First time to Marco Padang

I love Nasi Padang – the cuisine from Padang region of Indonesia. Usually it is served like a personal smorgasbord at your table. And then there’s Padang Peranakan.

Padang Peranakan cuisine is the result of a combination of cooking techniques and food ingredients between Chinese and Padang cuisine. Chef Marco Lim serves unique Padang Peranakan dishes from original recipe mixes that he learnt from his grandmother, and a variety of herbs and fresh ingredients from Minang.

Nasi Ayam Gulai

At Marco Padang, usually it all starts with a plate of nasi sayo lodeh or the steamed rice with curry, one choice of protein (in this case Ayam Gulai) thinly sliced and deep-fried stinky beans or sambal pete ampela, red sambal, vegetables, Padang omelette and Padang imported red crackers. 

Ayam Gulai consists of two pieces of chicken cooked in a curry sauce consists of various spices such as turmeric, coriander, black pepper, galangal ginger (or blue ginger, the preferred rhizome of the Peranakans), chilli pepper, shallot, garlic, fennel, lemongrass, cinnamon and caraway.

Gado Gado Padang

Padang vegetable “salad” with boiled eggs, potatoes, fried tofu, noodles, slices of white cabbage, greet curry lettuce and cucumber, tossed in peanut sauce and served with emping belinjau (padi oats) crackers and red prawn crackers. This salad is a meal on its own. Be warned, the peanut sauce is unlike the one we used in Singapore (which is more like a Malay satay sauce). Their sauce is almost like peanut butter.

Sate Padang

For Sate Padang – the traditional satay of the West Sumatran people, there’s little information about how it was actually started, except from some claims that the citizens of Padangpanjang were the real inventors in the 19th century. Today, the town becomes the capital of Sate Padang and is represented by Sate Padang Mak Syukur with a big restaurant there.

The rest is pretty much what you see commonly about how they serve it, how they spiced the meat, which parts are commonly used, the rice cakes, and the thick, spicy sauce that we all love so much.

Es Durian Marco

And what best to end the meal with a sweet delightful chendol. Durian from West Sumatra served with shaved ice, assorted Indonesian jelly called chendol, red beans and drizzled with condensed milk and chocolate sauce on top.

This first visit resulted in a second visit a year later. That time we were a bigger group and we tried almost everything. If you are sick of the traditional Nasi Padang, then this would be a good alternative.

Marco by Chef Marco Lim
Pacific Place, 5th floor unit 45 – 46, Jl. Jendral Sudirman kav. 52 – 53, Jakarta Selatan 12190
Tel : +62 21 51400445

Date Visited : May 2018