Sama Sama by Tok Tok

December 14, 2020

C'était notre neuvième anniversaire de mariage...neuf ans, comme le temps passe vite!! C'est vrai, le temps passe (plus) vite quand on s'amuse. Je pensais que mon mariage serait le plus beau jour de ma vie, mais je me trompais, chaque jour après ça a été plus heureux que la veille. Je suis très très reconnaissant pour l'homme merveilleux qui est mon mari, mon bou, car il me rend heureux tous les jours. À ce jour, je ne sais pas comment j'ai eu tellement de chance. ❤

Pour être parfaitement honnête, je crois que la personne qu'on épouse détermine son avenir, à la fois personnellement et professionnellement: le degré de bonheur ou le succès d'on dépend en grande partie de la personne que l'on épouse. Pour moi, c'est particulièrement vrai. Grâce à mon mariage heureux, ma vie personnelle est aussi heureuse. Et parce que je suis heureuse, tout le temps, je n'ai pas de soucis quand je travaille, et en plus, grâce à l'incroyable soutien que je reçois de mon bou, ma vie professionnelle excelle aussi. Le partenaire de vie affecte vraiment la trajectoire de sa vie, c'est pourquoi je dis toujours aux gens de choisir avec prudence.

Comme je dis toujours, si les entreprises peuvent mettre plusieurs mois à faire leur vérification diligente, avant d'avoir un accord de partenariat joint-venture qui dure en moyenne 10 ans, qui plus est pour nous, n'est-il pas impératif que nous prenions plus de temps et de soin, pour faire notre "due diligence", avant de faire le choix le plus important de notre vie: un partenaire pour le reste de nos vies? Je pense que si chacun réfléchissait attentivement avant de se marier, nous aurions des gens beaucoup plus heureux, non? 😍

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Tok Tok in the basement of 313 Somerset is my go-to whenever I feel like having Indonesian soups. However, I've always lamented their somewhat limited menu; I'm not a fan of their bakmi nor nasi dishes, and their soups, while varied and delicious, do not quite make for a substantive enough dinner for gluttonous appetites such as myself. And so it was with great delight, and eager anticipation, when I learned that they were opening up a full-service restaurant, Sama Sama by Tok Tok, at Jewel Changi.

As per new restaurant S.O.P., I waited a year before visiting. Admittedly, the whiny spoiled Singaporean in me couldn't be arsed to drive all the way out to the end of the island just for Indonesian cuisine. Pagi Sore in the CBD (and now on delivery apps yay!!) suffices perfectly whenever I've a craving for Indonesian foods. But a girlfriend living in the East, a newly-minted mother, needed a self-care day but couldn't bear to be apart from her baby for too long, and wanted to explore the dining offerings of the world's best airport. And because I love her so, I made the 35-minute drive (I know, in the bigger scheme of things, a 35-minute distance is relatively near, but as I've confessed, I'm spoiled AF) to Jewel at Changi.

I was surprised to find Jewel teeming with crowds even on a Monday afternoon, I suppose the pandemic hasn't quite dampened the Christmas spirit, or Christmas sales shopping hah.

Unsurprisingly, the restaurant was also packed, but thankfully, not full (we hadn't thought to make reservations just for lunch) and we managed to get a table, with a lovely view overlooking the fountain to boot.

The menu was extensive, but the affable waiter navigated us through it and shared his personal favourites. We ordered everything he recommended, and relished all of it. It was a gut-busting lunch, but well worth the waddle after.

The Ayam Bakar Taliwang ($28) is a Lombok-style grilled whole spring chicken butterflied and schmeared with a robust chilli garlic spice paste, served alongside steamed water spinach (kangkong) topped with tomato chilli sambal, ground peanuts, blanched long beans, shredded cabbage, fresh basil, cucumbers, tomatoes, and sambal. Sumptuous, succulent, superb stuff.

I love tempe, and will always order the same if available on the menu, the Tahu Tempe Goreng ($9), topped with lashings of batter bits, was decent, if a smidge unremarkable. The ones at Dapur Penyet are still top-notch.

The Balinese Daging Nyat Nyat ($12) was surprisingly spicier than expected; Balinese cuisine tends towards the mild, but this packed quite a punch. The beef was lovely, stewed till fork-tender.

A provincial beef soup rarely found in Singapore (except in the homes of many of our resident Indonesian compatriots), the Rawon Surabaya ($15) was loaded with beansprouts, salted eggs, kerupuk udang and flavoured with buah keluak which gives it its distinctive inky black hue. A tip if you can take the heat: add dollops of the accompanying sambal, the chilli makes for a lively kick to the piquancy of the buah keluak.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is a soup commonplace amongst the Malay diaspora across Southeast Asia of Sup Buntut ($19), a soup redolent of nutmeg, cloves, peppercorn, ginger root, cinnamon stick, and loaded with fall-off-the-bone oxtail chunks, potatoes, and carrots. It's a little oily, but the slick goes over well with steamed rice.

A Jakarta staple, Soto Betawi ($16), is a coconut milk-infused beef, tomato, and potato soup flavoured with candlenut, lemongrass, Indonesian bay leaves, and galangal. This is one of my favourite soups, I loved its creamy notes, which were a wonderful balance to the tang of juicy tomatoes.

Another traditional soup that's hugely popular, and thus readily found, across Southeast Asia, the Soto Ayam Lamongan ($13) is the Malay answer to chicken soup. Choc-a-bloc with shredded chicken, glass noodles, beansprouts, boiled eggs, and full fat koya powder a a shot of milky goodness, this was wholesome and comforting, especially since we are currently pelted by the torrential North-East monsoon.

In addition to steamed white rice, crackers were also provided as supplements, and while the kerupuk bawang (garlic shrimp crackers with soto ayam) was delicious on their own, the kerupuk belinjo (bitternut crackers served with soto betawi) was better dunked into the soup.

Although sambals (top) were attended to each soup, we also ordered a couple of their specials, bottom from left to right: Sambal Goreng Terasi ($4) pounded with shrimp paste, chilli, and tomatoes; and Sambal Embe ($4) Balinese shallot salsa with coconut oil. These were potent but delicious, we piled them into the soups to give them an added boost. Suffice it to say, I was sniffling all through the dinner.