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 ^_^