A business contact of mine who works near Orchard mentioned to me a while back that he goes to the food court at the top of Far East Plaza from time to time for lunch. This struck me as a bit odd, as I used to go to Nanbantei on the fifth floor quite a bit but never noticed any food court up there. I was in the neighborhood tonight, so I went to try to go find it.
It turned out that it wasn't really the run of the mill food court like Food Junction and Kopitiam that I thought he was referring to. Instead, these were folks occupying the retail stalls of the building but selling low-priced local food. What really hit me though was the aroma of grease pervading the place. After scoping out all the stalls, I finally arrived at what looked the most interesting to me: EsTeler 77 (#05-81/82), which apparently is a chain of fast food places from Indonesia.
They had a bunch of the Indonesian favorites, including sop buntut and soto ayam. But what grabbed my eye (stomach?) was the bakso, something I hadn't seen since Bali, so I ordered a bowl in hopes of finding that magic again. And while the soup with deep fried shallots on top was tasty, the meatballs were shockingly rubbery and tough. Well, I don't profess to be a bakso expert here, but maybe this is the way it's done outside of Bali or something? Either way, I still ate this all, and wished I had ordered more items as they still looked good. I'm coming back...and all this from a guy who didn't like Indonesian food a while back but is really liking it now.
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