Sama Sama by Tok Tok, Jewel Changi Airport

This marks our first foray into Jewel. As we had suspected, it's a mall better suited for travellers and people on stop overs. Nothing much new to see for the locals apart from the pretty green heart of it. Since we were here, we had lunch at Sama Sama by Tok Tok (#03-225/226 Jewel Changi Airport, 78 Airport Boulevard, tel : +65 6904 3971) which is an upmarket Indonesian restaurant.

We were served keropok with kecap manis and sliced chilli.

The food's different even though some of the names were familiar. I'm guessing that some of the dishes here evolved into a local rendition of what might have come from Indonesia.

Like this mildly spicy sambal goreng kentang. The dish was pasty from either some sort of rempah or crushed chicken liver or both that they used. Not much in terms of flavour or appearances like the local sambal goreng. The menu listed chicken gizzards and heart but we got a lot of liver and gizzards. Along with potatoes, tempe and petai. It's not bad if one enjoys liver. Good with rice.

That's their rendition of urap. A salad of sorts. The vegetables were cold and the bean sprouts were thankfully cooked. Compared to the local renditions of the dish I've tried, this appeared to be more bland. What I prefer much from the local urap is that there is more aroma and sweetness from serunding/serundeng (sweet toasted shredded coconut). The coconut used in this registered little flavour.

We ordered their sayur lodeh thinking that it might have been like a local rendition with a little bit of difference. We didn't recognize it when it arrived and even clarified if we had been served something else. The sayur selection was much different from the local variety - all of which were in a light and savoury coconut milk broth. There were pieces of jackfruit, strips of chilli, petai and tempe. I liked it quite a bit because it had warmth from the spices and an almost velvet comforting quality. Don't know how this rendition came about though.

That's sate kambing. Lamb satay Indonesian style. Very nice. Possibly one of the rare instances where there was little lamb flavour in the meat where I didn't feel like picking on. The meat was tender, had a smoky flavour from the grill and a sweet glaze. I'd eat this again.

Pretty decent nasi kuning they have there. Not as flavourful as the one from Dancing Fish Signature but decent nonetheless.

I'm thinking that I wouldn't mind coming back.