Psst…

So, my sister said the way I did my Transportation in Medan post was very abrupt. She said I should have published a post before publishing that transportation post so that people knew what I was talking about. See..? The joys of having a storyteller journalist sister :)

OK, so I went to Medan, Sumatera on July 30th for a work-related mission, and that mission is obviously not bloggable stuff. We spent a few days working, traveling from a place to another place a few hours away, and before we knew it, work was done! And we had an extra 4 days before our scheduled flight back to Malaysia. So we quickly planned a cheap getaway to Lake Toba and the Gunung Leuser National Park so that we had something to do in those 4 days. Plus, there wasn’t really a lot to do in Medan.

Food in Medan is pretty much like food in Malaysia. They had the ayam goreng, ayam gulai, ikan gulai, etc. But unlike in Malaysia, the dishes were served in saucers and placed on the table. At the end of the meal, we only paid for whatever we had eaten. In Malaysia, you pick whatever you want to eat, and you either place the food in saucers or on your plate of rice. And in Medan, you don’t get a lot of vegetables. I’m not very much a vege fan myself, but I found myself not eating any vege at all because all they served was cucumber. And eggplant. ARGHHH…

Lunch

Lontong in Medan was pretty much like lontong in Malaysia.

Lontong ala Kuala Simpang

And nasi lemak in Medan was also very much like nasi lemak in Malaysia, except that the rice wasn’t as fragrant :)

Nasi lemak ala Kuala Simpang

We also had the opportunity to try their ayam penyet, which, unfortunately, wasn’t penyet (flattened), LOL. Ayam penyet was actually fried chicken, and if you ordered ayam penyet komplit (complete flattened chicken, LOL), the fried chicken would come with 2 pieces of taufu (beancurd) and terung (eggplant).

Ayam penyet komplit

In Samosir Island on Lake Toba, we had a homemade pizza with slices of pineapples and chicken as topping, and it was gooood. And considering it was from a small Batak local community, the pizza was fantastic.

Pizza with pineapple and chicken toppings

I also had this banana pancake for breakfast one morning in Lake Toba. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but it tasted great nonetheless :)

Banana pancake for breakfast @ Rumba

At the Gunung Leuser National Park, we spent a night at the EcoLodge Cottages, and our complimentary breakfast consisted of an American breakfast, with our choice of coffee or tea. Even the breakfast looked great :)

My American breakfast @ EcoLodge

You may view the rest of the pictures (and some video clips) here: Sumatera, Indonesia 2009.