A thick rice porridge full of pumpkin, sweet potato, cassava, corn and greens, with no meat, eaten with smoked fish and dabu-dabu.
What makes it tinutuan
Rice porridge with pumpkin, sweet potato, cassava and corn.
Greens and lemon basil stirred in at the end.
No meat in the pot; fish and sambal alongside.
Where it comes from
Tinutuan is Manado's breakfast and a symbol of the city. Rice is cooked down with pumpkin, sweet potato, cassava and corn until thick and golden, then filled with greens at the end — water spinach, spinach, gedi leaves and a handful of lemon basil.
It is meatless in the pot, which is often said to be why it suits the whole mixed city; what goes alongside is up to the eater — fried or smoked fish, perkedel jagung (corn fritters), dabu-dabu, and sambal roa, made from smoked garfish.