Premise with atap bagonjong, a Minang sounding name, huge glass window displaying stacks of plates with food on top of it. Pretty essential to every West Sumatran traditional restaurant, but not this one. This one almost dodged it all.
This one looked like a contemporary cafe with dark industrial themed windows and door frames. Nobody would expect this restaurant serves Nasi Kukus Padang (West Sumatran Steamed Rice) from the way it presents itself on its own. To be honest I was quite surprised and took a while to decide whether to call it an innovation or an abomination.
First things first, we need to identify what are the essence of a 'Masakan Padang' restaurant. Does the premise supposed to follow a certain format? Does it carry any significance / meaning / value in tradition? Or is it the food that matters?
According to Anugerah in an article, the restaurant boom itself was an innovation during post PRRI movement in West Sumatra when a considerable wave of 'Minangkabau' people emigrate to the capital in the early 60's, and will always innovate overtime; says a historian from Universitas Andalas (2019). That being said, we're confident to say that it was totally a great innovation. Not an abomination.
Upon me entering the premise, it was raining pretty hard. The mood just got intensified when hunger went through a booster in the form of rain; and cold. I believed that the best seasoning in the world is hunger; plain bread would taste pretty sweet at that point. Any kind of food aroma would hit you like never before.
Everything was very well lit inside and most partitions are made out of glass. Right beside the entrance was a room with large glass window where they steam their rice. Next to that room was where the food are being displayed; see picture; separated from us by glass barrier like I said.
You got a tray, on a steel rail so that you can slide along. I never knew we needed that; when you can get every dish option served on your table traditionally. It was pretty convenient for a new style self-service.
As usual if you've been going to 'restoran padang' your whole life, you should've known the steps; like in subway you'll see step 1 choose bread, main, cheese, toasted and so on. To those who are not familiar, here are the steps that you need to know before you go on face to face with 'uda' :
Step 1: say if you're going to have a dine-in or take-away (I recommend you having a take-away if you feel like eating as much as the episodes in Ertuğrul series)
Step 2: say if you're going to have rice (most likely you will, and I don't think anybody would ever go with no rice. Now that's an abomination)
Step 3: say what kind of protein source and side dish you'd be having. There are tons of options from rendang, to tunjang (cowhide), ayam pop, to ;my favorite ; gulai otak (brain curry). Sides from perkedel (tater fritter), tempe, to peyek udang (shrimp rice cracker)
Step 4: say if you want the complete condiments and sides. It'll consist of daun singkong (cassava leaf), gulai nangka (jackfruit curry), rendang paste, a bit of red curry, and sambal hijau (green chili paste). In this particular restaurant, there's an additional side bits which I think was an ingenious innovation to be added to nasi padang : rendang ubi. It was a bunch of tiny diced ubi kayu (cassava) stir fried in rendang paste. It was pretty awesome, like no kidding.
Step 5: Don't forget to pay
Here's how mine looked like
Overall it was more or less the same with other nasi padang, but I gotta say that rendang ubi surprised me quite a bit. That crunch gave the dish a new realm of texture experience that I admit the dish had been overlooked ever since. Steamed rice does make a difference on how individual grains appeared more firm and hold its structure better than boiled rice, just something to ponder upon. Their rendang had this aromatic-spice touch of floral-ish aroma.
You definitely need to give this place a visit if you're a kind of person who fancy a bit of innovation in culinary experience.
Restaurant:
Jl. Boulevard Raya, RT.2/RW.17, Klp. Gading Tim., Kec. Klp. Gading, Kota Jkt Utara, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta 14240
Reference:
Anugerah, P. (2019). Nasi Padang: Sejarah, kalori, dan semua hal yang perlu Anda ketahui. BBC Indonesia. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/indonesia/majalah-50541428
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