Indonesian Food in Padang - WORLD'S BEST HALAL RESTAURANT : Nasi Padang in West Sumatra (SPICY!)

Welcome to Chopstick Travel. I'm Luke Martin, and today we are in Indonesia. This is the start of our new series exploring this vast island nation and all of its unique ethnic cuisines, starting with the Minangkabau food of West Sumatra. We are here in beautiful Padang City, home to the world-famous Nasi Padang, and we are standing in front of the Grand Mosque of West Sumatra, a beautiful example of Minangkabau-style architecture, but we are hungry, so let's go get some breakfast. For breakfast, we are having Nasi Padang at Lamun Umbak, which is one of the best Nasi Padang joints here in Padang City. There are thousands of different places to have Nasi Padang, but this one has been voted the world's best halal restaurant. It is an institution. I gotta show you the very unique way that they serve it to you, so let's sit down, and I'll show you that first. So almost immediately as you sit down, they start to bring out all the different dishes. Look at this. Here they come. So the waiters here are carrying plates in the double digits, 10, 15 plates at a time, and they bring them to your table, and the way that it works is, whatever you wanna eat, you can just eat, but if you don't want it, you just leave it on the table, and at the end of the meal, they'll take it back, and they'll only charge you according to what you ate. So you can see we have a spread here. To call it a spread is an understatement. This is so many delicious-looking Padang-style dishes. I'm gonna try to introduce as much as I know to you, but yeah, let's just dive into this. So it wouldn't be Nasi Padang without the nasi. We've got a big, huge bowl of rice here. First off, you definitely gotta put some rice on your plate. This is also interesting, too. When you come to a Nasi Padang restaurant, you'll see that there's a bowl of water on the table, and this is actually just for washing your hands because it's custom here to eat with your hands. This is the beef rendang, and I'm definitely starting with this. This has been voted the world's best food. This is beef, but you can also have it chicken. It's cooked down with coconut milk and tons of lemongrass. You've gotta get some of that sauce. Transfer this onto my rice, and let's go in for a bite of that. That has levels of flavors. It starts out with the sweetness and that aromatic coconut flavor. Then it moves into the sourness coming from that lemongrass, very floral, and then it ends with a spicy kick. That beef is a little bit kind of dried out because it's cooked for so long, but it gives it this really nice texture. That is rated the best food in the world for a reason. That is absolutely delicious. Next up is the dendeng balado, this dried beef, almost like a beef jerky with all of that sambal, red chili sambal on top. I'm gonna tear some of this off. You can see it's got that jerky kind of texture to it, and I'll take this middle piece because there is a ton of sambal. Put that on my rice. Oh man, this looks like it's gonna be super spicy. That has an incredibly rich flavor. It looks like it's just chili, but there's definitely a lot more going on in there than meets the eye. The texture, once again, has kind of a firm yet tender texture, and then that chili is spicy, but not as spicy as it looks. It's got this interesting sour sweetness going on at the same time, and it's quite oily. It goes nicely with the rice. This is another one of the most famous nasi padang dishes. This is the ayam pop chicken that has been flash fried and cooked in coconut juices. This one is served with a sauce. So we've got this beautiful red sauce with a tomato in there. Grab a little bit of that and put it right on the chicken. Oh man, this looks so good. And I'm gonna dig right into that, get some rice. That chicken is buttery and juicy. You can tell it's a free range chicken because there's not a whole lot of meat on it. And it goes so well with that sauce, which has a tart tomato flavor with a little bit of sweetness as well. I'm loving padang. What's up guys? I just wanted to take a minute to mention this video's sponsor, Skillshare. Skillshare is an online learning community that offers members thousands of inspiring classes to explore your creativity. Whether you're looking to start from scratch or you're a seasoned professional, Skillshare classes fit your schedule and skill level. There are tons of different classes to explore everything from photography or marketing to music or productivity. We like to make our audience, you, feel as though they are traveling with us through our videos. And one of the best ways of doing that is through creative editing. So recently I discovered a Skillshare class on video editing taught by Oliver Astrologo. One of my favorite things is that the classes are short and concise. I learned how to improve our video storytelling by using creative editing techniques. So make 2020 your year to explore creativity and hone in on your existing skills using Skillshare. The first 500 of our subscribers to hit the link down in the description box will get their first two months free premium membership to Skillshare and you can start exploring your creativity. So let's get back to the show. Next up is the jengkol rendang. So jengkol is a type of seed that's common here in Southeast Asia. And it's known to have quite a strong pungent aroma. And to be honest, I've never had it before. So this is gonna be my very first time having it. I'm gonna go for a one bite. Definitely a little bit weird or I should say unique. The rendang is an overpowering flavor. So it's hard to taste the flavor of the jengkol itself. You can definitely tell it's got a slight aroma to it. But really what's unique is the texture. Jeez, I just love that rendang sauce. They don't even stop bringing out the dishes while you're eating. They keep them coming. They just brought out these really spicy looking prawns but we really need to save ourselves for the rest of the day. We could make a full video just about nasi padang. There's so many dishes. Check this out too. We just ordered orange juice. They brought us this kind of orange slushy with ice cream on top. Wow. It is super, super sweet. Almost like candy. But that actually really helps calm the spiciness down. I just wanted to take a second to talk about the style of dining here at nasi padang restaurants. It is very unique. I've never seen it anywhere else in the world. But I think that needs to change. The reason why is because you get to see what you want to eat before. You can see the portion size. You can mix and match. You can share with your friends or you can have something completely by yourself. And the best part is that it defeats the purpose of a menu. So it basically just brings the buffet to you. So it doesn't matter if you can't speak the language, you can't read the menu. You can see all the food and you can just select what you want to eat. And remember, you will be charged accordingly to what you decide to eat. So I'd give this restaurant 10 out of 10. The people here are so friendly. The atmosphere is awesome. It's got this huge open area with this nice breeze coming through. And the food was absolutely delicious and cheap too. So I definitely recommend this place. Try it out when you come to Padang City. So we've come to a local vegetable fresh market. It's about 10.30 a.m. And it seems like everything's kind of shut down now. The sun is out and it is super hot here in Padang City. So a lot of the shops have closed down. But the locals here are just so incredibly friendly. Everyone wants to stop and chat and practice their English. But we're just going to take a walk through and see what we can see. These guys behind me here are making fresh coconut milk, grinding the coconuts, and then pressing the juice out of it. Together, together. So this market has everything you need from seafood to fresh produce, exotic plants I've never seen before. There's even a man in here playing some music for the vendors. This was definitely way busier in the morning, but if you come in the afternoon, they still have lots of stuff in here. Very unique. People are so friendly here. Way too tall for this market. So I just bought a big bag of lancet. Lancet. I'm not exactly sure what the English name is, but let me try to open this up. It's kind of like, almost like a longan. And, oh, I can pop it open like this. And you can see it looks like a longan. Let's try it out. Good. Yeah, manis. Sweet. It's sweet, a little bit citrusy, and it's really juicy. Oh man, that's a perfect little snack. Good. Well, this market was really cool, and wow, I can't believe how friendly everyone was. So those lancet, let me know down in the comment box if you know the English name. But it was just the perfect amount of food to get our appetites going again. So we're gonna head and get some more food now. We are at our next place. This is called Pondok Ikan Bakar. They're serving ikan bakar, which is grilled fish. You can see the grills behind me here. Super smoky. They're using bamboo woven fans to get those embers nice and hot. And they're actually using coconut husks to grill the fish. But the best thing about this restaurant is the sambal, so the chili sauce, that they completely coat the fish. Or whenever you order, you can also get shrimp. And they completely coat it in that sambal, and then put it directly on the flame right after that. So we're gonna order up a couple different things. This place looks and smells so good. We're sitting down now. This place is really cool. It's kind of like a huge outdoor warehouse. I've got teh botol, which is just tea in a bottle. It's really popular here in Indonesia, and I haven't had it in a really long time. Man, I don't even know how they pack so much sugar into that. That is so sweet. But it is refreshing. So waiting for our ikan bakar to arrive. Our ikan bakar has arrived, and this is a thing of beauty. Just check out the layer of sambal sauce, that chili sauce, on the outside. You can see here, it's just completely torched to a crisp. So we got ikan karapu, which is grouper. So completely coated, like I mentioned. But also, we are in padang, so they served us kind of like a mini nasi padang style. So a couple of the dishes here. We've got some chips over here. These are cassava leaves in coconut sauce. Underneath there is a green sambal. This is jackfruit gulai, which is jackfruit curry. Some cucumbers, some more cassava leaves with bean sprouts, and then some jengkol underneath there. Wow, this is another mini feast. Let's dig in. Okay, I'm gonna go in with my fingers here. Oh, that is so hot. Oh my gosh. All right, I've got a piece. Put it on my rice to help cool things down a little bit. Oh man, that's gonna be so good, I can already tell. Smoky is an understatement. That is like completely infused with the flavor of that coconut husk smoke. And a lot of ikan bakar that I've had in Malaysia has been crispy on the outside, but because they've coated this in so much sambal, it's remained really juicy on the inside, and the flesh is still very soft. And actually that sambal is not very spicy at all. It's actually a little bit sweet. There is so much good food here in Padang. Haven't had very many vegetables today, so I think it's about time. Let's try these cassava leaves, a little bit of rice, and that coconut milk. Mm, mm. Oh my gosh, that's so good. If only all vegetables could taste that delicious, I would definitely be having my daily intake of vegetable requirement fulfilled because that is so tasty. That coconut milk is so rich. It's got a little bit of a spice, and it's quite salty too. And then the texture of those cassava leaves are almost chewy, yum. So let's try some of this jackfruit, but it looks like maybe he's mixing a little bit of cabbage. So I'll take some of this cabbage, but I'll also take this jackfruit piece here, and then see if I can break off, yeah, some of the outside here, and then get that cabbage and a little bit of rice. So that jackfruit is gulai style, which is kind of like an Indonesian curry. It's very typical, and it's cooked down with all kinds of different ingredients. And it is more of a curry flavor in the traditional sense. A jackfruit could be meat. You could fool me for a piece of beef. It has really got that kind of meaty texture to it. And then that cabbage has just soaked up all the flavor of the gulai. We've almost finished off this fish. There is a lot of meat hiding on this thing though. I'd have to say the sambal is definitely the best part for me. There's so much flavor in there, and it kind of looks intimidating, like it's gonna be really spicy or overpowering, but actually it's more subtle than it looks. It's really flavorful, and then mixed with that smokiness, here's this one. One interesting thing you'll notice when dining here in Indonesia is that every table comes with a plate of this. Well, it might not be exactly like this one, but it'll be some version of this. This is called keropok, and it's basically a crunchy cracker. They're made out of different types of starch. I believe this one's made out of tapioca, and this one is shaped like little balls, but they come in all shapes and sizes. Some are flavored, some with prawn, some with all kinds of different things, but it'll be on every single table. If you crack one of these open, you're gonna pay for it though, but it's really cheap. So that was some really good ikan bakar. We just got caught in the rain a little bit, so we're heading into this cool little place here called Kopi Nanyo, and we're gonna try a famous drink of Sumatra. Check this place out, it's super cool. This place is super old school. I love the tables, very vintage feeling, and we have the famous teh telur, which is egg tea. So as I mentioned, this is a popular drink here in West Sumatra. He uses just the egg yolk, and then mixes it with a little bit of hot water, and then he'll whisk that until that egg gets nice and frothy, with a lot of sugar in there too, of course, and then he'll add the tea, very dark tea, and then a little bit of condensed milk, and now you can see the final product. It is just frothing over the top. There is a spoon underneath here, you can barely see, and if that wasn't unique enough to use the egg yolk, we actually served it with a lime. So it's recommended to actually put a little bit of lime juice on top of this. Wow, super sour in that broth from all that lime juice. You can taste that rich egginess, but I actually think I need to mix this up. I need to get all of that egg, and that condensed milk mixed in with the tea. Super thick, super creamy, very airy. The lime juice on there, so unique. I've never had anything like it, and such a cool place to just chill out and wait for the rain to stop. That was some really good Teh Telur, and this place is really fun. We've been sitting here for about an hour, waiting for the rain to stop, so I think we're gonna head to the beach now, Padang Beach. We have come down to Padang Beach. You can see the huge sign behind me here, Padang, and it is a gorgeous beach, just about sunset, and it's still kind of raining though, but it seems there's some seats with umbrellas, so I think we're maybe gonna buy a drink or something, sit down there and just watch the sunset. We are sitting down now underneath the umbrella. We have a little drink here. This is actually like a hot Fanta. I didn't mean to order it, but oh well, it's kind of interesting, and we have this beautiful view of the beach and the sunset, it's gonna be a nice evening here. So the rain has let off finally. That was a nice, relaxing sit on the beach. We are at our dinner spot tonight, and this place is called Kubang Hayuda, and they are serving murtabak, which you can have sweet or savory. We're going to have the savory version, and this place is supposed to be really good, so let's go ahead and get some murtabak. So this is the murtabak mess here, which actually translates to Egyptian murtabak, but this is an Indonesian dish, and this should be stuffed, I believe, with beef. This is gonna be my first time ever having this, and you can see it's got this thin, crispy dough on the outside, and then stuffed with all kinds of vegetables, beef, onions, all kinds of different things, and then on the side, it comes with this sauce, which is a dark sauce with a tomato in the middle. There's some onions, there's some chilies in there. It looks like a soy sauce, but it's very watered down, so my mouth is watering right now. I'm really hungry. I'm gonna take this, dip it here, and let's try that. That's pretty good. Not as crispy on the outside as I had hoped, but I love the flavor of this sauce. It's got a saltiness to it. It's maybe not cooked as good as they can be. This might not be the best version, but this is the first one I've ever had. I'm sure I can get better versions, but I do like the dish. It is really tasty. So, how are you enjoying your first day in Indonesia? Love it. Food is fantastic. The vibes here, just very chilled. It's very relaxed here, and I think all of Indonesia is kind of like this, and I really enjoy it, and the heat's intense, but I'm having a great time. A little spicy. Finished off with dinner. That was pretty good, but I'd have to say it was probably my least favorite thing we had all day. I think it wasn't as fresh as it could have been, but nevertheless, incredible day of eating here in Padang City. What was your favorite thing we had? My favorite restaurant was the Nasi Padang restaurant, for sure. Yeah, Nasi Padang is just such an incredible type of meal with all the different dishes. I have to say that that dendeng belado, that dried beef with the chili sambal on top, was my favorite. So good. Yeah, make sure to subscribe if you haven't already. We have a lot more videos coming from Indonesia. Like this video and leave us a comment down below letting us know what you think looked the most delicious, and we'll see you on another episode of Chopstick Travel soon, bye. Bye.