Pekanbaru and the Riau province of central Sumatra represent the heartland of the Malay cultural tradition — the language of which became Bahasa Indonesia, the national language, through 20th-century standardisation. The food culture of Riau is perhaps the closest living expression of the Malay food tradition in its most complete form, before the simplifications and hybridisations that occurred in Malaysian, Singaporean, and coastal Javanese Malay cooking. Riau's cuisine is characterised by a more restrained use of chilli than West Sumatra's (Minangkabau cuisine), a greater emphasis on the sour notes from fresh ingredients (belimbing wuluh, asam kandis), and a seafood tradition informed by the Strait of Malacca's historically abundant waters.
Masakan Riau — The Malay Cultural Heartland of Sumatra
Indonesian Deep Extraction — Batch 16 (FINAL)