It was a real fun travel. We board on to Garuda Airlines that flew us first to Makassar in the South Sulawesi and then fly north to Manado. What I liked most about Garuda Indonesia is the flight attendant are very professional and friendly, the food are amazingly good, most of the captain are quite informative. Many times when the aircraft flew over a lake or a mountain, the captain usually informed the passenger. I think this gesture brings me to some sense of comfort.
When the flight set off to landing in Sam Ratulangi airport of Manado, all I can see were coconut trees, they were everywhere, hundreds perhaps thousands of them. Well Manado is quite hot in temperature, compare to Jakarta I think. We were so busy during the whole weeks, preparing the program, make sure that everything runs well, train the local youths to be liaison to the participants and of course travel back and forth Manado-Bitung everyday. Bitung is the port of North Sulawesi, a 40 minutes drive from Manado. It lies on the east coast exactly opposite Manado. During this travel I learned some local langguage and practice a lot with my friend, Wawan. One of our fellow alumni, a very kind man so I called him brother Superman drove us everyday and I am amazed that he can stand how ridiculous these two people trying to speak like locals were.
I think Manado has this atmosphere of fiesta. The city is so alive, people are friendly and their motto was torang samua basudara or we are all family, isn't it nice? Well after the program accomplished we stayed over the weekend and after sending off the youth at port Bitung we were heading back to Manado. This time we took the chance to go to the famous Bunaken island and Siladen islands. These places are diving heaven in Indonesia, lots of beautiful corals and fish in its sea. We also took the chance to go up to Tomohon, a hilly beautiful-flowery areas in the southern part of Manado.
We also tried local food at Malalayang, the coastal areas of Manado. The restaurant called RiaRio and the food just amazing. The stir fry kangkung (chinesse water cress), ikan kuah asam (sour fish soup), perkedel jangung, fried fish, grilled fish and sambal dabu-dabu. Oh! they are just delicious. Back then, I think the kangkung in Manado is so special, it is so much crunchy and slightly bigger size than those I found in Java or Sumatera. Later after travelling to eastern part of the country, I conclude that those kangkung of the east Indonesia are just better than the ones grow in the western part.The North Sulawesi also famous with the klapper taart, this one is made from young coconut.I'm still trying to get the recipe of this delicous cake.
Recently Manado food is getting more attention in the capital Jakarta, one can easily find Manado restaurant and enjoyed the spicy delicious meals. This time we will cook perkedel jagung ala Manado.
Ingredients:
5 whole corn, take the grains out by cutting deep at the stem
3 shallots or spring onion, thinly sliced
3 garlics, thinly sliced
5 keffir lime leaves, thinly sliced
1 eggs; scramble
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of crushed white corn pepper
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1/2 cup water
vegetable oil to fry
Directions:
1.Mixed all the ingredients add the water bit by bit make sure that the mixed is not too watery to fry
2. Heat the pan and put the vegetable oil
3. Pick one medium size spoon of the mixed ingredients and then pour into the pan. Fry on each side till it's done
4. Serve with Thai chillies sauce.
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