Nasi Padang
Nasi Padang or Padang rice is the cuisine of the Padangnese or Minangkabau people of West Sumatra province where Padang is its capital city. It is one of the most popular food in Indonesia and it can be found in almost every city. The term Nasi Padang is often used to refer to the whole culinary traditions of Minangkabau people but it is seldom used in West Sumatra itself and mostly refer to it as Masakan Minang (Minang food) instead.
Padang food is famous for its rich taste of succulent coconut milk and spicy chili with notable Indian and Middle Eastern influences. Minangkabau people are known for their fondness of cattle meat products including offal. Almost the whole parts of a cattle, such as meat, ribs, tongue, tail, liver, tripe, brain, bone marrow, spleen, intestine, cartilage, tendon, and even skin, are made to be Minangkabau delicacies. Seafood is popular in coastal West Sumatran cities, and most are grilled or fried with spicy chilli sauce or in curry gravy. Various of fishes, shrimp, and cuttlefish in also cooked in similar fashion. Most of Minangkabau food is eaten with hot steamed rice or compressed rice such as katupek (ketupat). Vegetables are mostly boiled such as boiled cassava leaf (pucuk ubi), or simmered in thin curry as side dishes, such as gulai (some kind of curry) of young jackfruit or cabbages.
The cuisine is usually cooked once per day, and in restaurants customers choose from those dishes, which are left out on display in high stacked plates in the window of Padang restaurant. During a dine-in hidang (serve) style Padang restaurant, after the customer being seated, the customer did not have to order first. The waiter immediately serves the dishes directly to the table, and the table will quickly be set with dozens of small dishes filled with highly-flavored foods. Customers pay only for what they eat. (source: Wikipedia)
A little note about the Minangkabau people who are known as the Chinese of the indigenous/pribumi Indonesians for their keen business acumen and ability to adapt. They are mostly well-educated and spread across Indonesia. Based on their relative small populations of about 2.7%, they are probably the most successful pribumis where 6 of the top 10 most influential Indonesians of the 20th century and three out of the four Indonesian founding fathers were Minang.
The following series are taken from a Padang restaurant in Tg Pinang. The food was fantastic especially the rendangs and sambal tempe but it wasn't cheap (espec for local standard), cost us (6pax) around Rp1.2m (almost S$170) but we DID eat a lot!!
Thanks for viewing & have a pleasant weekend!!!
or steamed pork belly with preserved vegetables is a traditional Hakka dish and one of my moms best cookings. Unfortunately due to health consciousness and my moms age, we only gotta enjoy it on special occasions now.
enak om! Drool drool the rndang and sotong is rlly :thumbsup:
