00:04Oh yummy. Welcome to Northridge Road in Singapore. We are here outside a century-old restaurant,
00:11Sabur Menanti, that specializes in an Indonesian style of eating called nasi padang. They're also
00:16really well known for one delicious dish, beef rendang. Beef rendang is a delicious stewed beef
00:22dish. And this beef rendang only gets cooked once every two to three days. Boss is about to start a
00:28new batch. Let's go see it. Hello, boss. Hi. The wok's getting hot. We are just warming it up. Oh,
00:36coconut milk. Interesting. Beef rendang in short refers to frying. In beef rendang, the first step is the boiling and
00:42the stewing. That is not to say that it doesn't end up frying. And the question is, where does the
00:47fat come from for that frying? It's all inside of the coconut milk. The thing with fresh coconut milk is
00:51it doesn't have emulsifiers, which means that it can split. Splitting is a good thing because fat and water will
00:57extract different flavor compounds.
00:58out of the spices and the meat that it's cooked with. Now in come the aromatics. Chef's putting in the
01:03red onions, ground almost to a paste. It doesn't have to caramelize now. It'll caramelize a little bit later. Next
01:10is two gigantic scoops of garlic. Also fresh ground into a paste.
01:14Here you go, lemongrass. A little bit of galangal in the lemongrass and then ginger. Gorgeous. That's a very strong
01:21base. If you were to take a scoop out of this right now, it would be disgusting.
01:25We have been doing this for like eight years. Yeah, so yeah. I don't have to change my mom's way
01:31of cooking. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not while she's still sitting outside watching you do it, you know. So
01:36these are dried chilies that have been rehydrated and then ground into a paste. So this dried chili powder, as
01:43opposed to the chili paste, is a lot more floral. Now the rest of the whole spices,
01:48kasha, some Asian cinnamon, green cardamom. All of these whole spices are going to leach out their flavor a little
01:55bit more slowly. Cloves for a little bit of that warming spice and star anise for that signature licorice type
02:03of thing. It's a very generous amount of spices.
02:05You know what the craziest thing about seasoning rendang is? This amount of liquid is basically going to disappear by
02:12the end of the cooking process.
02:14Which means that the moisture will go away, but the salt and the seasoning will stay. You kind of have
02:19to predict how it's going to taste like a couple hours from now when you start the seasoning process this
02:25early.
02:26But you can't just season at the end. If you season at the end, it's not going to be flavorful
02:30now. Come here.
02:32Look at this. See how it says pepper? It's not pepper. It's mom's secret seasoning that she makes at home.
02:40I can smell clove and I think I can smell nutmeg, but there are a bunch of other things I
02:43cannot identify.
02:47Her son doesn't know the recipe. The employees don't know the recipe. This is a third generation century old restaurant,
02:53but there are some things that are still kept under lock and key.
02:57Here comes the beef. This cut of beef is the rump, which is the top part of the hind leg.
03:02It's a very lean cut of beef with a little bit of tendon on the outside.
03:05A leaner cut is actually going to be quite flavorful in terms of the meat if you treat it correctly.
03:10Beef rendang comes from a tradition of preserving the meat and fat in meat gets in the way of that
03:15preservation process.
03:16What do you think is the secret to a perfect rendang? For us, I think it's making the rendang the
03:21old authentic way, the old school way.
03:24Constant stirring, after which just slow cook. It's more gas, you know, spent, but then the meat will be tender
03:32and perfect.
03:33We have to let it cook for a while, let the meat shrink inside, then we can start to stir
03:38it.
03:39In western cooking, the first step to a braise or a stew is oftentimes to brown the aromatics and to
03:44brown that meat,
03:45to generate that mired reaction and that caramelization that's going to provide the depth of flavor for the stew.
03:50In beef rendang, the opposite is what happens. It's a braise or a boil or a stew first before you
03:57do that frying to achieve that caramelization.
03:59Caramelization is when sugar turns into caramel and you develop all these wonderful deep brown flavors.
04:05Second is the mired reaction, which is when proteins interact with sugar at temperature and produce additional flavor compounds.
04:13In beef rendang, the danger obviously is caramelization and these mired reactions happen at temperatures that get close to burning.
04:20If you are not stirring and you're not paying attention, the beef rendang can easily burn, which is again why
04:25this dish is such a labor of attention and a labor of move.
04:29Progress report. Middle of lunch rush, heating up more things, but the rendang has been cooking for about two and
04:35a half hours and it looks significantly darker in color.
04:40The beef has started to contract. A little bit of caramelization happening on the outside. It's bubbling, bubbling, bubbling, bubbling.
04:47All of the spices have warmed up. They're soaking in that liquid, building a lot of layers of flavor.
04:53Can we go outside, take a look at what Nasi Padang is all about?
04:56Yes. Let's go.
04:57Oh, look at this. Look at the colors. Look at the textures.
05:02When you order Nasi Padang, you have to try a little bit of every dish.
05:06Nasi Padang, which is from Sumatra. If you are from the highlands, then you have a bit more of meat.
05:11Right.
05:11If you are in the coastal, then you have a bit more of seafood.
05:14And you have both here?
05:15We have both here.
05:16Yeah.
05:16So when you go to Padang, it is not called Nasi Padang, it's just called...
05:20Food.
05:21Rice.
05:21Mixed rice.
05:22Yeah.
05:22The essential of Nasi Padang is, of course, the beef rendang.
05:26Yes.
05:26The ayam kaleo, which is chicken.
05:29This is the grilled chicken, which we grill it over charcoal.
05:32Mackerel.
05:33This is one of our most popular dishes.
05:35Oh, yeah.
05:35Sambal sotong.
05:36That looks so good.
05:37The pocho ubi, which is tapioca leaf.
05:40We might take it for granted that, oh, Nasi Padang always has all these colors and all this variation.
05:46That, oh, it's just the way that it is.
05:47Yeah, you guys start cooking five or six in the morning for this stuff.
05:50No, we start at four.
05:51The process of cooking is very tedious for Nasi Padang.
05:54Very flavorful.
05:55Some people do not understand the amount of effort and time that we put in to prepare such dishes.
06:03Saur Mananti is one of the oldest restaurants that we have visited here in Singapore.
06:07It started it off as a road stall in the classic Nasi Padang street.
06:11Over time, it's moved, switched hands between the different generations, but stayed within the same family.
06:16Now, Ishi is running it as a third-generation owner in conjunction with his mom and his uncle,
06:22the second-generation owners, who are still here every single day watching the Befriend Day.
06:27Come closer and take a look.
06:28This is what I mean by the total separation.
06:30You can see the particulates of the coconut milk come out, and you can see that the oil has totally
06:36separated out.
06:37The oil is going to be extra-
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