Manado Food

Minahasan food from the far north of Sulawesi is the hottest regional cooking in the country, and unlike much of Indonesia it is largely pork-eating, since the region is mainly Christian. The staples are rica-rica, a paste of bird's eye chilli, shallot and ginger used on chicken and fish; woku, a herb-heavy braise with lemon basil, turmeric leaf and pandan; and tinutuan, a breakfast porridge of rice, pumpkin, corn, cassava leaf and basil, eaten with salt fish. Tuna and skipjack come in fresh from the strait, and the highland market town of Tomohon supplies most of the produce and spice.

What you actually see

• Rica-rica - the chilli and ginger paste that defines the region's heat.
• Woku - fish or chicken braised with lemon basil and turmeric leaf.
• Tinutuan - the pumpkin and vegetable porridge eaten for breakfast.
• Tomohon market - the highland produce and spice market above the city.

When to go

Any month. North Sulawesi is wet through much of the year and it makes little difference to eating. Tinutuan is a breakfast dish and disappears by late morning. Tomohon's market is busiest early and sits high enough above Manado to be pleasantly cool. Sunday is quiet in a strongly churchgoing region.

Honest expectations

The heat level is genuine and asking for mild rarely works, since the chilli is cooked into the paste rather than added at the end. Tomohon's market sells meat that many visitors find distressing, including dog and bat, and it is neither signposted nor separated. Manado itself is a working port city with little to look at. English is limited outside hotels.

Nearby

The Tomohon highlands and the fishing harbours along the strait supply most of the ingredients.