Indonesia – Tinoransak

by Fauzan Anandika

The earth’s surface is mostly covered by water. Ocean, river, and lake dominate the earth’s surface. A place of billions of underwater beings. This biodiversity creates a beautiful ecosystem below the surface. One of them is The Bunaken National Park in North Sulawesi province of Indonesia. Bunaken was discovered in 1975, and up until now become one of the tourist destinations in Manado city, North Sulawesi. The ancient Manado people already lived there in 1400, but they moved to Parigi cape around 1850, and they named the place Wunaken. After that, they change the name to Bunaken, which means a place to anchor the boat.

There are several spots in Bunaken park that need to visit when diving. The first one is The Wreckage Manado ship, a place where Germany’s ship sunken a long time ago and become a habitat of sea creatures. The second one is Puncak Barakuda. The farthest spot in Bunaken where a diver could find a horde of barracuda fish. The other diving spot like The Mandolin, Bunaken Timor, and Muka Gereja give a beautiful coral reef panoramic with colorful fish swarming around.

The best time to visit Bunaken park is Mei to August, where the water is in the clearest condition. So you will get the farthest visibility. Bunaken is not the only reason tourist comes to Manado. They also search for Manadonese cuisine. Manado city has various delicious food with a rich spice and herb taste. One of the popular dishes is Tinoransak. A traditional dish serves in every cultural ceremony.

Tinoransak is meat base culinary, with a spicy taste. For the protein, the Manadonese usually use pork. They also use beef, chicken, or fish to substitute pork. Traditionally, Tinoransak is cooked in grilled bamboo and served with a side of Jaha rice. Chicken Tinoransak becomes popular right now since many Muslims start visiting North Sulawesi. Tinoransak uses green chili to create its spicy taste. Without any further ado, let us try to cook some Tinoransak.

Ingredient

• 1 kg of pork
• 2 liter of water
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 5 sheet of lime leaves, sliced
• 3 stalk of lemongrass, sliced
• 1 sheet of turmeric leaves
• 1 sheet of Pandan leaves
• 30 gram of bay leaves, chopped roughly
• 4 scallions, thin sliced
• 2 tablespoon of cooking oil

Ground spices

• 3 cm of ginger
• 8 pieces shallot
• 2 clove of garlic
• 10 pieces of red eyes chili

Nasi Jaha ingredients

• 300 gram of sticky rice
• Half of coconut, grater
• 8 sheet pandan leaves, blend roughly
• 500 ml of water

Nasi Jaha ground spice

• 2 cm of ginger
• 5 pieces of shallot
• 1 teaspoon of salt

How to cook Nasi Jaha

1. Mix coconut and pandan leaves
2. Pour water slowly while squeezing and straining the mixture.
3. Finely mix coconut milk with sticky rice and ground spice.
4. Boil the sticky rice until almost dried, turn off the fire.
5. Prepare a baking sheet, base with banana leaves.
6. Place the sticky rice above it, compact it.
7. Completely cover with banana leaves, bake it for 20 minutes.
8. Nasi Jaha is ready to be served.

How to cook

1. Boil the pork, remove the dirt and foam.
2. Grind shallot, garlic, chili, and ginger using mortar and pestle.
3. Prepare a frying pan, heat with medium fire, add cooking oil and ground spice, stir slowly.
4. Add pork meat, finely mix with the spices.
5. Add 1-liter water
6. After the water shrinking, add pandan leaves, salt, turmeric leaves, lime leaves, and lemongrass.
7. Add 1 small cup of water.
8. After the water shrink into half, add scallion and nay leaves.
9. Cook until the pork tender.
10. Tinoransak s ready to be served with a side of Nasi Jaha.