Padang Cuisine

According to many, Indonesian food aboard is manly known for the hot and spicy dishes of Western Sumatra more popularly referred to as Padang Cuisine.An acquaintance of mine who is also an authority on the topic was not so happy when I told him that. According to him Padang Food should not be called Padang food but Minangkabau food because western Sumatra is not only Padang, referring to the capital of the province of West Sumatra.

He also stated taht it was called Padang because those people who left west Sumatra and opened restaurants on Java and other island, were mostly people from the Padang region. Beiing very able traders and clever businessmen, theyeven succeeded in wstablishing chains of Padang restaurants. Not satisfied with being known domestically they went globetrotting and soon Padang food was attracting worlwide attention.

The tenacity of west Sumatra people in doing business is actually a legacy of their ancestors. This shrewd business sense had already been recognized by foreigners who had visited the island of Sumatra many centuries before. writting about Sumatra, Odoardo Barbosa in 1519 stated that " Monancabo to the sourthward, is the principal source of gold, as well from mines as collected from the banks of the rivers" and De Barros (1553) " Malacca had the epithet of aurea given to it on account of the abundance of gold brought from Manacabo and Barros, countries in the island of C,amatra where it procured". ( The history of Sumatra, William Marsden). Trading seems therefore a natural talent for those from western Sumatra and it seems they have an equal talent for gastronomy and culinary know-how.

But what really makes padang food attrative? Many experts on Indonesian food agree that it must have been an appreciation for the foods of their own region using mostly ingrediens which grow abundantly in the fertile soil of Minangkabau, like chilies in all their varieties. Morever Minangkabau people have an outstanding ability for combining spices and herbs turning them into appetite-enchancing dishes. A noted anthropologist, Dr Meutia F Hatta Swasono, ( University of IndonesiaI said that in the Minangkabau, food is mainly made to statisfy the taste, preference and social status as a group idenity. Minangkabau people are very proud of their region.

Back to the opinion that actually Padang food should not be called as such, most renowned among the types of other west Sumatra regional foods is the food from Bukittinggi. Their speciality is Nasi Kapau, which means that rice is served Nasi Ramas style with side dishes to one's liking out of the food served at the restaurant. A nasi kapau array could consist of gulai nangka ( some tomes with cabbage and long beans), grilled fish balado or rendang, sambal lado mudo or some local red chili sambal. Padang restaurants normally serve various typical chicken dishes, grilled fish, gulai otak, dendeng balado, gulai nangka, gulai daun singkong, fried intestines, krupuk kulit ( fried buffalow skin) and other dishes which are mostly put together on the table in the region style. you just eat what you want and leter mention to the waiter what you had.

However Padang food outside its region has been influenced by some foreign overtones too.Stopping at a large and modern Padang restaurant in west Java the waiter balances his array of dishes onto the table and asked politely whether my husband and I were intrested to taste the restaurant's most renowned chicken dish. He assured us that it would be a statisfying experience. We agreed, and waited for a hot chili creation.what come was just pale white pieces of boiled, large chicken drumsticks, forlon looking amongst the other distinctively red or yellow coloured dishes. Thoug the pale ayam pop as the dish is called, is enjoyed with a green sambal lado mudo or red sambal, it tastes like a normal boiled chiken taken out of a broth of chicken soup. Well, luckily there were the traditional gulai otak and dendeng balado, etcetera! When asked what the " pop" means, the waiter had to admit that he didn't know.

Stil considered the typical " Padang" dish is the rendang, chunks of blackish-looking beef orwater buffalow meat with a hot spicy taste. Some people however, do not get the real rendang when enjoying the dish a board, because rendang requires alot of patience to cook, the kalio which is rendang in its unfinished cooking state,is mostly called rendang too. Actually they are two different dishes :kalio has a yellowish sauce and rendang is the blackish looking end-product which can be kept for a long time and was, according to history, a dish for those wandering away from home.

What about life's sweet thing in Minangkabau food? Many things will statisfy food lovers with a sweet tooth. Forexample Payakumbuh is famous for it sweet martabak royal topped with various toppings like grated coconut and roasted skinned peanuts! Payakumbuh a neat verdant town is situated along the banks of the river Batang Agam, which is mentioned in many romantic poems and regional songs in the local language. The kue sapik also from Payakumbuh is a thin sweet is the lemang with tapai ketan hitam which is savaoury glutinous rice cooked in a piece of bamboo. To illustrate the globetrotting Padang cuisene" in the seaside town of Malimping in southern Banten the some lemang is found, introduced by Padang people but now considered a special snack from Malimping.

A popular sweet, sold almost anywhere in traditional wet-market kue kue stands is the kue putu which is made from glutinous rice flour, fairly young grated coconut, salt and brown sugar wrapped then steamed in banana leaves until done. The kue putu can be enjoyed at breakfast, with afternoon coffee or tea or at any time one has a craing for something sweet.

last but not least, the best rice variety when enjoying Padang food is the rice grown in the fertile regions of Solok where the verdant hills are abundant with juicy fruits.

Do come to western Sumatra, please and take some time to have a taste of its adventurous.