BAKPIA KURNIA SARI
This is where the holiday ended. We took an afternoon flight to go back home. In the morning, we picked up bakpia which we ordered the day before at Bakpia Kurnia Sari at 91 C Glagahsari street, in the Umbulharjo area. What is bakpia, you wonder?
Bakpia is a small round-shaped pastry, usually stuffed with mung beans, but in the past couple of years it also comes in other fillings like chocolate, durian, and cheese.
There are a lot of places that sell bakpia, and some are the bakpia pathok kind, which has softer wrap. But Kania wanted exactly the one in Kurnia Sari, which was fine by me because I thought it’s delicious. It has the right saltiness and crisp. My favorite was the one with cheese filling.
In the shop, they also sell other kinds of Javanese special food, like Krasian and Yangko. The bakpia itself cost Rp 18,000 / box of 5 pieces.
BACK AT KAFE VIA VIA
We killed time before leaving for airport by having lunch and hanging out at Kafe Via Via. Here's our lunch:
Above: tempeh satay
Below: I think it's regular burger, I kinda forgot
My friend Koko and his new wife Deni came by, we bought a couple of their t-shirts (Jiva t-shirts, also sold in Mirota Batik shop), and also Rully, a friend of Mia who resides in Japan came by.
PRAWIROTAMAN STREETS, THE RIGHT PLACE FOR TOURISTS AND BACKPACKERS
There are a couple of streets named Prawirotaman, numbered from I to … I don’t know how many, on the right and left sides of the Prawirotaman avenue*.
You can find a lot of hotels, hostels, cafes, restaurants, travel bureaus, shops, and becaks on these streets, and sometimes even delman (horse carriage). It’s probably like the Khaosan Street of Bangkok, but tranquil.
In an attempt to spread the words about my website on traveling in Indonesia, the www.indohoy.com, I took time to distribute flyers in some shops, hotel lobbies, and travel bureaus. Hey, maybe you’re one of the people who've got the flyers? :D
* avenues, streets, roads, are all translated into one term in Indonesian, that is ‘jalan’.
Hi, my name is wallace,nice to meet you. You have a nice blog through. I will go to Surabaya in May, May i have some suggestion from you?
ReplyDeleteI would like to know how was the environment as well as the culture and food there.
Hi Wallace,
ReplyDeletehow are you?
Surabaya that I know is really really hot -literally. It's quite near the ocean, it's also quite an industrial city, those two reasons I guess contribute to the high temperature. It's the 2nd largest city in Indonesia, I guess you could say it's a metropolitan city. You can find malls and high buildings, and the traffic is quite bad if you drive there.
The couple times I visited Surabaya were for business purpose, if not for holidays when I was little. Last year I was there only for a little while, on my way to and from Bali. So I'm afraid that I only have little to tell you about it, just based on my experience.
In the business trips inSurabaya a few years back, I got to stay at very nice hotels, Sommerset and Grand Hyatt. I bet you're familiar with these names.
As for the special local food, you could have some taste of "ayam penyet" or "tempe penyet", that's basically fried chicken or tempeh, pounded together with very hot chili condiments. If you can take chili, I suggest you try these.
There's also "rujak cingur", sort of like fruit salad (usually consisted of unripe manggo, starfruit, cucumber, kedondong, mixed with vegetables, and most importantly the "cingur" itself. 'Cingur' literally means 'mouth', and it is the slices of a cow's mouth. Sounds yucky? well, a lot of people really love it there :D
Majapahit Hotel has a historical value , used to be named Oranje Hotel ('oranje' = orange). I went there a few years ago, it's got art deco style, I love it.
I'm gonna try to gather some info from my friend who used to live in Surabaya for you. But since this comment panel is the only channel for us to communicate, don't forget to check back here again later.. :)
Meanwhile, check out for more about Surabaya here http://wikitravel.org/en/Surabaya , it's said quite a lot about interesting places to see in the city.