For our Day 2 in Bandung, we went to Taman Safari Indonesia in Cisarua, Bogor. Click HERE to view.
On our way up there, we asked our tour driver to stop by a Nasi/Masakan Padang restaurant for either lunch or dinner. He stopped at this restaurant.
For those of you who wonders what 'Masakan Padang' is all about, you can go HERE to enrich yourself. Considering that my FiL is of 'Minang' (short for Minangkabau, a region in Sumatra) descent, I can sense his enthusiasm when we stepped in here.
masakan Padang restaurant
This restaurant does 'hidang' (serve) style service. We simply sit down and they will soon serve the 'kobokan'- a bowl of water with a slice of lime, to wash our hands (there's always the sink, too). Later on, there will be a flurry of movements as numerous plates of dishes were served on the table. No, we didn't choose. They just serve what's available for that day. For our group of 13, three sets were served.
Well, you can also walk up to the display counter to choose other preferred dishes that wasn't served. The thing here is that they charge whatever plate that was 'touched' or eaten from. So if there are dishes that you don't fancy, just put them aside and ignore.
Everyone was served with either hot or cold tea.
My MiL keenly observed the food and smiled. She was trained to cook such dishes by her own MiL so she's pretty well-versed in cooking them.
I need to mention that the term 'Gulai' will appear quite frequently in this post. It is actually food items cooked in savoury and spicy coconut milk gravy
Ok, I specially enlarge this pic because I want to mention dishes that didn't appear in the other pictures. On of them is my favourite dish!
There's the 'Gulai telur' on the topmost-right. Hard-boiled eggs in 'Gulai'. Right below it (geez, I wish it can be clearer!) is my favourite: 'Gulai Tunjang'. Cow's foot tendons in gulai. The texture of those tendons… gosh! Sinewy, chewy, crunchy… Awesome!!!
And given the size of those pieces on tendons, that must have come from a pretty large cattle! Totally reminded me of those 'soaked' cuttlefish used to make Cuttlefish kangkong.
For a start, how can we forget the all-important 'sambal balado', the icon of Minangkabau cuisine? A meal at a Nasi Padang eatery is never complete without this.
That day we had the 'green version', where green (instead of red) chillies are blended together with garlic, shallot, red or green tomato, salt and lemon/lime juice, then sautéed with oil.
This was available at my home almost everyday because it's a must for my FiL to eat with this.
'Pucuk ubi rebus' (boiled tapioca shoots). A wee bit bitter but goes really well with the given 'sambal balado'.
Another veggie dish in the background is the large slices of fried eggplant. Also meant to be eaten with 'sambal balado'.
Oh, you can see a sneak peek of my favourite 'Gulai Tunjang' underneath that plate of sambal balado there, on it's right. The thick tendons all curled up.
(clockwise from top-left) Deep-fried 'Ikan bilis tamban' (some anchovy-like herring), the very famous beef rendang, fried chicken and … guess what that lump of meat is…?
…
…
It's … 'Gulai Cancang'. Offals or internal organs of the cow; like liver, spleen etc and tied together with the intestine.
(clockwise from top-left) The fried eggplant, bergedil/perkedel (fried potato patty), 'Ayam Kalio' (chicken cooked in gravy that's almost similar to rendang but more watery and lighter coloured).
The lump of meat on the bottom-left is the… cow's BRAIN. Erk??!
That's how much the Minang people love their cattle meat. Almost every bit is used in their cooking. it's really quite an experience, having authentic Padang fare.
Truth to be told, I'd rather eat at those Nasi Padang eateries which we were more used to; by ordering/choosing OUR OWN choice of dishes. Ho hum…
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