Eats: Ikan Bakar Ujung Pandang @ Jl. Gandaria

Our culinary adventure around our neighborhood continues. Up next is Ikan Bakar Ujung Pandang. We had this just this past Monday night, when I was kinda lazy to cook after our visit to the dentist. We decided to leave the car at the apartment and walked out to the restaurant.

The restaurant is a simple place. Think simple rectangular wooden tables and chairs in the air-conditioned interior. Meanwhile the grill station is located outdoors and one can also choose to sit outdoors (on simple metal tables and stools) to watch the action. It is that fancy-free.

When we reached, there was 3 large Coleman-like coolers containing seafood. After looking around, we chose the best-looking (i.e. freshest) fish which is ikan kuwe. We weren't sure what species of fish is this, it felt familiar yet foreign looking at the same time. It's like a cross breed between the leatherjacket fish (i.e. chicken fish among Malaysian fishmongers) and the pomfret. I've since found out that it's actually a fish from the Trevally species.

Anyway, Hubs selected that, had it weighed (about 700gms) and requested for it to be grilled rica-rica. There's 3 ways of grilling the fish: normal (ie salty), with sweet sauce (I think this is with the Indonesian kicap manis) or spicy which is rica-rica. We additionally ordered brinjal stir-fry with belacan.

And so begin the wait. Halfway through, some condiments were served up. It was young mango with sambal terasi, a dipping sauce for otak-otak Makassar, and another dipping sauce made up of basil-lookalike leaves, bird's eye chilies and green tomatoes.

The brinjal dish came up first. And this is really good. The prawns were fresh and the belacan sauce is flavourful. We waited awhile more before the star of the dinner arrive.

and Ta-da. Basically they halved the fish and line the both side with lots and lots of bird's eye chilles and green tomatoes. It looked intimidatingly spicy. But when we bit into the fish flesh, it wasn't as as spicy as we thought it would be and had a hint of the chillies that's really unique. The grilling also did not produce a very chargrilled fish like how it's usually done in Malaysia. Instead, it felt almost like a smoked fish.

Dinner is surprisingly affordable. Hubs ordered a Bintang which was priced Rp 35,000 which turned out to be the big bottle, and the fish was Rp 89,000. We wondered if they have crabs and on our way out, we saw there were 2 guys on a motorbike, delivering crabs. Apparently they have fresh crabs delivered everyday. Looks like another trip is warranted to check the crabs out!

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Pondok Ikan Bakar Ujung Pandang
Jl. Gandaria I No. 5 Kebayoran Baru,
Jakarta Selatan