blog | leonardus depari

It may end up as another boring weekend before I decided to go south by crossing the straits to the island of Batam. It doesn’t take me long to think what the best this island can offer: seafood. And the closest point from downtown Nagoya is a restaurant, convincingly called The Golden Prawn. Get any of the taxi drivers and they will drive you there and will wait to deliver you back for the best deal.

Taking its number one choice, we ordered Chili Crab, a mud crabbed served with a semi-thick, sweet and savory tomato and chili on the plate made famous by Singapore. It comes almost close to its origin but definitely not spicy at all.

The second menu of the night is Cereal Prawn, another seafood probably originated from Singapore. It still tastes well but lacks far behind in term of lavour.

The last yet the best menu is Gong Gong, a simple serving shell-type creatures which can only be found in the waters of Batam and its neighbours.  Fully steamed to 100% condition, its meat is sticked out from the shell using a toothpick or simply by pulling out its tail before then dipping it into a kitchen-made sambal sauce for a perfect solution. Finally Gong Gong, that is something special.