Before I settle down to serious blogging, I'd like to share with you an image kindly sent to me by West Sumatran friends, full of excitement at the prospect of visiting all the destinations cited in a single trip on this brand new Quintuple Decker Bus. I was immediately tempted to join them as Padang is right next to my home town. But the roads are winding, with alarming rises and falls - surely no sensible bus company would contemplate such a route...and indeed my suspicions were well founded. This is of course a masterly bit of Fake News Imaging.
Clear cue however: my first blog entry in my renewed resolve to inspire curiosity and enjoyment of true Indonesian food will be an account of the culinary tradition known as "Padang Food: Nasi Padang, Sate Padang, Rumah Makan Padang etc."