Patricia Hului

During my recent trip to North Kalimantan organised by WWF-Indonesia, I had the opportunity to spend a night in Tarakan.

The island of Tarakan is located in northern Borneo, just across the border from Sabah, Malaysia.

After enjoying our evening view at Pantai Amal while devouring countless numbers of crunchy fried shrimp and hard clams, I thought I had enough.

However, my friends convinced me to eat something or at least try something new. How often do I get to visit Indonesia, let alone Tarakan right?

We were then brought to Coffee Malabar Tarakan at Pamusian, Tarakan Tengah.

At a glance, it looked like a typical hispterish, Insta-worthy dining place. They had funny and interesting quotes about coffee on the wall, antique decorations, unique lighting and old doors for the ceiling. The patrons all seemed to be relaxed and enjoying themselves.

There were plenty of choices of Indonesian, western and fusion cuisines. Too many for me that I couldn’t decide what to have.

After few suggestions from my friends, I decided to give nasi gudeg a try. Without even asking any more details, I just left my taste buds and gastronomic experience in the hands of my new friends.

My first nasi gudeg at Coffee Malabar Tarakan

When my order finally arrived, the first thing I tried was the gudeg. Originally from Yogyakarta and Central Java, gudeg is made from young unripe jackfruit stewed for several hours with palm sugar and coconut milk.

So you can imagine my first thought was that it was sweet.

Some of the additional spices for gudeg are galangal, bay leaves, garlic, shallot, coriander seed and teak leaves. Teak leaves give it its reddish-brown colour, making it looked like stewed beef.

The nasi gudeg was also served with other side dishes such as opor ayam, telur pindang and krechek – all of which were new for me.

Let me start with opor ayam; it is basically chicken cooked in coconut milk. For Malaysians, imagine ayam masak lemak but with less ‘lemak’ or coconut milk.

Telur pindang looked like my favourite Chinese tea egg (where a boiled egg is cracked and cooked again in tea) but without the herbal fragrance. The telur pindang is boiled slowly in water mixed with salt, soy sauce, shallot skins, teak leaf and other aromatic spices.

Last but not least, my first ever nasi gudeg came with krechek. To be honest, I could finish all of my side dishes including the gudeg, but not the krechek.

When my friends asked what I thought about the taste? I honestly answered, “Unique.” For me, its almost-rubbery texture was unfamiliar hence making it unique. It is made from skin of a cattle, cooked in a coconut-milk based stew.

Glancing over at my friends’ orders, I thought ‘Dang, I should have ordered the Nasi Pecel’. It came with pecel, a salad dish made of cooked vegetables with peanut sauce, steamed rice and other side dishes.

There were other dishes on the menu as well such as Crispy Cheese Chicken Rice, sandwiches and burgers.

Sampling the different coffee beans from all over Indonesia at Coffee Malabar Tarakan

Coffee lovers would definitely love Coffee Malabar. You can choose your beans, which come from different parts of Indonesia.

Did you know that Indonesia was the fourth-largest coffee producer in the world in 2014? They have more than 20 varieties of arabica coffee being cultivated in the country.

Even if you are like me, who doesn’t like arabica in general due to its acidity, give Indonesian arabica a try. Their arabica coffee generally has low acidity compared to those from Central America and East Africa.

Coffee Malabar offered the choices of Luak, Bali Kintamani, Toraja Kalosi, Java, Aceh Gayo, Flores and Papua coffee beans.

Each came with descriptions of aftertaste, acidity, roasting and popularity levels.

I chose the Bali Kintamani; it was thick with a rich herbal aroma. It also had a slight citrus-y aftertaste.

There were plenty of other drinks as well and the one caught my attention was Iced-blended Avocado with Coffee.

As much as I wanted to be daring in my dining experience, I only had room for one and it was for nasi gudeg and its unique krechek.

Fresh air, unpolluted environment, clear water from the mountain streams, cool temperatures; perhaps these were the combined factors that contributed to adan rice of Krayan Highlands being so delicious.

Famous for its fine and small grain with a unique texture, adan rice is in high demand not only in Indonesia but also in the Malaysian market.

Located at an altitude between 760 and 1,200 meters, the highlands are not well connected by road with the rest of the Indonesian lowlands in Kalimantan. In addition to that, river transportation is impossible due to high rapids. So, the main centre of Krayan, Long Bawan is only accessible by flight from Nunukan or Tarakan, North Kalimantan.

However, Long Bawan is connected by gravel road to Ba Kelalan in the Malaysian state of Sarawak.

Due to this, most farmers sell their adan rice to the Malaysian market after reserving some for personal consumption.

Paddy farming in Krayan Highlands

The farmers in Krayan cultivate paddy according to traditional and organic practices. Every family farms between one to five hectares of rice fields.

Adan rice in particular takes about five to six months to mature. Hence, only one crop is planted every year.

According to local guide Alex Ballang, some of the locals tried to plant the rice twice a year but the attempts were never successful.

“We are not sure why the attempts failed. Maybe because of the weather or temperature, so now we only plant them in one cycle a year.”

The locals start to prepare the rice seedlings in July and the planting begins. Then, they start to harvest the rice in late December until February.

Everything is organic when it comes to maintaining the paddy fields. The farmers use traditional irrigation techniques like bamboo pipes and canals to channel the clear water from the mountains surrounding the fields to their farms.

On top of that, although buffaloes can be seen almost everywhere in Krayan Highlands, they are not used for plowing; they let the buffaloes loose in the fields to trample the soil and eat the weeds.

Plus, what can be more organic than buffaloes’ dung to fertilise the rice fields?

The nutritional value of adan rice

In 2012, the Indonesian government awarded the adan rice from Krayan highlands the certificate of Geographic Indication (GI). This was to acknowledge the unique characteristics of this rice.

Adan rice comes in a number of colour varieties – white, red and black.

The black adan rice in particular was included in the Slow Food Art of Taste products by Slow Food Foundation. Created by Slow Food International and Slow Food Italy, it is the operational body to protect food biodiversity.

According to the foundation, the black variety of the rice is rich in minerals such as iron, calcium and phosphorus.

Additionally, it has high protein content and relatively low fat and carbohydrate content compared to the white variety.

Cooking adan rice

The Lundayeh people of Krayan have different ways to cook their rice.

Luba Laya is their soft rice wrapped in isip leaves. The Kelabit of Malaysia also have a similar dish. It has a soft, almost porridge-like texture. As for other Indonesian dishes, luba laya is most almost like the softer version of lontong.

Speaking of porridge, the locals have their own known as biter. Almost like risotto, but without the parmesan cheese, it is cooked with different kinds of wild vegetables such as cassava leaves and ginger flowers.

Among the three varieties of adan rice, the crème de la crème of them is none other the black variety.

Traditionally, black adan rice is cooked together with other rice particular the white ones. Now, more and more people love to eat the black variety on its own.

When it cooks, the black adan rice gives out a sweet aroma distinctively different from other rice.

Even when you taste the black adan rice, you will notice that it is slightly sweeter than the others. It is flavourful enough that you can eat the rice on its own.

Do you know that you can take a direct flight from Tawau to Tarakan? That is how accessible this largest city of the Indonesian province of North Kalimantan for Malaysians.

It is also reachable by flight from Balikpapan, Jakarta, Surabaya, Denpasar and Makassar.

Located in northern Borneo, the island is just across the border from the Malaysian state of Sabah.

Historians or World War II buffs would know about Tarakan. It was among the first Japanese targets early in the war.

Realising they were short of oil supply, Japan declared war on the Dutch East Indies (also known as Netherlands East Indies) on Jan 10, 1942 and their troops landed on Tarakan the very next day.

This was because it was one of the five largest petroleum processing centers in the East Indies way back in the 1940s.

The name Tarakan is believed to come from the Tidung language. “Tarak” means meeting place while “ngakan” is to eat.

Long time ago, Tarakan was a meeting place for sailors and traders to eat, rest and trade their catch.

Making a pit stop at Tarakan’s Pantai Amal (or Amal Beach)

If you find yourself in Tarakan someday, follow in the footsteps of the olden day sailors and have a munch and rest at Pantai Amal.

Popular among the locals, the beach is located on the eastern side of the city.

Visitors love to sit along the coastline and simply enjoy the view of Pantai Amal.

Instead of looking forward to the sunset view, the beach is a famous place to have a glance of the sunrise.

But it doesn’t mean you should not visit it during the evening. The place is the perfect hangout site to relax and eat.

There are huts built along Pantai Amal managed by different stall operators.

Just have a seat in one of the huts and someone will come and take your order.

What’s to eat at Pantai Amal?

There are two dishes you need to have at Pantai Amal; its fried shrimps and stir-fried kerang kapah (hard clams).

The fried shrimps are crunchy and tasty while the clams are chewy and juicy. Both are Pantai Amal’s specialties and both are equally addictive.

You can skip the carbs if you want to but if you want to order rice, you have to order buras.

For Sabahans who live in Sandakan, Tawau, Kunak and Lahad Datu, they might be familiar with this. It is a traditional Bugis rice dish cooked in coconut milk and wrapped in banana leaves.

This sticky rice somehow complements the taste of seafood in your mouth. To take your gastronomic adventure even further, dip the fried shrimps and clams into the sambal (chilli paste) before digging them in.

Those who can’t stand the heat, you might want to skip the sambal. Unlike most Indonesian sambal which is sweet, the ones served at Pantai Amal is more on the sour side, making it perfect pairing with the seafood.

For desserts, order a plate of banana fritters. Don’t forget to order coconut too because a trip to a tropical beach like Pantai Amal would not be complete without sipping on a coconut drink.