Le Meridian brings in original Manado cuisine

Maria Endah Hulupi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The first thing that comes to people's minds when talking about Manado is its famous national sea park, Bunaken, home to a stunning coral reef and various species of colorful fish.

However, Manado -- the capital city of North Sulawesi -- is not only about marine wonders. Its cuisine has also enjoyed growing popularity in the past several years, especially in major cities.

Manado cuisine is usually associated with fiery spices as served in food courts and more humble roadside stalls. But some restaurants arrange a group of four or five people to accompany dinners with the sound of traditional musical instruments, kolintang, to enhance the atmosphere.

Jakartans are already familiar with restaurants like Chamoe- Chamoe, Bunaken Indah at Hotel Indonesia, Tinoor Asli Manado and Cak' Tu' Ci' Ikan Bakar Manado. And the list can go on.

Now, its distinctive culinary richness has inspired Le Meridien Jakarta to promote Manado food during its nine-day Manadonese Food Promotion ending Aug. 24, at La Brassiere restaurant. The hotel's chefs prepare at least 20 different items for lunch and dinner at Rp 115,000++.

"This is a modest food promotion and is a part of our efforts to introduce local delicacies," said the hotel's executive sous chef Teguh Purwanto.

Modest, maybe, but the hotel means business in bringing out the true Manadonese flavors in every plate it serves. "We are aware that only locals know the flavors and for this promotion we invite chef and owner of Ikan Bakar restaurant in Manado Joice Lontoh," Teguh said.

While most of the ingredients are available at most supermarkets in Jakarta, some are not and have to be purchased from Manado. Among the peculiar items are yellow pumpkin, whose smooth flesh and slightly sweet flavor lack in those sold locally and of course its traditional smoked tuna, better known as cakalang, whose distinctive smoky flavor is irreplaceable.

Although different kinds of meat are used in popular Manadonese traditional cuisine, for this food promotion, the hotel's chefs would focus on chicken and fish to prepare various dishes either grilled, boiled or deep fried.

For the spices, Joice said that Manadonese cuisine uses a lot of chilies and nicely scented herbs like kaffir lime leaf, basil leaf (locally known as daun kemangi), lemon grass and ginger, among others, that give the dishes fragrant yet palatable aromas.

It also has a tendency to serve the ingredients' fresh flavors like sliced shallots and diced tomatoes for dabu-dabu, condiments that go well with various dishes.

Dishes served during the promotion include the fragrantly spiced and hot woku belanga, hot but with a mild tang from fresh tomato rica-rica, fried ikan cakalang, fried ikan tude with condiments and vegetable rice porridge bubur Manado.

For vegetables, the hotel serves stir fried kangkung (water convulvulus) and the mildly bitter stir fried papaya leaves.

Other side dishes include deep fried corn cake perkedel jagung and deep fried fish cake warukus and savory lalampa (glutinous rice filled with shredded cakalang), while the dessert list includes sweet koyabu, traditional layered cake balapis and old time favorite klaapertaart (young coconut flesh with custard and sliced almond).

During lunch, the event is strictly a food promotion but for the dinner, guests can enjoy their meals while a group of musicians (and a singer) accompany them with the sounds of bamboo musical instrument kolintang playing popular songs to enliven the atmosphere.