and sweet-ish soup. This was on the table - we couldn't resist.... pork rinds.... We only finished about half of it and wound up taking the rest with us to finish over the next couple of days. Here's a view of the harbor while on the way back to the hotel: Most of the boats in the harbor wouldn't be there normally - most of them are liveaboards that are empty due to the search and rescue.