Epicurean Experience in Manado

Seafood along the beach of Manado.
October 5, 2009

We passed several big signs along the coast that said "seafood blah blah blah" or "blah blah blah seafood". Great! We are in the area where we want to be. I asked the driver to stop, paid him, then walked towards the biggest, noisiest, and brightest seafood restaurant by the sea. It was after 7pm. The place was busy. Apparently one of the most popular one. They asked us if we wanted to select our fish in the back of the restaurant. We followed the waiter to the area where you can choose your sea dinner. I picked a local whole fish, some local clams, and local vegetables. While waiting, we did our observation. The beach area by the restaurant was lit up. I saw some good size fish in the clear water below where we sat making me feel like I just want to scoop them with a net. There is no licensing required to fish in Indonesian water for residence.

The Salsa of Manado

One hour later, which was worth the wait, our table was covered with yummy local dishes. The sambal (the salsa of Indonesia) is quite different from that in Java. The chili peppers are finely chopped, rather than ground, with garlic and crispy tomatoes. I noticed the tomatoes are very small, like cherry tomatoes but crispy fresh and delicious. We enjoyed every shell fish on the table, savoured every unfamiliar weeds, and having a hot sambal fun race. Mitch won again. He had been a winner in a chili eating competition once, eating 10 hot thai peppers with only one spring roll to go with the peppers, finished in one minute.


Sing your heart out !

As we were stuffing ourselves, across the lawn on the other side there was a private party going on. From the microphone we could hear they were doing a Karaoke, a popular social entertainment in Asia. The peoples of Asia are not so shy when it comes to singing in public. It doesn't matter if they feel they have a good voice or not. They just want to sing their hearts out. Some of them have very good voice which was surprising that the recording studios have not grabbed them yet, but there are some whose voice sounded more like a loose guitar strings being pulled and sometimes like a tin roof getting whacked. But regardless, I always see the joy in their hearts through their eyes and body language when they sing.


Bubur Manado (the porridge of Manado).
October 6th, 2009

It's our first breakfast in Manado. The hotel served generous breakfast buffet. Anywhere in Indonesia, where a hotel is rated 4 star and above, there is always a grand international breakfast buffet with at least a local breakfast dish. I do miss having eggs and bacon sometimes. It's been at least 4 weeks since I had eggs and at least 6 months since I had bacon. But my eyes caught a clay pot of porridge that looked enticing. I saw the sign said "Bubur Manado". Bubur is the Indonesian word for porridge. To some of you who don't know what porridge is can put hot cereals or grits into the porridge category. Every bubur we had on the island of Java comprises of rice porridge with hot chicken broth and side garnish of chicken meat, chopped green onion and celery leaves, fried shallots, fried peanuts or cashews, shrimp chips, wedged limes, thick sweet soy sauce called kecap (pronounced: ketchup). This bubur of Manado looks yellow and creamy. I asked one of the attendants what it's made of for I couldn't detect it. I am usually good at guessing but it was easier to ask. It's pumpkin porridge ! An unexpected taste of bubur.