Rendang (Descriptive Essay)

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Indonesia has many traditional foods. Some of them are the icons of an ethnic group like: Gudeg is an icon of Jogjakarta, Central Java, Ketoprak from Jakarta, Pempek from Palembang, South Sumatra and Ayam Betutu from Bali. West Sumatra has the famous one, Rendang. Rendang is a unique traditional food that has wonderful smell, unusual appearance but unexpectedly wonderful for its taste.

Rendang is unique because of the cooking technique. It has a lot of ingredients: coconut milk, various kinds of spices like chili, garlic, pepper and pala and meat. The spices are mashed and mixed together with coconut milk and the meat. It’s a little bit tiring and spends a very long time, about three hours continuant stirring to make the coconut milk mixture into Rendang. Most people use firewood to get the best quality of Rendang. Thus, it makes Rendang is different and unique from another traditional food in Indonesia.

The appearance of this food isn’t appetizing at all. It has thick dark brown spices with a little reddish cooking oil that cover the meat. The meat itself is brownish red and very tender. Overall, some people that never taste it usually think twice before eating it. After all, Rendang don’t have an interesting shape instead.

Despite the weird appearance, this traditional food has a delicious smell because of the chili, the garlic, the pepper and the pala. These spices give strong and spicy aroma to the meat. The coconut milk itself makes the aroma appetizing. We can smell it far away, even the neighbor can. So, this food has a really good smell.

The taste itself is very scrumptious. The unique mixture of spices makes the whole meat spicy, but the coconut milk adds sweet taste into it. A piece of Rendang is best served with fresh rice. This lovely taste is unforgettable for every people who have tasted it. That’s why Rendang is nominated as the most favorite traditional food in Indonesia. Hence, Rendang has an exceedingly delicious taste.

As mentioned above, Rendang is a traditional food from West Sumatra that has unusual appearance but wonderful taste and delicious smell. The rich spices and coconut milk give the perfect smell and taste to the meat. Finally because of this uniqueness, everybody will love this food after tasting it.