Minangkabau cuisine is the cuisine of the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra, Indonesia. It is among the most popular food in Maritime Southeast Asia. Commonly known across Indonesia as Masakan Padang or Padang cuisine after the city of Padang the capital city of West Sumatra province ^[1], it is served in restaurants opened by Minangkabau people in Indonesian cities. Padang restaurant is ubiquitous in Indonesian cities, almost can be found in every street corners, and also popular in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore.
Padang or Minangkabau cuisine is famous for its rich taste of succulent coconut milk and spicy chili.^[2] Among various cooking traditions within Indonesian cuisine, Minangkabau cuisine and most of Sumatran cuisine, demonstrate Indian and Middle Eastern influences, which is various dishes cooked in curry sauce with coconut milk, also the heavy use of spices mixture.
Because most of Minangkabau people are muslims, Minangkabau cuisine follows halal dietary law rigorously. Protein intake are mostly taken from beef, water buffalo, goat, and lamb meat, and also includes poultry and fishes. Minangkabau people are known for their fondness of cattle meat products including offal. Almost the whole parts of a cattle, such as meat, ribs, tongue, tail, liver, tripe, brain, bone marrow, spleen, intestine, cartilage, tendon, and even skin, are made to be Minangkabau delicacies. Seafood is popular in coastal West Sumatran cities, and most are grilled or fried with spicy chilli sauce or in curry gravy. Various of fishes, shrimp, and cuttlefish in also cooked in similar fashion. Most of Minangkabau food is eaten with hot steamed rice or compressed rice such as katupek (ketupat). Vegetables are mostly boiled such as boiled cassava leaf, or simmered in thin curry as side dishes, such as gulai (some kind of curry) of young jackfruit or cabbages.