We serve authentic Padang Peranakan Food

Our old Padang recipe’s features a different form of Padang foods, as “Chinese Padang” become our genre we succesfully seperated our restaurant from other Padang restaurants in Jakarta and to achieve excellent taste we only use fresh ingredients and most of them are directly from Padang.Our menu will appeal to a wide and varied food lovers.

At Marco’s bofet we give you the taste of old Padang Recipe’s, the traditional Kapau serves, the blend look of the past and the future, together made dining become a unique experience.

How to get to Padang

By Air
Padang is the main gate to West Sumatera by air through Minangkabau International Airport, 23 km north of city center (30 minutes bus ride). This airport is served by Garuda, Merpati, Mandala, Lion Air, Adam Air, Batavia Air, Sriwijaya Air, Air Asia. International flights served by MAS, Silk Air, to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

By Sea
Padang has three seaports; Teluk Bayur harbour, Muara and Bungus Teluk Kabung. Teluk Bayur harbour, 6 kms south of the city is the main entry port bye sea. Big ships (passenger and cargo) call at this port. Muara Harbour at Muara river and Teluk Kabung harbour at Bungus Bay served by small and medium boats to Mentawai and Nias Islands.

By Land
Terminal Regional Bingkuang (Bus Terminal) situated at Air Pacah. Koto Tangah District 20 km from the city on the highway server intercity buses to Jakarta (30 hours), Medan (20 hours). For transportation inside the city, bus, taxi, and small vehicles (angkot) are avaialble. Traditional Horse drawncarts are still maintained.

Cuisine

The cuisine of the Minangkabau people is commonly called Padang cuisine, due to it being the capital and largest city of the region. Padang restaurants are common throughout the country and are famous for their spicy food and their unique way of serving it.

Padang food is usually cooked once per day, and all customers choose from those dishes, which are left out on display until no food is left. It is served in small portions of various dishes, but constituting, with rice, a complete meal.

In a Padang-style restaurant, the table will quickly be set with dozens of small dishes filled with highly-flavored foods such as curried fish, stewed greens, chili eggplant, curried beef liver, fried chicken, and of course, sambals, the spicy sauces ubiquitous at Indonesian tables.

Customers take - and pay for - only what they want from this array of dishes. Food safety is generally a concern, as many customers take food out of communal dishes with their hands, dishes which will be served to subsequent customers. The best known Padang dish is Randang, a spicy meat stew. Soto Padang (crispy beef in spicy soup) is local residents' breakfast favorite, meanwhile Sate (beef satay in curry sauce served with ketupat) is a treat in the evening.

Culture

The Minangs are the world's largest matrilineal society, in which properties such as land and houses are inherited through female lineage. Some scholars argue that this might have caused the diaspora (Minangkabau, "merantau") of Minangkabau males throughout the Malay archipelago to become scholars or to seek fortune as merchants.

As early as the age of 7, boys traditionally leave their homes and live in a surau (a prayer house & community centre) to learn religious and cultural (adat) teachings. When they are teenagers, they are encouraged to leave their hometown to learn from schools or from experiences out of their hometown so that when they are adults they can return home wise and 'useful' for the society and can contribute their thinking and experience to run the family or nagari (hometown) when they sit as the member of 'council of uncles'.

This tradition has created Minang communities in many Indonesian cities and towns, which nevertheless are still tied closely to their homeland; a state in Malaysia named Negeri Sembilan is heavily influenced by Minang culture.

Due to their culture that stresses the importance of learning, Minang people are over-represented in the educated professions in Indonesia, with many ministers from Minang. The first female minister was a Minang scholar.

In addition to being renowned as merchants, the Minangs have also produced some of Indonesia's most influential poets, writers, statesmen, scholars, and religious scholars. Being fervent Muslims, many of them embraced the idea of incorporating Islamic ideals into modern society. Furthermore, the presence of these intellectuals combined with the people's basically proud character, made the Minangkabau homeland (the province of West Sumatra) one of the powerhouses in the Indonesian struggle for independence.

Today both natural and cultural tourism have become considerable economic activities in West Sumatra.

Padang

Padang (means field) is the capital and largest city of West Sumatra, Indonesia. It is located on the western coast of Sumatra at 0°57′0″S 100°21′11″E / 0.95°S 100.35306°E / -0.95; 100.35306. It has an area of 694.96 square kilometres (268.3 sq mi) and a population of over 750,000 people.

Since the 16th century Padang has been a trade centre. During the 16th and 17th centuries pepper was cultivated and traded with India, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. In 1663 the city came under the authority of the Dutch. The Dutch built a trading post here in 1680. The city came under British authority twice, the first time from 1781 to 1784 during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, and again from 1795 to 1819 during the Napoleonic Wars. Afterwards the city was transferred back to the Netherlands. Up to approximately 1780 the most important trade product was gold, originating from the gold mines in the region. When the mines where exhausted, the emphasis turned to other products such as coffee, salts and textiles.

In 1797 Padang was inundated by a tsunami with an estimated flow depth of 5–10 meters, following an earthquake, estimated to be 8.5–8.7 Mw, which occurred off the coast. The shaking caused considerable damage and the deaths of two people, while the tsunami resulted in several houses being washed away and several deaths at the village of Air Manis. The boats moored in the Arau river ended up on dry land, including a 200 ton sailing ship which was deposited about 1 kilometer upstream.

In 1833 another tsunami inundated Padang with an estimated flow depth of 3–4 meters as a result of an earthquake, estimated to be 8.6–8.9 Mw, which occurred off Bengkulu. The shaking caused considerable damage in Padang, and due to the tsunami the boats moored in the Arau river broke their anchors and were scattered.[1]
At the time of independence in the 1940s the city had around 50,000 inhabitants. Coffee was still important, but copra was also a major item produced by farmers in its hinterland. The population growth since then has been partly a result of growth in the area of the city, but largely is a result of the migration to major cities seen in so many developing nations. In 1950 there had also been a development of the Ombilin coal field with Padang as its outlet. This is an indication of the colonization of Indonesia having been economic as well as political.
On September 30, 2009, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit about 50 kilometers off the coast of Padang. There were more than 1,100 fatalities, 313 of which occurred within Padang.

Architecture

Rumah gadang (Minangkabau: 'big house') are the traditional homes (Indonesian: rumah adat) of the Minangkabau. The architecture, construction, internal and external decoration, and the functions of the house reflect the culture and values of the Minangkabau. A rumah gadang serves as a residence, a hall for family meetings, and for ceremonial activities. With the Minangkabau society being matrilineal, the rumah gadang is owned by the women of the family who live there - ownership is passed from mother to daughter.
The houses have dramatic curved roof structure with multi-tiered, upswept gables. Shuttered windows are built into walls incised with profuse painted floral carvings. The term rumah gadang usually refers to the larger communal homes, however, smaller single residences share many of its architectural elements.