Mon Mon!

Fried duck is pretty popular in Indonesia, but apparently as of late there has been a debate as to which place has the best fried duck. A lot of the votes has gone over to Mon Mon, so my friends and I decided to give it a try!

We also ordered the grilled duck, but the fried duck pictured below is definitely the best dish they have:Since living in the US I haven't had the chance to try out many of the places in Indonesia, so I can't say whether or not this was the best duck in town, but it definitely is pretty darn good. They somehow managed to make the duck juicier/ less dry than most places do.

I also got the tongue stew since it's been a while since I've had beef tongue.
The beef tongue had the characteristic tenderness and flavor of tongue that I remember from childhood. Not like the tough chewy stuff I get in the US!

Bebek Goreng Mon Mon
Jl Mayjend Sungkono 139, Surabaya 031-5620220

Sharksfin galore

One of the special delicacies of Chinese cuisine that my family likes to get occasionally is the sharks fin soup. We normally go to a place called Thai Village, located inside the Galaxy Mall in Surabaya (don't know why it's called Thai Village, it's all Chinese food actually).

The sharks fin soup is expensive, so this time around we ordered a Medium sized soup w/crab to share among the three of us, and then got other dishes.Let's look at the sharks fin more closely :P They are the slices you see behind the bean sprouts. When one of my cousins was younger he thought that they were rice noodles!
The sharks fin is chewy, but does not have a fishy taste. The soup is rich and thick, and this particular one is also topped with crab meat. You eat it with lots of bean sprouts and, if you like it, cilantros. I think Thai Village still serves the best one in town, although a lot of people have gone over to other places like XO.

We also ordered some duck web, since the other dish we wanted was not available that night (I can't remember what it is).
It wasn't bad, but nothing special I thought. I like chicken feet better.

We also ordered one of my favorites, garlic stir fry noodles with crab. Just look at this!
That crab is just inviting me to crack it and eat it!

One of the best parts of this dish is that it is LOADED with garlic. This is what you will find at the bottom of the wok:
Roasted garlic everywhere :) Naturally the crab and the noodle both are completely garlic-flavored, which is just perfect for me.


Thai Village
in Galaxy Mall, Surabaya

Snow Crab in My Mouth

In general I'm a bit skeptical about eating sushi in Indonesia, especially when we're talking about the raw fish sushi. But my family wanted to go so I went along with them to Sushi Hana in Surabaya. We went on a weeknight so they were not that busy, also still had some customers.

There were six of us and each of us put in a request to order, including some tuna sashimi salad, which was pretty good - full of rich mayo-based sauce. We also had more basic rolls like Philadelphia roll and Rainbow roll, which were not bad (they tasted pretty standard, hey I'm used to LA sushi).

The surprisingly good roll though was this snow crab roll! It was called the Snow Crab Narudo (thx Stef for getting me the name!)Wrapped in fresh cucumber, the roll doesn't contain any rice - yes the pink stuff you see in place of the rice is fresh snow crab meat! And the crab meat was surprisingly fresh and delicious. Wrapped in cucumbers, this roll was very refreshing. Since there's no rice to fill you up with you really end up wanting more.
We ended up getting two orders of this.

I think it's worth it to come here just for this roll alone, and maybe one of their either tuna or crab sashimi salad. The rest of it though, I must say, is not bad at all. Again, can't beat LA's finest, but comparable to standard sushi places. They do have toro sashimi plate for about $11 if you convert it to US currency, but I was too afraid I would be disappointed so I didn't get it even though by our standards it was really cheap :(

Sushi Hana
Jln Dr Soetomo 97E
Surabaya
031-5688041