Manado offers a cornucopia of tasty delights
Manado offers a cornucopia of tasty delights
Tantri Yuliandini and Jongker Rumteh, Manado, North Sulawesi
No one would ever associate Manado with the word "sleepy", and
come Saturday night, the already lively provincial capital seemed
to light up even more as people from faraway towns began to fill
the city square and spill out onto the streets.
As night descended, public minivans overflowing with
passengers jammed Jl. Piere Tendean, famously known as "the
boulevard", their stereos blasting rock music.
The carousing and occasional fistfights may unnerve first-time
visitors to the city, but it is this Saturday-night merrymaking
that portrays fun-loving nature of the Manadonese.
Their love of food and the delicious traditional dishes they
serve in their homes and restaurants also define the Manadonese
"good life".
Adventurous travelers may sample Manado's more exotic
delicacies, such as paniki, or fruit bat, dog and field rat
dishes. And because it is a majority Christian area, there are
pork dishes galore.
Other kinds of food are, of course, also available for those
less adventurous, such as myself.
No morning is complete for a typical Manadonese without the
smokol, a mid-morning meal that usually consists of bubur Manado,
a Manado-style rice porridge -- locally called tinutuan --
basically rice porridge cooked with kangkung, or water spinach,
pumpkin and corn.
Popular tinutuan joints abound on Jl. Wakeke, where civil
servants spend their early morning break on weekdays and families
enjoy their smokol on weekends.
The vendors sell the porridge straight from their front yards,
as well as bananas fried in batter, boiled corn, fried skipjack
tuna and fried tofu as accompaniments. Don't be surprised if you
see someone mixing all four into their bubur Manado!
In addition, no decent Manadonese would go a meal without
dabu-dabu, the local chili sauce -- and the spicier, the better.
Unlike the sweet chili sambal of Java, the Manadonese dabu-dabu
has a fresh tang to it, perfect for fish dishes.
Two types of dabu-dabu is usually prepared: the dabu-dabu iris
of chopped up red and green chilies, shallots and small tomatoes
mixed with lime juice, salt and coconut oil, and the dabu-dabu
goreng, which contains the same ingredients crushed to a pulp and
sauteed in coconut oil.
Located close to both the sea and the freshwater lake Tondano,
Manado's fish dishes are mouthwatering feasts. Freshwater carp
and gourami are either fried or grilled with rica-rica, a fiery
Manadonese salsa with green cherry tomatoes, green peppers and
shallots.
Most eateries in Manado offer assorted freshwater fish dishes,
but the best places to go are the floating restaurants on the
banks of Tondano Lake. The freshest seafood are on offer at
restaurants along Malalayang, on the road to Tasik Ria Beach,
which also offer a scenic view of Manado Bay.
Nasi Kuning Seroja, Seroja yellow rice, available in Kodo
kampong on Jl. Diponegoro, stands testimony to the Arabic
influence in the area. Sold in small shops with no parking space,
the eateries are never short of customers.
Food is served without fuss: Every customer is immediately
served a plate of yellow savory rice with boiled egg, fried
string potatoes, spicy diced potato, abon -- shredded meat -- and
diced meat. Water jugs are placed on each table, with plastic
glasses to go around.
"The food stays fresh for a long time, so people from Jakarta
usually take doggie-bags for their trip home," the owner said.
Also practical as souvenirs for friends and colleagues are
local snacks such as bagea, a type of cookie made from sago, palm
sugar, coconut milk and canari nuts, candied nutmeg and kacang
goyang, or sugar-coated peanuts.
While you are there, don't forget to sample Manado's famous
klappertaart, the sweet, creamy coconut tart that is a legacy of
the Dutch and perfect for warding off Manado's afternoon heat.