Manado City is one of the cities in Indonesia which has quite a popular tourist destination. Even just mentioning the city of Manado, surely what comes to your mind is the exotic tourism of Bunaken Marine Park. In addition, there are many more tourist attractions in Manado City, such as Siladen Island, Malalayang Beach, and the Jesus Blessing Statue. Not surprisingly, even though it is pretty far from Jakarta, many residents of the capital are eager to travel to this city in the north of the island of Sulawesi.
However, in addition to presenting the beauty of marine tourism, a visit to Manado City is incomplete if ‘culinary tourism’ is not included in your travel itinerary. For sure, a culinary tour in Manado will be an unforgettable experience because the city of Manado offers various culinary delights, ranging from spicy flavors, various seafood to foods with extreme culinary status.
Tinutuan or Manado Porridge
Porridge is one of the most diverse dishes. You can find porridge in various regions in Indonesia, such as chicken porridge, bassang porridge, and candil porridge. Manado also has a porridge dish, namely tinutuan or Manado porridge.
Tinutuan is a porridge made with ingredients and processing methods typical of the Manado community. This dish contains vegetables and other ingredients, with no meat in it. Manado residents often eat tinutuan as a breakfast menu because it contains high nutrition and a light portion but is sufficient to start activities in the morning.
Paniki
Maybe you are curious about the sentence “food with extreme culinary status” in the opening paragraph. Yes, Manado is known for various extreme dishes because the main ingredients of these dishes come from animals that you are not used to eating, such as monitor lizards, snakes, and rats.
So does Paniki. This Manadonese dish is made from bat meat. The type of bat used is a fruit-eating bat that has a larger body size. Before being cooked with Manado specialties, the bats are burned first to remove the fine hairs.
Skipjack Fufu
Because Manado is rich in seafood, it is only natural that seafood is the hallmark of Manado cuisine. One of them is skipjack fufu. Skipjack tuna is very easy to find in the waters around Manado, no wonder many dishes use this fish as the main dish. Besides Manado, skipjack fufu is also a dish that is quite famous in Minahasa Land.
Skipjack fufu is a typical Manado dish whose manufacturing process is not cooked like a typical dish but is smoked until cooked. In the processing, skipjack tuna will be split into two and covered with spices before smoking. With this smoking process, skipjack fufu can last for one month.
Chicken Rica Rica
Maybe this is one of the typical Manado dishes that we often encounter. Not only in the city of origin, in other areas such as Jakarta, Bandung, and Surabaya, many restaurants serve this dish.
In Manado language, rica-rica itself means spicy or chili. As the name implies, chicken rica-rica is a chicken dish cooked with spicy spices. In his hometown, chicken rica is usually served with a squeeze of orange juice, this is to minimize the spicy taste. So, for you lovers of spicy food, it seems mandatory to taste this Manadonese chicken rica-rica.
Klappertaart
After we are struggling with spicy and savory dishes, there is nothing wrong if we switch to a typical Manado dish with a sweet taste, namely klappertaart. Judging from its history, klappertaart is a typical Manado cake which is a legacy from the Dutch colonial era. No wonder, judging from the name, this dish seems not native to Indonesia.
The raw materials for making klappertaart consist of wheat flour, butter, milk, raisins, and young coconut. This dish has a very soft texture, even this cake will melt in the mouth in one bite.
Panada
The next Manado specialty that you must try is the panada. In addition to klappertaart, panada is a Manado specialty that must be tried. When viewed from the shape, at first glance this dish is very similar to pastels. However, the thing that makes the difference is the skin. Panada skin is more similar to bread while pastel skin is thinner like risole. Panada stuffing is skipjack tuna mixed with various spices.
Sour Soup Fish
Manado cuisine is indeed quite difficult apart from processed fish. Judging from the name, of course, you can already imagine the taste of this dish. Ikan tamarind is a fish dish that is seasoned with a fresh and sour taste. However, the sour taste of this dish is perfectly matched with the spicy taste. The fish commonly used for this dish are marine fish and freshwater fish, such as carp and tilapia.
Indonesia is indeed rich in culinary variety, even from one area you will find it difficult to name all the special dishes from that area, as is the case with Manado. Whether your trips take you on a long stroll on beaches, delicious cuisines, relaxing spas, and resorts, or urban attractions, extra research will give you the best experience for your visit. Get to know more about Bunaken by visiting Wonderful Indonesia.
