Hopping Around West Sumatra (4)

Still with the discoveries while my friends and I was hopping around West Sumatra. It’s time to dig deeper on the culinary there. We found so many delicious treats in Bukit Tinggi. On the night when we out at the plaza of Jam Gadang, we found Pisang Kepit. It is a snack made of grilled banana and topped with shredded coconut plus brown sugar. Since the banana is already sweet, you can eat it without the topping. It was raining that night so the temperature was low and we thought something warm would be good. So we visited one foodstall which has meatballs. I don’t recommend you to eat any meatballs there since the taste is really weird. A little bit undercooked if I can say my opinion. Not to mention that the low temperature quickly chill the meatballs’ stock. So even though it was served hot and steamy, after 2 or 3 sips, the stock becomes lukewarm and even chilled.

Another traditional snack that we had in Bukit Tinggi is Bika Panggang (Baked Bika). It is made from flour, coconut milk and ingredients which I can not identified, and it is baked with the banana leaves as the saucer. It is so delicious, not too sweet but tasty. There is a part of the banana leaves that is burnt and sticked strongly to the flour. Since we enjoyed the bika so much that we didn’t want to waste any part of it, we actually ate some of the banana leaves. It’s crunchy so nothing to be worried about, haha.

Don’t forget to drop by to Itiak Lado Mudo restaurant at Ngarai Sianok. It has duck with green chilli sauce as the specialty. Watch out for the hotness of the chilli. Be prepared with your drinks so you can quickly smother the hotness when necessary. Apart from duck with green chilli sauce, the restaurant also provides fried duck, duck curry, and tunjang curry (tunjang is the leg part of a beef).

Another snack to try is sweet potato cake that is sold at the viewing point at Turn 43 (on the way to Danau Maninjau). The color of the cake is purple. The main ingredient is sweet potato and coconut milk plus sugar. Again, the sweetness is well balanced and it’s so tasty. It’s the perfect company while sipping hot tea and enjoying the view of Danau Maninjau from above.

When you reach Padang city, be sure to try Soto Padang. The specialty of this soto lays on the fried beef as one of the ingredient of the soto. Don’t forget to try Sate Padang (satay Padang) as well. The sauce of the satay isn’t made from peanut. I think it has the distinct flavor of curry but it’s not spicy at all. The meat for satay is made of beef and sometimes there is beef lard among the meat.

My favorite delicacy in Padang is durian ice! There are so many durian ice stores but we try Iko Gantinyo at Pulau Karam street. The store is big and sophisticated. We spent almost 3 hours at the store while waiting for our flight to return to Jakarta. The specialty of the store is indeed the durian ice even though they also sell pempek (fish cake) and sate padang. There are mainly two variant of durian ice. The first in using shaved ice as the base and the other is using ice cream as the base. Both are topped with durian sauce, made fresh from the fruit. The first variant which using shaved ice has additional ingredient from avocado, jackfruit, nata de coco, or grass jelly. I personally prefer the second variant because it’s tastier since the ice cream gives creamy taste. Beware of the serving size because they mean business. But then again, no one can get enough of duria so I don’t see the problem there, haha.

Another snack we had in Padang city is grilled banana topped with cheese and chocolate sprinkler. It is a common snack found at the stores along Padang beach. They also has toast, grilled corn, fried shrimp and fried clam. Those go well with variety of sachet beverages like milk, cappuccino, coffee, tea and the likes. It’s so beautiful to watch the sunset while snacking and having the sound of waves as the background. It just makes you want to sit there till the sun is replaced by the pale moonlight.

Don’t forget to try the many chips in both Bukit Tinggi and Padang city. The specialty in Padang city is sanjay, that is cassava chips with chilli sauce. It’s so tasty and they even has new variant where the mix durian into the chilli sauce so there is sweet smell of durian on the chips. They have two shapes, one is rectangular and the other is circular. I suggest you to buy the circular one because the sauce is thoroughly coated the cassava, unlike the rectangular one. Another specialty is dakak-dakak, also made from cassava but without chilli. They are flavored by salt, garlic, and leeks. I also recomment you to try rendang telur , chips made from egg white flavored by chilli and herbs. It can be eaten as chips or as companion with rice. In Bukit Tinggi, there are even more variety of chips. The have chips from pumpkin, sweet potato, cassava leaves, etc. They also have confectionary made from eggplant. Really creative and tasty. They are perfect for souvenir.

So, there you go, the complete review of my journey to West Sumatra. Aren’t they interesting? Don’t you want to experience them firsthand? So, what are you waiting for? Indonesia has so much beauty, why seek other nations when you haven’t even explored your own nation?

Hopping Around West Sumatra (3)

On with the journey around West Sumatra ^_^ It’s time to set your foot on a creamy sandy beach with beautiful sea blue water and enjoy the sea breeze from a hammock. Welcome to Sikuai Island…

Sikuai Island is one of the islands scattered around coast line of West Sumatra. It only takes 15 minutes ride using speed boat from the tourism port. Be careful with the boat ride because after about 5 minutes steady and cozy ride, the boat will hit high speed which will make novice tourist has to hold on to something to prevent from being thrown out of the seat. However, have no worry because you’ll take no time to enjoy the speed. The view along the ride is breathtaking, trees and greenery fill the islands around Sikuai. It feels like being in the Honolulu with all the clean sea and green lands. The sea wind blows quite strongly due to the boat’s speed so for you who easily get sick, better wear windbreaker or jacket.

The first scenery in Sikuai Island that will greet you once the boat is near the port is lines of coconut trees along the beach, one main resort hall, creamy clean sand, and beautiful sea blue water. Hop off the boat and you can practically hear the sand is calling you to take off your shoes and walk barefoot on the sand. It’s really beautiful and since it was Monday when my friends and I came to Sikuai Island, there was no other guest so it was practically private beach for us.  Sikuai Island has no native resident. It only has the resort and people who work for the resort. That is why they able to maintain the cleanliness of the beach. The beach is free from any merchants whatsoever beside the resort’s store and restaurant. Five hammocks are available under the coconut trees, creating a perfect shade from the sun with beautiful view of the blue sea in front.

Since Sikuai Island is basically a resort, there is swimming pool available near a patio. Too bad upon closer look, the swimming pool is filled with moss and the water is dirty. The dressing room and toilets are really horrible that you don’t even want to be near them. You better use the toilets at the restaurant, they are clean. There is also a pathway circling the island where you can stroll around the whole island within an hour. Once again, too bad the pathway is unkempt with many cracks and even holes. There are logs stacked above the holes to replace the missing pathway though. And since the island still has naturanlforest, many dry leaves scattered on the pathway that crosses the forest plus moss covers some of the pathway so you have to watch your step to avoid stepping the moss and slipped. It is as clear as the sea water that the resort has lousy maintenance and it is not designed for one day tourist even though the advertisement said it is a great destination for one day trip.

Since there is only one restaurant in Sikuai, it is advised to bring your own snacks and drinks to avoid buying them with high price there. We had lunchbox as a part of the tour which consisted of rice, fried fish in flour, chicken in chilli, vegetables stir fry (carrot + bean), plus cracker. I don’t know whether the chef is not really good with seasoning or perhaps since it is low budget lunchbox, the meal was tasteless and has really low quality. Luckily we brought many crackers so we stuffed ourselves with them. One amusing incident is when we ordered coconut before we started eating our lunchbox. Our order hadn’t been delivered even until we have finished our lunch. We joked around saying that they still hunting for the coconut, but then we saw two of the resort staffs rode a bike and stopped near the coconut trees where the hammocks are suspended. One of them said that they could pick the coconut from those trees. We looked at each other and instantly bursting with laugh. It seems the staff realized that we were there so they drove away without picking the coconut. It seems that they really picked the coconut from the trees in the island, they didn’t keep any stock. That explains why our order came hours later. Oh, well, the waiting was paid off with the delicious fresh-from-tree coconut.

There are some attractions offered by the resort. They offer bicycle rental for 50k rupiah per hour, but they only has two bicycles.  They also rent snorkelling equipments. However, the bottom of the sea near the beach doesn’t has any beautiful corals or fishes, so I’m not sure what can be seen while snorkelling. There is canoe rental as well if you want to paddle from Sikuai to the nearest island. The distance between them seems pretty short but it is not within swimming distance no matter how tempting the clear sea blue water is. Another attraction they offer is banana boat with 375k rupiah for max 5 people. Too bad the boat that pull the banana boat is not sa peed boat so it’s less challenging. The water where we play banana boat smells thickly of gasoline or whatever fuel the boat is using. Nonetheless, we had fun being thrown off the banana boat twice.

The ride home takes around an hour. The boat is not a speed boat and it departs from Sikuai at 4 pm. It is strongly recommended to change your wet clothes into dry ones or else you will get sick. The ride is constant and cozy with cool breeze which acts like a lullaby. It is a perfect opportunity to catch some sleep.

All in all, what I can say about Sikuai Island is it has really beautiful beach and view but with horrible facilities from the resort. Hope the resort management can improve the facilities.

I’m not quite done with the journey yet, so be sure to stay tune for part 4, Padang Beach and Culinary part ^_^

Hopping Around West Sumatra (2)

Moving on towards the next tourism destination in Bukit Tinggi, after Panorama and Lobang Jepang, it’s time to head to Danau Maninjau (Lake Maninjau). There are actually two famous lakes in West Sumatra, Danau Singkarak (Lake Singkarak) and Danau Maninjau (Lake Maninjau). We were originally scheduled to visit Danau Singkarak, but we got few advices from the natives that said Danau Maninjau has better scenery than Danau Singkarak. Beeing happy tourists that haven’t been to West Sumatra before, my friends and I were happily following the advice. We switched the destination from Danau Singkarak to Danau Maninjau. There are 44 turns to be taken from the highland before we reach Danau Maninjau. So for those who has motion sickness, you better prepare some mint flavored candy or vomit bag. However, the best view to enjoy Danau Maninjau is from the high ground, which is Turn 43. So you can save the energy and instead of following all the turns until you reach Danau Maninjau, you can stop at Turn 43. There are actually many viewing spots to watch the beautiful Danau Maninjau and its surroundings along the turns, but the highest one is at the Turn 43. Just pull over, get out of the car, and sit down on the stools facing the breathtaking view of Danau Maninjau below while sipping hot tea. It is the greatest feeling throughout the journey in West Sumatra. Here you will be reminded once again about how mighty God is. The beauty brings serenity and you will be able to forget all the troubles and bad things in this life. Cool breeze feels like a lullaby that will make you want to spend hours just sitting there and enjoy the view.

Talking about West Sumatra and Bukit Tinggi, you must go to the landmark of the province, that is Jam Gadang. Gadang is a native language of big, so Jam Gadang literally means big watch. Just don’t compare it to Big Ben because it’s not that big. Still, it has the unique architecture of West Sumatra, the horn-shaped roof. Jam Gadang is located at Bukit Tinggi, near The Hills Hotel (used to be Novotel) and the famous Pasar Atas. Local government creates some kind of city plaza with Jam Gadang as the center. At night, the plaza is filled with so many merchants and youngsters who want to spend the night hanging out with their friends. At noon, the plaza is also filled with tourists, locals, and merchants. This is partially the contribution of Pasar Atas. Pasar Atas is huge affiliation of merchants who sells daily needs and souvenires, from bags, sandals, mukena (cloth used by women moslems during daily prayer), songket (traditional woven cloth of West Sumatra), miniature of Jam Gadang, key chains, accessories, food, etc. There are more than 100 merchants in Pasar Atas even though the merchandise is similar from one merchant to another. Pasar Atas is similar to Tanah Abang in Jakarta, the price of a merchandise is not fix so you can bargain for it. Don’t be hasty buying things in the first merchant you frequent, because there are so much selections with wide variety throughout Pasar Atas. I advise you to look around, bargain for what you want but don’t buy it just yet until you compare the price and the merchandise inself from one merchant to another. Once you’ve settled on a good after comparing it on more than 3 merchants, it’s about the right time to purchase it. Bring cash if you want to shop here because they don’t take credit card nor debit card.

Before leaving Bukit Tinggi, make sure you visit The Center of Documentation and Cultural Information of West Sumatra where you can borrow traditional wedding costume of West Sumatra couples and take a look around at the traditional house of West Sumatra. Unfortunately for my friends and I, we arrived late so the place is closed. We only managed to take a pictures of the traditional house from the outside. It is really amazing to see the details of traditional pattern crafted on the wall of the house. There is no empty space on the wall, everything is covered by the traditional craving pattern. You can only imagine how much time is invested in making one traditional West Sumatra house. Not to mention the traditional house is usually has so many rooms to accommodate the whole big family.

From Bukit Tinggi, we head back to Padang. Are you familiar with the folklore of Siti Nurbaya? Well, Padang is the home of Siti Nurbaya. There is a bridge named after the folklore, Jembatan Siti Nurbaya (Siti Nurbaya Bridge). The bridge has patterned railing made from iron and lamp posts are neatly lined up along the railing. The bridge gives away the sense of ancient time just like the period of time when Siti Nurbaya lived.

There are cultural museum in Padang, too bad we didn’t have the opportunity to visit it. However, we have one full day at Sikuai Island so stay tune for the next review of Sikuai Island ^_^

Hopping Around West Sumatra (1)

West Sumatera, a blessed province with beautiful scenery, culinary, and culture on the west coast of the island Sumatra. With Padang as the capital of the province, the province borders to North Sumatra at the north, Riau and Jambi at the east, and Bengkulu at the sourtheast.  Basically, West Sumatra is surrounded by Barisan mountains range that runs from north-west to south-east and Indian Ocean at the coastline. I’m so lucky to have the chance to explore West Sumatra. It all thanks to a wedding invitation from a friend in Padang Panjang, one of the regency in West Sumatra. My friends and I contacted local tour agency, Ero Tour, for the vacation arrangement, complete with accommodation, transportation and daily meals.

Daily flight from Jakarta and wide selection of airlines make it pretty easy to get to West Sumatra. It takes about 1 hour and 25 minutes of flight from Jakarta to Padang. Minangkabau International Airport at Padang Pariaman regency, which is located around 19 km from the city center, serves as the gate towards this beautiful province. The airport itself isn’t as sophisticated as Makassar’s or Palembang’s airport, it feels like an old airport since it was built in 2005. There was renovation underway though. The airport has horn-shape roofs since that is the signature of traditional house roof in West Sumatra.

It takes approximately 2 hours drive from the airport to Padang Panjang. Padang Panjang is located on the northern side of Padang, about an hour from Bukit Tinggi, the tourism central of West Sumatra. The temperature in Padang Panjang is colder than Padang because it is a highland, even colder than Bukit Tinggi as stated by the locals. My friends and I spent the first day mostly on the road and air ^^; After attending the wedding at Padang Panjang, we headed to Bukit Tinggi.

The first destination in Bukit Tinggi is a place called Panorama. The fare price to enter this place is really cheap, only six thousand rupiah. This is basically a viewing point where you can see the scenery of Ngarai Sianok, a famous canyon in West Sumatra. Ngarai Sianok originally is rows of green canyon. Trees covered the canyon endlessly. However, since an earthquake shook Bukit Tinggi in 2007, part of the canyon slided away along with the trees on that side. That is why there is a side without any tree on Ngarai Sianok today. There is outdoor theatre available in Panorama. Only a small stage surrounded by few rows of seats though. Too bad it isn’t well maintained. Another attraction in this place is groups of monkey that live freely in this place. Unlike the monkeys at Uluwatu Shrine, Bali, the monkeys here pay no attention at glasses or camera, they prefer food and drinks. Since the visitor can feed them, they presumptuous and think all the food and drinks at visitor hand is intended for them. So put your food and drinks safely inside your bag. Another rule is not to touch the monkey because they may think you want to capture them and consequently, they will be aggressive toward you.

Panorama also has one historical site called Lobang Jepang (translated literally as Japanese Hole but it is more like underground tunnel/bunker with wide spread branches). The fare to enter this attraction is another six thousand rupiah. To enter Lobang Jepang, you have to climb down 132 steps from the gate. Meanwhile, to get out from the tunnel, you may climb back up or get out to the main road of Bukit Tinggi. Lobang Jepang is a legacy of Japanese army during their aggression in Indonesia. They built the tunnel inside highlands of Bukit Tinggi to observe native’s behavior. If there was any suspicious activity, they would have ambushed the natives and killed them. The tunnel itself was built by enslaving Javanese people. Many of them were killed during the construction. When the local government restored Lobang Jepang, there were many skeletons found scattered inside the tunnel. Those skeleton then piled up at one corner of the tunnel branch and then sealed off by a wall. When the guide told us about that right in front of the said wall, my friends and I had goosebumps and we quickly moved to another branch ^^; Lobang Jepang also has specific area where they tortured captives and disposed the body. They masquerading it by calling the spot as kitchen.

Although the tunnel was built in 1944, the Japanese army already possessed the knowledge of providing adequate ventilation and echo dampener. The echo dampener was made by making steps profile on the wall. The restoration of Lobang Jepang includes covering the actual walls and ceilings by cement. However, during the earthquake in 2007, some part of the cement at the ceilings collapsed because the cement didn’t adhere strongly to the original top. Local government plans to take down all the cement and restore the tunnel into its origin materials. There are lighting installed inside the tunnel even though it doesn’t reach all the branches. Some of branches ends up at Ngarai Sianok so they provide additional light. The huge disappointment of this historical site is the misleading map at the entrance which shows the branches inside the tunnel has functioning area such as musholla, toilet, firearms museum, etc when the reality is none of them exist. The local government might dreams big, but they surely act none, how typical of them.

There are many fascinating tourism spots to be found in West Sumatra and this posting is just the first part about them. I spent four days and three night at West Sumatra and I haven’t even said a word about the culinary feast here so stay tune for more posting on the beautiful West Sumatra ^_^

Western Dining at 5th Avenue Cafe

Do you miss the taste of western food but you have enough of the ordinary fast food or steak? Why don’t you try 5th Avenue Cafe at Grand Indonesia Entertainment District level 3A? Great interior design that surely brings you back to the 70th era. There are many intriguing pictures hanging on the wall which build the western cafe ambience. Dominated by red color, the cozy atmosphere will make you want to stay there, have a decent meal and a long comfortable chat with your friends.

The cafe has large variety of complete set of meals, from appetizer to dessert. Are you a salad crazed person? Why not choose one among the salad selections. Or perhaps seafood chowder or salmon cream soup will do? For share portion, nachos or fried calamari will be the best choice. As for the main course, there are many steak selection, pasta selection, and chicken menu to choose. If you crave for meat but steak is a little bit too heavy for your tummy, Germans’ Farmer Platter is the best choice. You will get mashed potato topped with chicken schnitzel, bratwurst (type of sausage) and turkey bacon. The original sauce is black beer, but they will change it into mushroom sauce or cream souce to make it alchohol free. As for the pasta selection, marinara pasta is too irresistable. You can choose the pasta as you like, be it spaghetti or fettucini. There are many cake selection and ice cream for dessert. Strawberry cheese cake is a must! The soft cheese will literally melt in your mouth. The sour taste from the yoghurt refreshes your tastebuds. The ice cream and whipped cream give just enough sweetness addition. There are wide selection of beverages available. From tea to coffee to milk shake. Fruit tea is the signature beverage here and the reason is as clear as crystal glass, they taste real good. There are many fruit selection with peach tea and lychee tea as the most ordered. There are sliced fruit at the bottom of the glass and the sugar is in separated cup. Natural fructose from the fruit already gives a tinge of sweetness so for those who aren’t sugar crazed, you can leave the sugar untouched.

Similar to high class restaurant, visual arrangement of the meals will make your mouth waters. This cafe not only provides excellent taste of the food, they put esthetic as another major value. Look at the fried calamari arrangement. Stacked vertically between tar tar sauce and pickle saucer beautifully. Every garnish is toughtfully placed to create beautiful food art. This is where taste and beauty create synergy. For big eater like myself, the serving size will satisfy your tummy. For small eater, you might want to share with your friend, especially the pasta menu. 

The service in this cafe meets expectation. The waiter explains the menu patiently. They also inform promotion available in the cafe. Few weeks ago they gave half price for all the menu excluding grilled menu and beverages. And they keep the original portion unlike other restaurant which downsized the size when giving promo. Check for the promotion available when you dine in at 5th Avenue Cafe. All in all, this cafe receives golden star from me for giving excellent food, excellent ambience, and above average service. Why don’t you prove it yourself? Have a big western food feast ^_^