Travelogue part I

This year's cheng beng festival is different from the other years I had before. In most events, I would've torn between going to my mother's side of family or my father's side of family due to lack of time. But now that i'm unemployed, this year cheng beng for me would be a rally to both side of the family.

But no, I wouldn't talk much about the culture, the traditions, and the rituals involved in such festival. In fact, what I have done might have easily been imitated by any unemployed dudes out there at any time of the year. I, my friends, will judge both town by it's travel conveniences and food.

Lemme explain how it works first. As I was born in Jakarta, my mother's and grandparent's hometown will be considered as my hometown. Being raised in a small island right between Sumatra and Singapore, my mother took the town of Selatpanjang as her hometown. On the other hand, as my father was brought up in the capital city, we have to take my grandparents' dearest hometown of Padang.

And so, to begin my tour, I would go from Jakarta to Pekanbaru, cross the river and straits to Selatpanjang, come back to Pekanbaru the very next day, and go to Padang the very following day by car.

As that being told, we will grade Selatpanjang first. My journey to Selatpanjang is daunting and exhausting. Not only that I have to take the first flight to Pekanbaru, I also had to struggle with the fact that the journey had to use 2 small fiber motor powered boats and a non-air conditioned bus. The trip took at least 3 hours of patience and a lot of energy since you would expectantly sweat like a pig. The most convenient alternative to this is to travel to Selatpanjang via Batam. Though it is more expensive, the convenience level simply worth every extra penny you paid.

The struggle however is paid very well. I started my food fiesta with a local favorite: "miso" or soup noodle. The density of the slow-cooked cow bones stock simply captivate everyone who tried it. Just a glance of it's aroma could trigger my appetite at any time. The amount of chicken and noodle is just enough to make you crave for more.

In the same stall, I ordered fried rice. The national "everybody likes it" food. What's so different you might ask. I say it won't be able to beat the legendary "kebon sirih" heavily spiced up fried rice. But what's good about it is how lean it is. It's just dry instead of oily as you would expect from a regular fried rice. So it fill you up with simple lean taste. Tasty yet lean.


The next is a convenient version of fear factor: the mangrove scorpion (or as local would refer as "macao hey"). I failed to gather information about this specific species of crustacean. But I myself like to call it scorpion due to it's physical resemblance to a typical everyday scorpion. Macao hey is cooked with a perfect sauce of tomato sauce, chili, pineapple, hefty amount of oil and grind peanuts. The results is this uniquely sweet and spicy flavor of a grotesque looking seafood. The crablike meat of macao hey perfectly match the sauce. As you dip the meat for extra gravy, it instantly suck the goodness of the sauce and enriched the already flavor-infiltrated meat. The extra thin layer of shell makes everybody an expert in eating it. I mean, face it, not everybody can crack a crab open with his teeth. But macao hey? Sure can do! So if you have the gut to eat something "out of the box", macao hey is a good option for you. To me, it's simply irresistible. No matter how hard I tried to find it though, I simply can't find the particular species being cooked in such a way outside Selatpanjang. Hence, macao hey is a rare delicacy.

The dinner was then topped with a homey hot dessert. It's a sweet peanut soup with churros that has a consistency of a doughnut. Respectively, these two are called tao lin teng and cakwe. It is served while hot and match together. Cakwe can pretty much be found in almost every major city in Indonesia. It's mild salty taste made it popular among coffee lover. Though I must say, it is hard to find cakwe with such crispy outer layer and soft doughnut inside as would've been offerred by Selatpanjang's Cakwe. Just as rare to find a tao lin teng being sold outside Sumatra. Somehow, tao lin teng did not receive the warm embrace by various tounge of Indonesians as what cakwe had received. My theory is that tao lin teng is outfamed by coffee.


The journey to Selatpanjang--no matter how gastronomically pleasant--wouldn't be complete without a warm hearty breakfast. I believe that this place has the best wanton noodle. It's not only because of the fact that it's hand-made and al dente. It's not because it's mild salty flavor topped by a vague dash of bitterness. It's not because it's various chunks of porkballs. Nor it's soy sauce that brings the whole aroma to a subtle fragrant.


What catch my heart from the wonton noodle is the sophisticated package of all that bring together a warm meal. Though it might sounds complicated, the actual taste of the noodle is simple. This simplicity, however, would be ruined had one of the ingridients is missing. So, at least in my opinion, IT IS "rocket science".