Java Village Restaurant @ Jurong Point, Boon Lay, Singapore

Living outside your home country makes you miss it. Of course you can adapt and blend very well with the local, as the old saying.. when in Rome, do like the Romans do. But we cannot avoid the time when missing home hits us real hard, and I mean real hard.

One thing to ease the homesick feeling is to find home food, as close as it can be. Well, we do find comfort in food, don't we?

One of the restaurant I tried a week ago is Java Village. Located inside Feast (a food court managed by Kopitiam) at Jurong Point 2 right at Boon Lay MRT Station, this place offers an authentic Indonesian food. I repeat, authentic.

The place is a little not easy to find though, as it is not a stall inside the food court but a restaurant. It has a small opening hence you cannot see the seats. However, once you are inside, it has a different atmosphere. It is like you are in a real restaurant with nice wood carving decorations. The good thing about the place, it is a little secluded from the rest of the food court so you can be as romantic as you can. On the other hand you can also be as loud as you want in a family or office gathering. The choice is yours!

Although the foods serve here are mostly from Eastern Java Island, it goes all the way from the western part of Indonesia to Bali Island. Such food with peanut-based sauce here also are tasted different to keep the authenticity at the maximum. For example: there are two kinds of vegetable salad namely "Gado-gado Surabaya" and "Pecel Kediri," both are using peanut-based sauce and steamed vegetables but tasted so different.

I suggest you to try its "Sate Ayam Madura" or Maduranese Chicken Satay - in English - it is definitely different than satay you found in Singapore. It use marinated chicken chunks in skewers with peanut-based sauce and a little bit spicy (you can ask the chef to reduce or increase the spicy-ness).

Well, let me tell you this. I think I've tried all the food here. Normally, I started with Pecel Kediri (I should warn you though, it's quite a lot so you can share it as a starter), followed with Nasi Kuning set - a javanese yellow rice (using turmeric and coconut milk) complete with fried chicken, rendang, a couple slices of cucumber, and others. I ended the complete meal with Es Cincau Selasih, a very refreshing and cooling drink. Hrmmmm... yummy!

The price is a little bit at the high side though. But, it is worth the price and definitely worth my next visit.

Swati Snacks in Mumbai, India

On my first trip to Mumbai in mid November this year, a good friend of mine brought me join his family for a light lunch at Swati Snacks.

If you have a chance to visit Mumbai, I recommend to try this "fast food" restaurant. Don't compare this "fast food" with the usual western fast food :-) Fast food here really means fast. From the time you pick your seat, the menu is almost automatically in your hand, to the time your food is ready on the table was less than 5 minutes! In addition, this is not an oily range of food like the usual fast food we know.

This restaurant offers a wide range of vegetarian snacks which surprisingly taste really good even for me, a non vegetarian. The first food we ordered was made from rice flour, thinly spread over a banana leaf... it was really nice and not too heavy! Unfortunately I forgot what is the name of it :-(

The food was then followed by a glass of sugarcane juice. For those who live in Singapore, sugarcane juice and Indian food are available there too. A lot, I must say. But sugarcane juice at Swati snacks was different. It was refreshingly sweet, not too sweet with a little hint of lime, I think.

However, if you want some romantic ambience, or rather, an ambience, this is definitely not the place. This is most suitable for a family get together time with light meal. But.... I must say, I will visit this place again on my next trip!