Malang......
This city is 2 hours from Surabaya by car. Can be a bit longer if there is traffic jam. But, it is worthed because Malang is a beautiful city...
Malang is not as large as Surabaya and the weather is a bit cooler than Surabaya. Especially at night.
This time I went Malang with one purpose ... Trying the local food.
I drove from Surabaya in the morning around 7.30 am. On the way to Malang, I stop in Tretes (1,5 hours from Surabaya)to try 'Pecel'. 'Pecel' is East Java traditional dish. If you like veggie ... than you must try this dish. Pecel is made from various of boiled vegetables. Then, the boiled vegetables are poured with peanut spices. It is usually served with rice.
This time, I could not enjoy it ... Tooo hot for me. They gave too many chili in the spices.
After having the 'pecel', I moved to local market to buy bananas and oranges. Then I continued my journey to Malang. Before I reached Malang, I stopped at Pahrayangan.
It is a Sundanese restaurant. It's a nice place. The restaurant is over and surrounded by a pool and a lot of 'koi' fishes in the pool. I ordered 'nasi timbel'. It is the restaurant specialty. The unique thing about this restaurant's 'nasi timbel is that the rice is wrapped in leaf before it is cooked. It makes the rice tastes different. I also had salty fish, raw vegetables, fried chicken, 'empal' (kind of fried beef tenderloin), and 'sambal'(mashed chili) served with the rice.
This 'nasi timbel' is much better than the 'pecel'. Not too hot and I can taste the other spices from the food.
From Pahrayangan, I drove to Ngliyep beach ... I wrote about Ngliyep separately. You also can find it in my blog. From Ngliyep, I went to Malang City. I arrived Malang around 7.00 pm and had dinner at 'Gang Jangkrik' rest. I loveeeeeeeed it. The noodle, 'cap cay', 'sio bak (it is pork) were so nice. I really really liked it. 'Gang Jangkrik' restaurant in Surabaya is not as good as the one in Malang.
After dinner, I went to 'Enny Guest house'.The guest house is located in Taman Wilis St. It is at the heart of the city. I spent my 3 days holiday at this guest house. The room rate was Rp 175,000 with twin bed and bathroom attached. Quite reasonable and the place is clean. After checked in, I went to try local food at stalls near the guest house. I had 'bakso (meatball) President' and 'jagung bakar(corn barbeque)'. The prices of the food are not expensive and they taste goooooooooddddd.
The next day I had 'nasi pecel' for breakfast which I bought near the guest house. I went to 'Cuban rondo' waterfall for a day. It is a lovely waterfall dan the road access to this waterfall is very very very easy... I'll wrote about this waterfall after I finished with this story. I tried ice cream at Oen's restaurant at night. This restaurant is an old restaurant decorated with Dutch style. It was build around 78 years ago. There were some visitors from Dutch when I was there. This place has a long history especially related to the Dutch. This restaurant serves not only ice cream but also some dishes.
On the last day before went back to Surabaya, I went to Tugu Hotel. It is also an old hotel. It is located at the heart of the old town. There is the main monument of Indonesia's struggle for independence in front of the hotel. There are a vast, priceless collection of antiques influenced by the Javanese Babah Peranakan (the hundreds-years-old mixed culture between the Chinese migrants in Java and the native Javanese). I took a brief tour around the hotel. The guide (actually he is the hotel staff) took me and my friends around showed the room which was occupied by Mrs. Megawati (the Indonesian Ex-President) during her visit to Malang, the antique stuffs collected by the hotel, old pictures... I saw this young Jacky Chen pic also hanging on the wall of this hotel. At the end of this tour, I ate ice cream and snacks at restaurant attached the hotel, Tugu Kafe and Roti. You can have ice cream, bread, and sweet breads.
Unfortunately, I did not have any pictures on this trip because my camera was batt low. I definitely will go and visit Malang again because I love the food... If you have any plans to visit East Java, you must visit this city. It is highly recommended.
