Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine February 2015 | Page 81

Explore | Flavours Janet DeNeefe travels to Aceh to sip copious amounts of Gayo coffee, sample its unique brand of Indonesian cuisine and connect with its resilient people. The plane descended over a lush landscape of 50 shades of green; a vista of endless rice fields, meandering waterways and quaint wooden houses. Not a trace of urban sprawl or cement high-rise: just a tropical, tranquil countryside. First impressions always count, and I was already smitten. Welcome to Banda Aceh. I admit I was a bit nervous about visiting a place that has experienced great tragedy, because the stories are often too heartbreaking and the shadow of disaster can linger, like a thick veil, for decades. I had also heard mixed reports about the state of Aceh since the tsunami, and the more recently imposed sharia law. “You can’t go out after 6pm,” I was told by some. But I was prepared for anything and, more than anything, I was prepared to eat and fill up on their coffee. Together with my daughters, we checked in to the Hermes Palace Hotel (www.hermespalacehotel.com) and dressed accordingly for our adventure. Aceh is considered the land of a thousand coffee houses, so our first stop was the Dhapu Kupi coffee house at Simpang Surabaya. It was afternoon and time to sip on some famous local brew, and this place is open around the clock. We waded through the sea of motorbikes parked outside and grabbed a seat amidst the action. Coffee theatre was in full swing with the young coffee maestro of the house making kopi tarik, a kind of manual caffé latte where the coffee is mixed with sweetened condensed milk and poured from an almighty height into a coffee pot on the counter. Extreme hand-eye co-ordination is needed, and these muscle-toned coffee makers make regular baristas look like babies. We ordered our drinks and watched, mesmerised, as a young Acehnese Sylvester Stallone-meets-Elvis Presley made coffee magic. I was also told that men from Aceh are easy on the eyes: coffee with a dash of cuci mata (eye candy)! Cakes were served with our beverages and for something more substantial martabak telor (Indonesian-style savoury egg pancake), roti canai (flaky golden bread served with curry or other sides) and other local favourites were available. Coffee houses in Aceh are like covered street food community halls with coffee as the leading lady or rather man, in this case, offering everything you need, including free internet. Coffee is synonymous with conversation, and one thing everyone in Aceh is doing, all day long, is sipping on coffee and conversing. 79 Win At Warung D’Wan we tucked into a plate of sate matang, tender goat satay with goat soto, a light broth with a hint of galangal and white pepper, all served with a delicate peanut sauce, freshly ground. I detected a hint of tomato. The gracious owner, Pak Darmawan, told me he sells up to 4,000 sticks of satay a day and is open from 5pm until 12pm. We headed for Mie Razali to nosh on the renowned mie Aceh, Aceh’s fat yellow noodles that are glazed with an Indian-style sauce mixed with curry leaves, prawns or crab. I opted for the prawns, but most customers were slurping and sipping on noodles with crab. It was after 6pm and we were still out and about. No sign of a curfew here. The staff were so friendly I was feeling like family! “We cook at least 15kg of crab a day and around 80kg of noodles,” beamed the waiter. All is well in Aceh. We stumbled on Daus, Nasi Goreng Khas Aceh, next door and I was bowled over, almost literally, by the amount of business. It’s standing room only and nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice) adorned w ith different trimmings was the order of the Foodie Favourites What’s your favourite Indonesian dish? Post a Twitpic of it to @IndonesiaGaruda, tell us where it comes from in the archipelago and you could win vouchers worth US$250 to dine at Bali’s ever-hip seaside restaurant and lounge-bar, Potato Head Beach Club. Send the link to your Twitpic to flavours@ wingaruda.com for your chance to win! Apakah makanan asal Indonesia favorit Anda? Unggah foto makanan tersebut pada Twitter @IndonesiaGaruda, lengkap dengan nama daerah tempat asal makanan tersebut. Anda bisa mendapatkan kesempatan memenangkan voucher senilai 250 USD untuk bersantap di Potato Head Beach Club, dengan melampirkan tautan Twitpic Anda. ke [email protected]!