Well, Hello There
Welcome to my Taco Tuesdays post, its a post on Tuesday but it is not about Taco. I am talking to other food right now, and the one I would like to show today is Bakmi Bangka.
BAKMI BANGKA
Bakmi or Mie, is an indonesian term of Noodle. Originally Bakmi comes from BAK (meat, usually pork) and Mie or Mien (noodle). Although majority of Indonesian are Muslim and of course they do not eat pork or any food with lard, people still call this dish as Bakmi.
Bakmi Bangka or in English we can call this Bangka Noodle, is a Chinese Cuisine come from Bangka . Most of those people are Chinese people of Hakka ethnicity. So those people make a famous Chinese style noodle and it gets famous then spread all over Indonesia.
so indirectly I could say this is Indonesian style of Ramen.
In Bangka, these noodles are served with various style and name. Jammien or most Indonesian said this as Yamien, is a noodle without soup. If you give some soup, they will call this one as Suimien. Yamien has some watery broth, so it is not a fried noodle. For Fried noodle they call it as Chau-mien.
Ok I know this is not a how to learn chinese language post or a historical guidance of Noodle. So I will keep this part sort.
The most bakmi bangka you can get in Indonesia is usually not an expensive one. They are sold in range of $1 USD to $4 USD. Some sell above that price but mostly you can only find those high quality one in fine dining restaurant. Above $4 you will meet many Japanese Ramen and Korean restaurants, so its hard to compete with those franchises.
Ok Let me pick one of my favorite, because it is near my office, the price is not cheap because it is around $1,75 USD. But the taste is quite good.
My Choice
The place is very simple, almost like they half ass build this outlet. The construction is not strong, if a hurricane comes I bet all of this outlet will fly to the sky.
But look at the most important thing here... They keep the place neat and clean, and I think that's one of important things I see when I come to dine in anywhere. I came here on 11:00, so its still not crowded with people.
Condiments is another important part I seek from an outlet. Most bakmi served are a bit plain because they will let their customer to complete the taste themselves. So the variation of condiments they have and thequality of those condiments, will decide greatly of the dish taste.
Personally I love Green Chili Pickle. Unfortunately not many place willing to have this condiments, because recently green chili prices rose up so some restaurants feel they lose some profits if people take this chili too much.
Ok this is the presentation of my Bakmi Bangka. Noodle with some shredded chicken, with Spinach and bean sprouts as the vegetables and the garnishes too. There are no soup or water in the noodle bowl, it is served separately as you can see in the smaller red bowl... Together with a meatball and a dumpling.
There is no proper way about how to eat this dish. I always mix them together in order to have the seasoning well blended all over the noodle. Then I try a bite, to get a proper tasting and decide what condiments I should add.
I usually add sweet soy sauce or chili sauce as the last one. Chili sauce gives a sweet, sour, and spicy taste. How about my idol, the Green Chili Pickle? its great but the taste is more like strong hot and spicy. So yeah, its like a game of mixing which condiments and how much of them... thats why I have said above... I always pick the outlet which has more variation of condiments and better quality of them.
Ok That's today Bakmi Bangka from me, and of course this closes my Taco Tuesdays post. I hope this post can entertain you and encourage you to try for any noodle dish soon. Thank you for reading this one
