Nasi padang and the hidang table

What it is

Nasi padang is steamed rice with a choice of ready-cooked dishes. The food is prepared once, early in the day, and displayed in the shop window in stacked bowls. That window stack is how you recognise a Padang restaurant from the street. Dishes include slow-cooked beef rendang, curries of fish head, offal or jackfruit, fried chicken, dried beef with chilli, boiled cassava leaves and green chilli sambal. The cooking is built to keep well at room temperature in a hot climate.

Two ways to order

There are two styles. In pesan, you go to the counter, point at two or three dishes and are given one plate with rice, your choices and a spoon of curry sauce. This is the quick lunch version. In hidang, you sit down and the waiter brings every dish the kitchen has, each on its own small plate, with rice and a bowl of water for your fingers. You eat from whichever plates you like. Untouched plates go back to the kitchen and are not charged.

Where it comes from

The Minangkabau have a strong tradition of merantau, leaving the homeland to work and trade elsewhere. Migrants opened eating houses wherever they settled, and the food of Padang, the provincial capital, became a national cuisine. The hidang style echoes the way food is laid out at Minangkabau feasts, where guests sit together and dishes are set before them all at once. The cooks are Muslim and the food is halal, so there is no pork.

How to do it

1. Sit down and wait. Rice and the full spread arrive without ordering.
2. Rinse your right hand in the finger bowl.
3. Take from the plates you want. Leave the others untouched.
4. Spoon curry sauce over your rice. Sauce is usually free.
5. Ask for the bill. The waiter counts what was eaten.

Good manners

• Do not pick at a plate you do not intend to eat. A touched plate is charged.
• Eat with the right hand, or ask for a spoon and fork. Both are normal.
• The finger bowl is for washing, not drinking.

What is eaten

RendangMeat simmered with coconut and spices until coated in a rich, dry sauceGulaiSpiced Southeast Asian stew with coconut milk and a blend of local herbsAyam popMinangkabau-style fried chicken with a pale, tender finishSambalA spicy Southeast Asian paste or sauce made mainly from ground chilliesSoto PadangClear beef soup with fried potato patties and rice vermicelli from West SumatraAsam pedasA sour and spicy fish stew from maritime Southeast Asia

Also part of it, and being written: Sate padang, Dendeng.

Sources and further reading

• Padang cuisine on Wikipedia
• Indonesia.travel: official tourism site of Indonesia