To the Hottest City in Indonesia, Pontianak - Part 1

[Starting my Holiday]

Greetings from Pontianak!

Some of you may ask what I'm doing here, well I'm not really sure what I'm doing here. A week after my last final test, I just booked the ticket to this city, the capital city of Kalimantan Barat province in Indonesia. It's also known as a large port trading city in Borneo.

What makes it really special is Pontianak is known as Kota Khatulistiwa ( Equator city ), why? Because it's located precisely on the equator. But because of that, I also hate this city because the temperature here is so damn high lahh!! So hotttt!

Anyway, the main reason I visit Pontianak is because the foooooooddd! Started up my food journey, I took a flight at the morning on 7th of December 2015 until 9th of December 2015. Yeapp it's a short time to enjoy all of the food here, but as you can see I'm already bored as hell in my 2nd day here. There's nothing else axcept the food in here. 

Well, I got a little shock during my first arrival here, there's only one terminal at Supadio International Airport. Only one baggage belt and then only exit door left. There's only 2-3 shop like supermarket and stuff here.

Movin' on, the one who picked me up is one of my dorm's mate Bobby ( @christianbobbyy ), we are studying at the same university and he's one of my best bro, I think. Good news is I could sleep at his place so I don't need to spend my money for the hotels.

There was plenty restaurants and food stall I visited in Pontianak, so here's the list :

Che Hun Tiau / Che Hun Tiaw Ahua

W.R Supratman Street

Pontianak

[Che Hun Tiau Ahua]

This is my favourite so far, it's a dessert yayyy. What's inside Che Hun Tiau ? There's so many things inside, like Cendol ( Indonesian's snack made by rice flour ), Ketan hitam ( black sticky rice ), red beans and something that I don't know what it's called, they served it with the coconut milk, brown sugar and shaved ice.

It tasted sweet and fresh, best thing to eat in the hottest place like this. There were 2 other Che Hun Tiau stall beside Ahua's stall, but all of my Pontianak's friends said that this one is the best and I couldn't agree more. Might be come back for this one again before I'm leaving lol.

Nasi Ayam Afu

Jl. Gajahmada No.46, 

Pontianak Sel., Kota Pontianak, 

Provinsi Kalimantan Bar. 78122

 

[Nasi Ayam Afu]

We picked Nasi Ayam Afu ( Afu's chicken rice ) for our lunch on the first day, there was nothing new about the food, similar with Jakarta. Just rice with pile of chicken, red pork and some salted pork. But you can taste the difference between eating Nasi ayam here and in Jakarta, there's some originality here when it comes to the seasoning.  

Es Krim Angi 

Jl. Karel Satsuit Tubun, 

Pontianak Sel., Kota Pontianak, 

Provinsi Kalimantan Bar. 78121

[Es Krim Angi]

Es Krim Angi is an ice cream stall that's located in front of my other Pontianak bestie, Suryanto's high school named St. Petrus or they called it Thak Khun Tong lol! I really like the thak khun tong name and even they got their own song on youtube and I laughed so hard when I first heard it.

Anyway, this one is the most famous ice cream store in Pontianak I know so far because all of my Pontianak friends used to post about this place whenever they were coming home. As for the taste actually it was so ordinary, maybe because I didn't pick the topping and use the coconut shell too. But the taste is quite good and as I said Pontianak is so hot lahhh! Eat ice cream and feel better laaa!!

I was bored with the food so I just visited some of religius place hohoho, but I didn't come here to pray, only curious with the place and I just took some photos here.

Santo Yoseph Cathedral 

Jl. Pattimura No. 195, 

Pontianak, Kalimantan Barat 

78011

[Front door]

Loving the ornament here, all looked so classy and really maintained well. All white and grey, so pure yet untouchable. This place is so huge and their front door was the best, can't you see it ? Well this was one of the best cathedral I saw so far in my life. Too bad I couldn't go inside because it was closed on weekdays.

[White and Grey]

Then I visited this vihara on the Ahmad Yani street but I didn't find the name and the precise location also but It looked really stunning from the outside!

[Vihara Ayani II]

[Ornaments]

[Inside]

This place was so flawless and so stunning. Loving everything inside and outside
 

[Front door]

Chai Kue, Ko Kue Gama

Gama street,

Pontianak, Kalimantan Barat

[Street stall]

[Table's situation]

As the night came, we visited the local street food alongside Gama street, there's this stall that sold Ko Kue and fried Chai kue.

[#2]

[Fried Chai Kue]

So what is Chai Kue actually ? Well I don't even know really well but as I know it's Pontianak's snack that made with the rice flour and tapioca flour, they put kucai ( some sort of green vegetables ) or bengkoang ( Jicama ) for the filling. 

I use to eat Chai Kue a lot in Jakarta but this was my first time trying the fried one. Well I prefer the steamed one. Because the skin was too thick if they fried the chai kue and it tasted really chewy for me.

[Ko Kue]

Then we had Ko Kue too, I didn't really sure what is this but let me explain what I tasted last night lol. It contained egg and some glutinous thing and they fried it together with the soy sauce so it tasted a lil' bit sweet and savoury. This one was nice and I like it. Really made me drooling!

And then we had this red bean served with sweet water, I don't know what it's called but I really don't like red beans so it was an eeww.. from me!

 

For the 2nd day, we started our day with eating Steamed Chai Kue yeayyy

Gleam Cafe

JL. Tamar, No. 3,  Pontianak

Provinsi Kalimantan Bar. 78112

[Gleam Cafe]

As you know in the paragraph before that I prefer steamed Chai kue than fried one, this is one of the reason, Gleam cafe wohooo! they said this one is one of the best Chai Kue store in Pontianak.

[So tasty]

Can you see how stunning this food ? waaaaa and they even served it with this cute tray and it was still hot. This one was so mouth-watering, I even couldn't resist to eat it when I took the pict. It was magnificent, I really really loved this food. You guys should know that you should buy min 15 pieces of Chai Kue here but don't worry, it's so cheap even I was shocked when I saw the bill!!

[left: Bengkoang and right: Kucai]

Yeapp, just like the fried one, the steamed one had 2 filling also: the bengkoang and the kucai. Waa waa waaaaaaaaaa taste like heavennnnnnn. So yummy and delicious! You can also dip it with the sambal sauce here, it tasted perfectly and I'll come back for this again for sure but this time I should buy it more and more until I satisfied !!

Bakmi Pemangkat 

Jl. Siam No.86,

Pontianak Sel., Kota Pontianak, 

Provinsi Kalimantan Bar. 7824

[Store]

Next, we were having lunch at Bakmi Pemangkat that Bobby said he used to eat a lot here. The food that sold here is Bakmi Kepiting, lithe and chewy noodle that served with crab meat snippet, prawn, red pork, fish ball and various broth also veggetables could fulfill our apetite. But as I know, this one is not the best bakmi kepiting in Pontianak.

[Table's situation]

Served with the soup, I never tried these thin bakmi ( noodle ) before, usually most of the bakmi I ever tried so far was thicker than this one, so It was actually more preferable for me. Because it was thinner so it didn't make me stuffed.

[Rich of meat]

Look at the top of the bowl, it served with rich of meat, so don't worry about your money, just enjoy the food.

[look at the spoon]

As you can see, they served the broth soup with some beans, yuckk I never saw or taste this one before. But I didn't really like the beans, help mee!!!

[Ready to eat]

Well after all it wasn't that bad or that good in Bakmi Pemangkat, at least I could fill my empty stomach.

Basically all of Pontianak's food are cheap, so as far I really enjoyed eating here. So stay tunned for the rest part !!