Potatoes Galore in Ngadasari

Note: This entry is specially for those who love potatoes as much as I do!

Whilst hiking through the Probolinggo areas of Cemoro Lawang and Ngadasari, I was amazed at the amount of potatoes in the area.

Potatoes, potatoes everywhere ...

As a lover of any dish made of potatoes, it was a good experience observing how potatoes are planted and harvested before it ends up on our plates :-)

I guess the journey of a potato begins as a tuber waiting to be planted.

"Oohhh ... so this is how baby potatoes look like ..."

As it grows bigger, leaves start to sprout.

I present to you ... potato plants

This is the first time I'm seeing a potato plant. All these while I only know potatoes as round, brown vegetables (or fruit?) that reveal yellow flesh when the skin is peeled.

 When the potatoes are ready for harvest, farmers do it by hoeing the soil.

Harvest time ...

Then they gather the potatoes into baskets that are joined by a stick, just like how people sold nasi kandar in the old days ;-)

I think you must be super strong to carry these baskets filled with potatoes.

Apparently the price of potatoes have taken a dive from IDR5,000 a kilo to IDR2,000 a kilo. Heck, I could eat potatoes everyday with that kind of prices!

The hotel where we stayed, Yoschi's has signboards proudly declaring it has the best potato dishes since the past 20 years.

Signboard outside Yoschi's restaurant.

I'm not surprised since Yoschi's is located in the heart of Ngadasari where potatoes are aplenty. So it would make sense to specialise in a dish who's main ingredient can be found easily, plentifully and cheaply.

"... the best potatoe dishes since 20 years"

By the time we got back to Yoschi's, it was lunch time and we were famished.

After seeing all the potatoes during the hike, and motivated by Yoschi's reputation as a potato sifu, I decided to order a potato dish.

The menu had an extensive choice of potato dishes, which made it difficult to choose. In the end I ordered a potato pancake with tomato sauce that costs IDR17,000.

Potato pancake with tomato sauce

The dish was not only delicious, it was so huge that it could feed a battalion (just kidding!). I didn't have dinner that evening.