Thus, the last meal for this trip to complete the taste of Bandung is in Batagor Riri. Batagor is a contraction of bakso tahu goreng, fried meatballs and tofu, only the meatballs are made of fish and both are dipped in batter before fried. No trip to Bandung is complete without a taste of the famous Batagor, and the ones at Riri’s is thought to be one of if not the best. The secret of Riri’s Batagor is its spicy peanut sauce, it’s very pungent and serves as an excellent base for sate dishes. Add a few ounces of lime juice, and kecap manis to your liking, slice your Batagor, slather it with sauce and you’re all set. People seem to eat more sauce than they do the Batagor itself.
It’s nice to end a Bandung trip with Batagor. The flavors of the Batagor pretty much sums up what Indonesian food is all about: very textured, pungent and fiery. You can dip pretty much anything into it—whether its potatos or pasta—and you’re sure to come up with a marvelous interpretation of food. So, get ready to join this trip as we suggest??hmm…, maybe the right moment will come after you to try our whole optional above… Ok.., have nice food’s trip for you…^_^(kem)
Spending a day in Bandung is too frentic for any decent meal as we picked up a lot of packed food to go. First was the Risol or risoles from De’Risol, a small croquette-like pastry rolled in breadcrumbs and deep fried. It is filled with sweet or savoury ingredients, vegan and two servings of it proved to be quite filling. One bite and you could be an instant fan convert to the church of risoles. It is creamy inside, and all that fat is just sinfully heavenly. Another indulgence is Lily’s Patisserie, which according to local friend Bal, serves the best tiramisu in Indonesia. It’s a quaint and homey cakeshop nestled in a residential area in Bandung that serves both western and local desserts. Hopefully you don’t need any convincing. So just grabs a blueberry cheesecake inside the refrigerator and perhaps you will extremely satisfied with it
About having a perfect dinner you could spent the night at The Cellar, a restaurant with a really schizophrenic atmosphere. It is a high-end restaurant struggling to find its niche and market. The ground floor is well-stocked with wine, and the upper floor is a spacious collection of seating areas lined with sofas and coffee tables perfect for drinking and sharing conversation with friends. However, the joint clearly wasn’t making enough money just selling wine, so they serve the food as well only it was difficult to eat in those low sofas and tables. The food is just ok. You should try order some salad and their Black Pepper Snapper, and doesn’t really get much out of it except for a safe rendition of fish. Even more bothersome is the fact that the place does not have a wine list, there was loud live music in the middle of the restaurant, and the seating arrangements does not exactly make it easy to watch the show downstairs. The lay-out means for intimate conversations over wine and soft music, however it is difficult to talk as the fiasco on stage proved too obtrusive for any conversation to take place
The next place that you could visit is the in-house restaurant in Rumah Mode, one of Bandung’s more popular factory outlets where people get to shop for export overruns of branded Western clothes at cheap prices. This is the story of Bandung, an economy revitalized by Western rejects as factory outlets have attracted a swarm of local and foreign tourists. You couldso order ayam bakar in Rumah Mode. It definitely wasn’t comparable to Sariwangi’s but it was hearty and tasteful just the same. Maybe after hours of shopping, you should have a lunch on the veranda of the Cascade Factory Outlet which housed Dego Ramen. At there you could order Chicken Katsudon Noodle. It perhaps taste strange at first as the broth of the soup was altered by the addition of a kind of mushroom you have not seen before. But after a little getting used to, the soup did leave a pleasantly light aftertaste.
An another great place is at Sariwangi that you should try for dinner, quite a contrast from the upscale Congo Café. Popular to the locals in the area, Sariwangi is an old warung where one squats on either side of one of Bandung’s narrower streets: one side is just a few meters away from passing cars and motorbikes; while the other is overwhelmed by a large grill a few feet away from the dining tables. Despite the discomforting ambience, Sariwangi is always a joy to visit, which explains why it is difficult to get a table or parking in the area as many people literally wait in eagerly in the streets to eat there. The main staple is Ayam Bakar, Indonesian-style grilled chicken, mashed potatos and tempe with spicy sambal sauce and kecap manis, or sweet soy sauce. It’s comforting to know that food as good as this doesn’t change if you had ever visit more than one times. The revelation for many people is the sayur asem, the Indonesian version of our sinigang comprised mainly of corn, kaffir leaves, nuts, string beans, and chili. Even more thrilling is that the entire meal for the party of eight—with multiple servings of rice, chicken, tempe and potatos—cost only a little over one hundred thousand Indonesian rupiahs.
