"Are you ready for an unbelievable experience?"
In rare times you discover gems and when you do, treasure it. I found this lovely place while wandering around Kampung Baru looking for my ex-nasi padang makcik who disappeared and probably went back to Sumatra. One of my criteria for choosing restaurants is to see if its packed and the variety of dishes on offer. Soooo lo and behold I found a new love have I have enjoyed its pleasure and generously shared with many friends and family.
My favourite dishes here are ayam goreng cili, daging goreng dendeng and tunjang masak lemak. Other dishes that are good here are daging rendang, ayam percik, ikan keli goreng, ayam masak lemak and ikan masak lemak.
Ok let me tell you how to have an unbelievable experience here. Make sure you come around 12 noon as that's when their dishes come out. Get a plate of hot rice on banana leaf. Get a thigh drumstick quarter ayam goreng cili
with the chillies and drench your rice with lots of oil. Then get some pieces of the awesome daging dendeng with more chillies. Scoop up the most tender portion of tunjang and spread the gravy generously. For veggies get some pucuk ubi kayu rebus with sambal belacan and last but not least a dollopful of sambal hijau.
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"The Es Teler comes topped with red sago"
This week we took a peek at one of the more frequently visited Nasi Padang restaurants. With a few branches to its name and fame, Restoran Sari Ratu definitely has quite a following. Traditionally, waiters at Nasi Padang restaurants bring piles of dishes to your table for you to choose. Here, we suggest you pre-order at the counter as you enter the restaurant to ensure quick and easy service.
Though most of the items stated on the board will confuse you at first, (though we speak the same tongue, Indonesian can be a little confusing) there is always a friendly waitress here to help you order up a sumptuous feast! What they have is a wide variety of veggies, chicken, beef and appetisers like emping (bitter Melinjo nut crackers)- heavenly when dipped in their Sambal Hijau (Green Chilli Sambal).
Dig a little deeper at the menu and you will start to understand it. For instance, Balado sounds pretty much like Berlada (spicy in Malay) if you put a Minangkabau accent to it, and that is exactly what it is. The stir-fried brinjals are cooked in a spicy red chilli paste. This dish is delicious. Brinjals here have rich deep purple skins and tender cool meat that absorbs the spiciness of the chillies and helps to tone down the spiciness, giving it subtle heat. To turn the heat up again you can eat this with a dollop of Sambal Hijau.
The Sambal Hijau is not really just green chillies, there is more here than meets the eye. They are pounded green chillies with hints of garlic, onion and ikan bilis (anchovies) stir-fried lightly so all the flavours are well married and later served cold as an accompaniment. Everything here has a subtle difference from our dishes. For example the Rendang Minang (dry stew beef) at first taste present similar characteristics to ours but immediately after the saltiness of the Rendang states that it is uniquely Padang.
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"The barbecued oxtail drips with flavour"
"Now take that kicap manis and squeeze some on the belinjo," mmm... we are waiting for our food at Fatmawati and stuffing our faces with the keropok belinjo. There's something addictive about these crackers, crunchy with a bitter edge and then with that dollop of sweet soy sauce... 'berhantu' as they call it. Anyway one of the main things you should really have here is the Sup Ekor or Sup Buntut. You can have it normal style in the soup, you can have it deep fried in batter (it's a little like KFC batter) or you can have it barbecued. The last one, you can't get it on the menu. Only people in the know, order this. So if you really want to sound like you know what you are talking about, get it barbecued or 'bakar'.
With this order a side of Nasi Timbel. This rice comes wrapped up in banana leaf and it's great. There's not a lot of starch content so it falls in grains- what we call 'ceroi'. This goes really well with the soup. As for the soup itself it is light but has a lot of flavour. Usually light sup ekor comes swimming in MSG to give it punch. But here they have their balance of flavours right with good marrying of 'bumbu' that brings out the flavour of the meat. They also add a bit of fresh tomatoes to get a sour edge to it that is different from Malay sup ekor which usually derives flavour from celery.
Now the barbecued oxtail comes on the side dripping with flavour. We reckon thay marinate it with kicap manis and some pepper and whack it on the grill so everything seeps deep in. The meat practically falls off the bones. We suspect they boil the meat first in the soup to render it soft before massaging the kicap in and then grilling it on a high flame. Both the barbecued and deep fried versions come on the side so that it does not disturb the subtlety of the soup. So you can eat it in relay, alternating mouthfuls of savoury soup with sweet oxtail meat and rice.
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"Ayam Pop, hot and succulent"
This humble looking restaurant has many selections of nasi padang 'lauks'. Situated near the Kampung Baru Mosque, this is s good place for a quick Padang fix. From the ulams to the meaty curries and delicious dendeng, this place will definitely have something for you. Vegetable-wise, ulam lovers will like Warung Garuda. They have a good selection of ulams, most of them cooked in different styles of lemak. The pucuk ubi masak lemak is one of the many delicious lauks you can have with the rice. Do also try the thin beef dendeng fried with chili, garlic and onions for some extra flavour with the pucuk ubi.
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