insidesumatera.com | tourism & lifestyle magazine

The food in Sumatera island is the “mother” of all kinds of foods in Southeast Asia. The available foods are various in price and taste as well. Maybe the eating-style you have never experienced before is taking your meal in warung kaki lima, the alfresco of the third class world. Here a variety of local foods are simply prepared with a low price. Imagine, for one meal you will be charged not more than Rp 10.000 (US$ 1). You will get one portion of rice, meat or fish, plus free plain water. There are also fried rice and various noodle with cheaper price. You can not find all those things in Singapore, Hongkong, Europe or America. As you know, in warung kaki lima appetizer, main course and dessert are unknown and Sumatera residents are not used to it. Here they eat rice mixed with fish or meat plus vegetable. Noodle is an extra meal. As as stranger you must know where to find the clean warung. Because many warung kaki lima do not care about hygienic conditions. “Kaki Lima” in English means “five feet”. In the beginning this name given to sidewalk stall with three wheels plus 2 feet of the seller. They are mobile or moveable. But this type of stall is the story of a long ago. Nowadays, the name of warung kaki lima belongs to those who operates it legally or ilegally on the sidewalk. In warung kaki lima the low level residents used to spend the time. They are not only eating but chatting about unnecessary subjects like politics, corrupt bureaucrats, widow living next door, and even sex. Due to hot climate or rain the becak driver sometimes takes shelter in warung to buy a cup of tea with sugar costs only Rp 500,- so he has an enough reason to sit in warung for hours. Generally the customers of warung are becak driver, middle-class university student, employee, basic level clerk.and pedestrians who are busy back and forth all day long. At night for lighting some warung use electricity ilegally taken from streetlight pole and the rest use petromax. Warung kali lima is easily set up and dismantled. Some operate at night and the others operate at day time. You just walk along the road to find these warung or asking someone if you do not want to look for it. In warung kaki lima usually plastic chairs or a long bench made of wood are available for sitting. There are few tables, a glass show-case, and gas stove. In some places, these warung are localized in one spot and functioned as local food center. The available menus are relatively similar, but there are also warung preparing special menus like seafood, noodle, mutton curry or yummy barbeque. Billowing smoke is tempting any passer-by. In short, enjoying meal in warung kaki lima is an experience that you must not miss it.