SIM registration and mall time

With no hotel breakfast today, I went down to McDonald’s located within my hotel building.  I ordered their Nasi Uduk which came with a piece of fried chicken (spicy option), egg, sambal and crispy shallots.

It was yummy.  Even the rice, by itself tasted good.  It was compressed into a cube-like lump but very moist, creamy and flavourful.

It was around 0840 when I left by foot for the Telkomsel office “GraPARI”.  It was located near Palembang Square but as I walked past Palembang Icon Mall I noticed that there was another branch within that mall.

As the Icon mall wasn’t open till 1000, I had no choice but to continue to my original branch.   I got there at 0910 expecting it to be closed, having relocated to the other mall.  But nope, it was still there.  There were a handful of people waiting but it still took 1h10 to get served as each customer seems to take a while.

My registration was done in about 10 minutes.  I backtracked to the Icon mall where I killed some time and had my lunch there.

I opted for the Bebek Betutu at a restaurant called Bebek Tepi Sawah.  Like yesterday, despite the price, it wasn’t a meal I liked tremendously.  It was duck cooked in banana leaves cooks in its own moisture and with skin-on, bone-on, it was a bit of an effort to get the meat off the skinny bird.  The flavour was nice enough and the accompaniments were yummy.

After lunch, I got myself an internet data bundle, ordered a Grab car to take me back.  I had bought some fruits and breakfast cereal and didn’t feel like walking in the heat.  The driver had turned up at the wrong exit of the mall but I managed to sort him out.  Despite the misunderstanding, he was very nice and patient … a trait often seen in Indonesia.

I took it easy for the rest of the afternoon until dinner time, when I went to Pagi Sore, a Padang restaurant nearby.  A wide array of food was already laid out on the table as I entered.  I got the waitress to explain each and every item and with great difficulty, I limited myself to just three choices, namely Beef Rendang, Jengkol (a nut called Jering in Malaysia) Rendang and Chicken Gulai.

The rendang was done the authentic West Sumatran way with very little sauce. All liquid, except the oil, had been dried off enabling it to be kept without refrigeration for a week (or some say a month).  

All were delicious but I loved both the rendangs!  The meal came to about IDR100,000 including rice/water.  That is rather expensive for Indonesia but this was a restaurant and good Nasi Padang isn’t easy to find.