Culinary Taste in Balikpapan

During my stay in Balikpapan, I tried some yummy snacks there. The first one was "mantau" @Depot Simpang Empat, Jl. Letjen Suprapto No. 06, Phone 62-542-743049, Balikpapan, near the popular traditional market "Kebun Sayur". I really love the crispy mantau, inside is very soft while the skin is crispy, it's rather sweet. It could be eaten with beef black pepper, as I don't like spicy food, we ordered butter fried chicken. There were 2 types of mantau, steam and fried, we preferred the fried one as we tried the steam one was not warmed first by them, so it's not nice. They cut the mantau into 4 pieces, so you don't need to worry it's too big for you. It cost IDR 4.000,-/piece, it would be better to eat while it's hot, I could finish the whole 2 fried mantau by myself :-). Beside Mantau we also ordered "Mie siram" (noodle doused with thick vegetable soup). The Chinese food restaurant was not too big and it's very simple with some table and wood benches. The chef cooked at the front near the entrance, no air conditioning, just fan, but the food was delicious, and so many guests visited the restaurant. If you would like to take away mantau for your family at home, you could order the steam one, they have a box to keep it, you could put in the fridge in 2 weeks then frying it when you would like to eat.

In the morning near our hotel there was a row of small shop, people called it "ruko-rumah toko" (usually for home on the 2nd and 3rd floor while the store on the 1st floor) which sold many kind of food. We stopped by to buy the famous yellow rice, you could select the side dish whether chicken, beef or fish. When going to the cashier, I saw some fried snacks, I selected the fried banana and megali?. I don't know the name, it's made from green bean. I never ate it before, but I like the taste, it's nicer to eat while it's still warm. My friend bought many kinds of bakpau, similar to mantau filling with chicken, pork, green bean or others.

Seafood, especially crab is one of the most popular menu in Balikpapan, you could not miss it. We had lunch at Dandito Restaurant, Jl. Iswahyudi 72, phone 62-542-764367 ordering their soft shell crab as we didn't like to have difficulty peeling the crab's skin while ordering the popular crab with sweet and sour sauce. We also ordered sauted kale, anchovy bean sprout and fuyunghai (vegie mixed with egg smothered in sweet sauce). You also could take away the sauce crab, they have prepared the special box which is safe to bring to other city by flight. Actually there are another popular restaurant for crab, called "Kepiting Kenari" restaurant, Jl. Iswahyudi 4, phone 62-542-764018 just across Dandito, unfortunately there is no soft shell crab, so we didn't go there.

After shopping some traditional accessories made of beautiful stone in Kebun Sayur, we went to small restaurants provided seafood inside the market area. We stopped by at one of them, ordered the grilled fish, unfortunately it's finished, so we had to move to the other one beside it. We could select directly for the raw fish, then they grilled for us. While waiting for the fish, the waitress automatically provided the vegetable soup and a plate of white rice. The fish was very fresh, provided with the chili if you like spicy food.

Just a few metres from Kebun Sayur, there was a stall which sold the traditional snack from East Kalimantan, called "Pisang Gapit". They grilled the bananas, pressed it within a pair of wooden bar, slice it, then giving palm sugar mixed with coconut milk including slices of fresh jack fruit. It's very yummy, but it's also made my stomach full as the portion was quite big. That's the original taste of Pisang Gapit, some seller would provide more combination for topping, such as chocolate, cheese and peanut. I still prefer the original one with many jack fruit pieces for topping.

Anyway if you like to eat in the fancy restaurant, you could go to Open House café and restaurant, at Jl. Markoni Atas 88 located at hilly, higher than Balikpapan city, so you could enjoy the sunset. It's very huge complex surrounded by tropical greenery gardening different decoration style for each building, full of antique collection items. I really like the decoration, it had multiple levels of the rooms that's connected with beautiful stairs made of mozaic ceramic. It is absolutely stunning - beautifully furnished, lots of pools for fish and swimming, also great views to the city and sea.

The higher level and different seat location had a minimum amount to be spent for food & beverage. Anyway they didn't prohibit us to take pictures from the place. Even the owner put a bathtub next to the bar table, while at the other side you could see a piano as the center of point interest. After taking some pictures, we started to select table to seat, we preferred to seat without any precondition terms. It still looked nice anyway, the table made of the cutting wood with its cambium exposed. The food presentation was very nice, the taste was also delicious. I love the yummy apple pie with ice cream as the dessert. It's worthy to visit, the ambience was so nice especially if you like photography, anyway the food price was a little bit higher than common restaurant.

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Central of beautiful jewelry in Banjarmasin

It took around an hour flight from Surabaya to Banjarmasin, capital of South Kalimantan. My friend and I arrived at Syamsudin Noor airport at lunch time, it's raining. The airport was not too big, from the plane we had to ride a bus to the airport building. I heard the new bigger airport was being built for the international flight. There are two parts of Banjarmasin, the old city and the new one, the government would move soon to the new part of the city.



Banjarmasin is famous as its jewelry, the central jewelry market is at Martapura. From the airport is nearer, around 30 minutes drive. We went directly there, because they close at 17:00 while we left airport at 14:00 already. No food and drink during the flight, we were starving, so we stopped by at Soto H. Anang in Martapura to taste the local food. We ordered the delicious yellow chicken sooup called "soto Banjar" and grill duck. You could eat soto with rice cake "ketupat" or rice.


After our stomach full we had a new spirit to shop the beautiful stones jewelry. Our driver brought us to a shop, Zamrud Plaza (Jl. A. Yani 125 Martapura, Phone: 62-511-4720751) not the market which's just a few block from our lunch place. The shop was quite convenience, it had a complete collection of stones, jewelry and Banjar handicrafts. If you lack of cash, there was also ATM in front of the shop. We shopped a lot there, no need to go to the market anymore. The price was much cheaper comparing to Banjarmasin city.


I was interested in crystal necklace with its bracelet, also some stone brooches. Bead wallets and small bag handicrafts were also the result of my hunting to give souvenirs to my relatives. If you like diamond, saphire, ruby, etc, they also had them, either as stone or already become accessories such as ring or earing. The salesgirls were kind enough, they didn't mind accompany us to select our preference. When I paid they were kind enough to give me discount.


Rattan Inn was the hotel where we stayed for a night, in the morning they entertained the guest with traditional music. The hotel was not too high, just 3 levels. My colleague in Banjarmasin office said that no high building in Banjarmasin because the land was swamp, so the foundation is not strong enough for building a high skycraper. The electricity was not good either, it's often off. In the hotel I experienced twice, at 17:00 and 22:00, it's not good for electronic stuffs, such as Air Conditioning, TV, refrigerator, etc.


At night we had dinner around 20:00 in Rudy H, a seafood restaurant at A. Yani Km 3.5 no.285 Banjarmasin. We ordered some fish, e.g. grill patin, fried lais, and seluang, and sweet sour shrimp & vegetable. While waiting for the food, we ate the delicious amplang (the fish cracker from Banjarmasin). The fish was nice, it's fresh, piquant and sweet. The restaurant was decorated with antique stuffs such as ceramics, and old cupboard. A life music with a singer and a keyboard player entertained us during the dinner.


Banjarmasin's waterfront of Martapura River. The city is laced with flood-prone waterways, and many houses are built on rafts or stilts over the water. Many of such waterways are also used for travel, using relatively small rowboats (only major rivers are accessible by larger speedboats, tugboats, longboats, and barges). Our driver offered to sea the floating market at 05:00 in the morning. I prefered to sleep because it's an hour earlier than Surabaya time, so it meant that I had to wake up before 04:00 if I wanted to see.


If you like stone jewelry, definitely you must visit Permatapura. The price was so competitive, you won't regret to visit it. You also could visit the place where they make the jewelry to polish it to become a beautiful ornament.

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East Kalimantan Beautiful Jewelry

It was the third time I visited Balikpapan on early June 2010. We had lunch at Kemala beach, the sand is light yellow and very soft. It’s located near the city area. The restaurant seemed similar to Jimbaran restaurants in Bali, you could see from the restaurant signage, also from the decoration with black and white square sarongs coverage the pillar and also at the ceiling. There were some stands providing different foods. You could eat inside under the roof or outdoor on the sea sand. We preferred eating indoor, as Indonesian people we don’t like sunbathing, our skin is already too dark :-)


While waiting the food, I went to the edge of the beach to take some pictures. I took off my shoes to feel the soft sand. Based on my colleague’s info, there are sport activities on the beach, such as banana boat, parasailing, etc. At weekend Balikpapan people like to have entertainment/leisure there while enjoying the beach and watching the plane flying on the upper of the beach. The plane seems very close because the airport is very near to the beach.

At night we went to the middle of the hill at Pertamina houses area to take pictures of the eternal flame from the oil drilling with its oil refinery site as a revitalized center of petroleum production. It’s very beautiful shining in the dark of the night. My friend, the professional photographer suggested the proper measurement for getting the good result. It’s very satisfying to see the wonderful picture, as if I’m professional already :-) I only used pocket camera, so the result was not as detail and excellent such as my colleague taking it with SLR camera.

On the next day after working, we got a chance to stop by half an hour in the popular market called Kebun Sayur. You could find beautiful accessories, gemstones, ethnic souvenirs, jewelry made of combination of gemstones and silver, crystal, handicraft, etc. You should good in bargaining so you could have a very competitive price, you have to pay cash, no credit card or debit card.

My friend bought Dayak (tribe in Kalimantan) souvenirs while I bought many colorful and beautiful bracelets made of silver and gemstones, some of them made of glisten crystal. Although it’s very short time, I was happy that I could add my accessories collection with beautiful ethnic ones.


We reached the airport an hour before the flight took off, there was a place that you could see the airport area in front of a restaurant. We should pay Rp. 3.000,- per person to go inside the place right on the top of Sepinggan airport. It’s very windy, it’s good to see the plane landed and flied. The airport is just next to the sea, you could see the sea as the background of the airport.

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Balikpapan, yummy crabs

During a business trip in Balikpapan last June'08 I stayed in Novotel which is located in downtown area. The hotel is quite new, with modern and minimalist style. So many foreigners were chatting and enjoying the bar besides the lobby. There are many oils company in Balikpapan, no wonder most guests are foreigners. In front of the hotel, a limousine is always standby, maybe it's for the vip guests. My friend was lucky, he gots a room with nice view, the beautiful swimming pool with sea as the background. It's very attempting people to swim with the blue clean and fresh water.


To find food, you could just walk near the hotel. That night we decided to have dinner in Dapeen restaurant located just across the hotel. The restaurant was not too crowded comparing to the one beside it, but my colleague had been there before and she said that the food was quite ok, that's why we prefered to try it. There were some seats on the beach, on the terrace and inside the room. On the beach was not too nice, because not enough light to enjoy the waves and the seat were wet by the sea wave. The moon was shining bright that night, it's very round, unfortunately I failed to show it in the photos, it looked like the electricity light than the real moon :-(. We sat on the porch, the wind was blowing so hard made the napkins flying, so we decided to move inside the room. Apparently the environment is quite nice too, there is a stage and bar tables, however no life band at that night. The food was quite ok, fried chicken was acceptable.

Balikpapan is hilly, the road is so gradient, if you're crazy about sports, please try riding bike here :-) I bet you will be sweaty. Our office is on the urban area, if I see from the opposite road, it seems that the building position is above the neighbour. Clean water is quite difficult to get, I heard they have to buy water everyday. We didn't realize that it's raining hard during the night, it's a pity that some colleagues had to cross the flood to go to the office. We got lost for a while, but lucky that we selected a different route so we didn't trap in the flood. People say that the lower part of Balikpapan is often flooding during the tide rises, rainy season makes them more suffering.


My colleague who knows well about Balikpapan suggested to have dinner in Kenari restaurant, which is famous of Kenari crabs. Of course crabs was the number one priority in our order list. We ordered a special sauce crabs, and butter fried crab, but steam shrimp, fried squid, and fish also in our list. We were very surprised when the first crab came, the portion was so huge, it's a dishful of 3-4 big crabs. We called the waiters to cancel the second one because we're afraid that we could not finish it, unfortunately she refused it. They had cooked the order for us, no chance for cancelation. We planned to wrap and bring it home if we could not finish it. When we started eating, some of our colleagues were not interested, the crab was very yummy, sweet, sour and piquant. Finally they attempted to try because we said many times it's very tasty. All of us were very ravenous to enjoy the crab, all of sudden it's completely finish off :-) When the next crab appeared simultaneously we gobbled it, nothing left on the table anymore. You should try if you love crabs, the crabs were very delicious with perfect combination ingridients.


All of us were satiated, as people say that it's not good to go to bed with full stomach. After riding the car around the city to see town square where young people are hanging around at night, Pertamina area where there is an eternal flame on the artesian well on the beach and some huge tanks for oil with the housing complex at the hilly side, we decided to enjoy the lobby hotel. We chatted and enjoyed the welcome drink, imperceptible time run quickly. Borrow my colleague's camera I also took some pictures at the spacious and luxurious lobby for our memory in the oil city, Balikpapan.

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