page_title: Indonesian cuisine
section_title: East Sumatra
hierarchical_section_title: Indonesian cuisine / Regional dishes / East Sumatra
caption_attribution_description: English: Gulai kerapu, a traditional Pariamanese fish curry, in a restaurant in Pekanbaru.
context_page_description: Indonesian cuisine is a collection of various regional culinary traditions that formed the archipelagic nation of Indonesia. There are a wide variety of recipes and cuisines in part because Indonesia is composed of approximately 6,000 populated islands of the total 17,508 in the world's largest archipelago, with more than 300 ethnic groups calling Indonesia home. Many regional cuisines exist, often based upon indigenous culture with some foreign influences. Indonesia has around 5,350 traditional recipes, with 30 of them considered the most important. Indonesia's cuisine may include rice, noodle and soup dishes in modest local eateries to street-side snacks and top-dollar plates.
  Indonesian cuisine varies greatly by region and has many different influences. Sumatran cuisine, for example, often has Middle Eastern and Indian influences, featuring curried meat and vegetables such as gulai and curry, while Javanese cuisine is mostly indigenous, with some hint of Chinese influence. The cuisines of Eastern Indonesia are similar to Polynesian and Melanesian cuisine.
context_section_description: The cuisine of east coast of Sumatra is referring to the culinary tradition of ethnic Malays of Indonesian Sumatran provinces facing Malacca strait; which includes Riau, Riau Islands, Jambi provinces and coastal North Sumatra in Melayu Deli areas in and around Medan. Because of close ethnic kinship and proximity to Malaysian Malays, many dishes are shared between the two countries. For example nasi lemak, the national dish of Malaysia, and also nasi ulam are considered as native dishes in Riau and Jambi. Malay cuisine also shares many similarities with neighboring Minangkabau cuisine of West Sumatra, South Sumatra, and also Aceh; such as sharing gulai, asam pedas, pindang, kari, lemang and rendang. This is due to the fact that the Minangkabau are culturally closely related to the Malays. Tempoyak fermented durian sauce and sambal belacan are the familiar condiments in both Sumatra and Malay Peninsula. Variants of peranakan cuisine such as laksa spicy noodle and otak-otak are also can be found in Riau Islands and Medan. Seafood dishes are popular in archipelagic Riau Islands province, while fresh water fishes from Sumatran rivers, such as patin, catfish, carp and gourami are popular in Riau and Jambi. Gulai ikan patin is a signature dish of Pekanbaru, while gulai ketam (crab gulai) and nasi goreng teri Medan (Medan anchovy fried rice) are the signature dishes of Medan.
caption: Gulai ikan kerapu, grouper curry.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 600D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2013:09:04 11:36:18", "Image Artist": "", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "348", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "8916", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "14976", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:09:04 11:36:18", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:09:04 11:36:18", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "6", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "24", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5184", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3456", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "8598", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1036800/181", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "691200/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": "", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "248076189261", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[18, 55, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "0000525eb8"}