An Indonesian Nasi Padang Feast

 by: Nur Syairah

Nasi Padang (Padang-style rice) is a miniature banquet of meats, fish, vegetables, and spicy sambals eaten with plain white rice, it is Sumatra’s most famous export and the Minangkabau people’s great contribution to Indonesian cuisine. A Padang restaurant is usually easily distinguishable with their Rumah Gadang style facade and their typical window display. Nasi Padang window display in front of restaurant usually consists of stages and rows of carefully arranged stacked bowls and plates, constructed and filled with various dishes. A Padang restaurant, especially small-to-medium ones, will also usually bear names in Minang language.

Nasi Padang is a vital part of Indonesian workers’ lunch break in urban areas; when Nasi Padang prices in the Greater Jakarta area were raised in 2016, Jakarta municipal civil servants demanded the uang lauk pauk (food allowance, as a component of civil servant’s salary) to be raised as well.

Nasi Padang served in Padang restaurants are easily found in various Indonesian cities in Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, and Papua, to neighboring countries Malaysia and Singapore, and Australia because of Minangkabau merantau (migrating) tradition contributed to the dispersion of Minang diaspora outside their traditional homeland in West Sumatra. Based on CNN Travel, Nasi Padang is listed as one of 40 food that Singaporeans cannot live without.

There are two types of serving in a Padang restaurant, the pesan (ordering) and hidang (serve) method. Pesan is the most common way that usually done by a single or two customers. The customer will examine the window display and choose the dish they wish to consume directly to the waiter in front near the window display, and the dish is promptly served. This is usually done in common small scale Padang restaurant.