The atlas · A cuisine · Minahasa, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

Minahasan

Also Manadonese, Manado, Masakan Manado
One of Indonesian cooking's regional kitchens · all 5 side by side

The cooking of Sulawesi's northern tip: fierce with fresh chilli, green with herbs, full of skipjack tuna from the Celebes Sea, and with a few Dutch cakes kept from long ago.

Where it comes from

The Minahasa live on the volcanic northern tip of Sulawesi, around Manado. Portuguese and Spanish traders reached these waters in the sixteenth century, and the Dutch followed; missionaries worked here from the nineteenth century, and the Minahasa are today largely Protestant Christian. Pork is eaten freely, and so, in the highland markets, are meats that surprise visitors.

The cooking is known across Indonesia for heat. Rica — the local word for chilli — goes in by the handful, but the food is bright rather than heavy: less coconut milk than in the west of the archipelago, and bundles of fresh leaves instead — lemon basil, lemongrass, lime leaf, pandan, turmeric leaf and spring onion.

The sea supplies skipjack tuna, smoked on bamboo frames as cakalang fufu, and the colonial past left a handful of dishes with Dutch or Portuguese names: klappertaart, brenebon, panada.

Where in it

  1. ManadoThe port city and capital of North Sulawesi, facing Bunaken's reefs. Its streets serve tinutuan for breakfast, panada and klappertaart with coffee, and grilled fish at night.TinutuanKlappertaartPanadaBrenebon
  2. The Minahasa highlandsVolcanoes, clove gardens and Lake Tondano, with Tomohon and Langowan among the towns. Tomohon's market is famous for meats outsiders rarely eat; harvest thanksgivings bring tinoransak.Tinoransak
  3. Bitung and LembehThe deep-water port on the Lembeh Strait and the heart of the skipjack fishery, where cakalang is landed, split and smoked as fufu.Cakalang fufuIkan woku

How it cooks

Rica
Chilli ground raw with shallot, garlic and ginger and cooked straight into the dish — the heat is the point, not a condiment on the side.
Woku
A yellow paste of turmeric, chilli and candlenut, cooked with a bundle of fresh leaves: lemon basil, lemongrass, lime leaf, pandan, turmeric leaf.
Fufu
Skipjack split and clamped on bamboo frames, then smoked slowly over a fire until firm and dark — a way to keep the catch.
Masak di bulu
Meat or fish packed into green bamboo with chilli and herbs and cooked in the flames, as for tinoransak.
Dabu-dabu
A sambal chopped rather than ground, dressed with citrus and hot oil, for fish straight off the grill.

Always in the kitchen

bird's eye chillired chillishallotgarlicgingerlemongrasskemangi (lemon basil)kaffir lime leafpandan leafturmeric leafspring oniontomatolemon cui (calamansi)cakalang (skipjack tuna)coconut oil

Cook from it

Tonight, with what's good in October

Its classics

MinahasanTinutuanA thick rice porridge full of pumpkin, sweet potato, cassava, corn and greens, with no meat, eaten with smoked fish and dabu-dabu.No one here has made it yetMinahasanAyam rica-ricaChicken cooked in a paste of fresh red and bird's eye chilli, shallot, garlic and ginger, finished with lemongrass, lime leaf and lemon basil.No one here has made it yetMinahasanCakalang fufuSkipjack tuna, split and clamped in bamboo frames, then smoked until firm and dark — eaten fried, shredded into sambal or cooked in rica.No one here has made it yetMinahasanIkan wokuFish cooked in a yellow paste of turmeric, chilli and candlenut with a great handful of fresh leaves — lemon basil, lemongrass, pandan, lime leaf.No one here has made it yetMinahasanDabu-dabuA fresh sambal of chopped tomato, shallot and chilli, sharpened with small citrus and poured over with hot oil.No one here has made it yetMinahasanKlappertaartA soft baked custard of young coconut, milk and eggs, with raisins and cinnamon, often topped with almonds or meringue.No one here has made it yetMinahasanPanadaA soft yeasted dough folded around spiced, shredded skipjack and fried golden.No one here has made it yetMinahasanTinoransakPork packed into green bamboo with chilli, ginger, lemongrass and lemon basil, and cooked in the flames.No one here has made it yetMinahasanBrenebonA thick soup of red kidney beans with pork, nutmeg and clove, a Minahasan descendant of Dutch brown-bean soup.No one here has made it yet

Cooked here

No one here has cooked Minahasan yet.