food. Delicious #6 : The Hainan and Indonesian Restaurant story you've never heard.
Dear Steemit friends:
You might heard of a place in China called Hainan, it's famous because it is the only tropical island in China. Most people will choose to visit Hainan's Sanya prefecture, the most southern part of the area and is considered a holiday heaven and also one of the most natural environments un-spoilt by pollution.
However, today i'm taking my Steemit friends to a lesser known treasure for this edition of Miss. Delicious. We'll be making a visit to a an Indonesian restaurant in Hainan's Wanning Xing Long. Wanning district is located along the South East coast of Hainan. There is an Indonesian village here. You must be curious as to the story and history of how this place came to be. Let's dive in and see!
Istana is the name of the restaurant and it serves authentic Indonesian style foods. From the entrance of the building, you can already feel the implicit charm of the Indonesian culture and more important the food that awaits.
The restaurant was established by an Indonesian returnee. Today she's already 71 years old!
46 years ago, the owner of the restaurant together with her husband came over to Hainan, Xing Long originally as farmers, but as of 2010, the area has been blessed with her authentic Indonesian food with the opening of this restaurant.
At the entrance, there are some displays of some of the foods you can find here. All very vibrantly coloured. It certainly made the restaurant extra appealing and made me savour the opportunity more.
As you go inside the restaurant, you feel as though you are in a different country with different cultures. The whole place is decorated with lots of carved wooden art pieces, oil paintings, and wooden figurines. It's certainly a distinct display of the Indonesian handcraft and art, wonderfully paying homage to their unique culture.
This is their tea house.
I really love this water fountain. It's got a really strong ethnic design to it that really add's to the overall feel of this place.
The traditional atmosphere is bolstered by a subtle soundtrack of traditional Indonesian folk music. At many points, I felt like getting up and dancing lightly and gracefully to the music.
In one of the corners, there is a wall of old photos, pictures and newspaper clips. It tells the story and history of this restaurant and even the history of the Indonesian village.
In 1959, the Indonesian government prohibited the trade and habitation of Chinese migrants domestically, and set forth years of political turmoil that resulted in an Anti-Chinese policy. It is for this reason that the Indonesian village came to existence.
The overseas Chinese under immense pressure from the Indonesian government, began seeking refuge back in the new reformed China. Under the then Chinese Prime Minister, Zhou Enlai, China constructed new homes for these overseas Chinese at Hainan's Wanning Xinglong farming district. These are pictures of the overseas Chinese before their return home.
This is a picture from 1993 of Jiang Zemin (President of PRC at the time) greeting the overseas Chinese.
This old news paper article discusses the lives of the overseas Chinese people who have come to their new home.
Indonesian ambassadors gift to the overseas Chinese.
Next, you must be very curious to see the food menu. On this menu there is a QR code that gives you WiFi access. Very convenient!
The picture of the old lady on the menu is the restaurant owner herself. There's a little introduction about her and her experiences.
The dishes on the menu are so brightly coloured and all look very inviting.
Finally the first dish arrives, and it is the Crabs from the picture on the menu!
This is the Court Crabs, from the colour, lustre, shape and form, it is exactly the same as shown in the menu. That's really quite impressive!
Vegetable salad.
Indonesian Prawns, the colour is so vibrant and it is cooked with an Indonesian curry paste sauce.
Musa Basjoo pork spare ribs. The meat is full of flavour, slightly crispy and very fragrant.
Bali Island sauce sea fish. The sauce is sour and spicy making it a perfect appetiser.
Some very green Chinese Vegetables.
Beef Brisket curry. The sauce is thick and very fragrant.
Even the curry sauce on rice tastes excellent.
Because today was my grandfather's birthday, the restaurant owner kindly gave him a free dish called the "Long life noodles." In China, this is a dish that the elderly eat to celebrate their birthday. The dish is a blessing for long life and well being.
Of course, aside from the god of longevity (my grandfather), each person also eats a bit of the noodles. All for long-life!
This is a huge plate of Indonesian style fried rice.
Finally, the sweet and fragrant pastry cakes.
The food on the table reminds me very much of a home cooked Indonesian overseas Chinese banquet.
And me and my family are just like guests to their banquet.
I hope you enjoyed today's story and historical background to the Indonesian cuisine. It's always wonderful visiting a restaurant that has such heritage and historical significance. Of course, the food was also fantastic, but moreover the sentimental value of how this place came to be is priceless.
If you are interested in my other blogs related to Food please check out these other blogs below ^^
https://steemit.com/travelfeed/@kisame/food-delicious-introducing-steemit-to-the-best-duck-in-town
