Rumah Makan Minang is a breakaway from an older, very established and well-known Minang eatery in Singapore, Sabar Menanti Nasi Padang, founded some time back in the 1920s by West Sumateran immigrant, Haji Marlian Athar @ Bagindo Marlian.
Haji Marlian, together with his wife, Hajjah Rosemah binte Mailu, had started off selling rice with a plethora of curries from a pushcart in the streets of old Singapore. Business grew rapidly and, by the 1930s, the couple moved their popular business to a proper restaurant on Bussorah Street in the Kampung Glam Muslim quarter.
By the late-90s, the family had at least six different Sabar Menanti Nasi Padang restaurants in Kampung Glam, all run by Haji Marlian Athar and Hajjah Rosemah binte Mailu’s six children.
Rumah Makan Minang owner, Zulbaidah binte Marlian, is the youngest daughter of the old couple. Zulbaidah broke away from the Sabar Menanti group to run her own independent eatery, together with her husband, Mohd Zin bin Harun. Tough-as-nails Zulbaidah is proud of her Minang descent: the Minangkabaus are a matriarchal society from Sumatera, Indonesia. In traditional Minangkabau culture, ownership of properties and businesses are passed down the female branch of a family. Zulbaidah sees her late mother, Hajjah Rosemah, an astute businesswoman who ran the family business with an iron-fist, as her role model.
Zulbaidah proved to be more resilient than her siblings in the competitive Nasi Padang business - whilst she grew hers, her older brothers (Yusmal, Rizal, and Tarmizi) could not sustain theirs. Today, the only rival Sabar Menanti outlet left (run by Zulbaidah’s older sister, Maryulis) is located on North Bridge Road, a mere 5 minutes’ stroll away from Rumah Makan Minang, which Zulbaidah now manages with the help of her two sons, Hazmi Zin and Ariff Zin.
Had lunch here the other day with a fellow foodie friend who’s a big fan of this place. Rumah Makan Minang’s ordering counter is on the first floor: they use the “pesan”-style of ordering, i.e., one goes to a display counter of the cooked dishes on display, and makes one’s choice, which will then be plated and delivered to one’s table.
The alfresco seating area on the ground level is within sight of the majestic Sultan Mosque.
But with the hot, humid weather in Singapore these days, we opted for cool comfort of the air-conditioned dining area on the second floor.
Fab view of the Sultan Mosque (built 1932) from the window next to our table.
Our lunch spread:
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Tahu telur - by Jove, I’d not seen this dish for nearly 30 years now. It used to be de rigeur in almost every local Indonesian restaurant in Singapore back in the 80s/90s. Popular dining mainstays like Sanur, Jawa Timur, Kintamani, and Ramayana would serve hundreds of these “tahu telur” each day: delicious, highly-addictive egg-battered, deep-fried towers of tofu cubes, bathed in sweet dark soy sauce and topped with crushed peanuts, and julienned cucumber & carrot.
The version here tasted nowhere as nice as the ones we had from the days of yore. But then, it’s so rare to even find one nowadays, we polished off every single crumb on the plate.
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Perkedel - the potato croquettes, sparsely-studded with minute bits of chicken or beef, onions and chilis. The name “perkedel”, sometimes pronounced “bergedil”, is a mispronunciation of the Dutch “frikandel”.
The Indonesian archipelago was ruled over by the Dutch for over 200 years, and many Dutch words crept into the Indonesian language. The early Indonesians also mixed up the Dutch “kroket” (a potato croquette closer to perkedel") with the Dutch “frikandel” (a meat sausage), and ended up calling their own potato croquette a “perkedel”.
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Rendang - this slow-cooked beef curry is perhaps the best-known Indonesian dish (besides the satay) to the outside world. Heavily-spiced and slow-stewed, usually for 4 to 5 hours, the meat should be fork-tender.
Unfortunately, we found the one here to be rather tough and chewy, and not as well-spiced as the one we had at Warung Nasi Pariaman down the street.
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Gulai ayam - this light chicken curry had all the requisite flavours and aroma of a Minang dish. Loved it.
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Gulai nangka - unripe jackfruit curry. The yellow-hued curry gravy had the same spice profile as for the chicken curry.
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Sambal goreng - a stir-fried spicy mix of deep-fried tofu cubes, tempe, long beans, onions and red chilis. One of my favourite Singaporean-Indonesian dish. But the rendition here didn’t quite hit the spot for me. No balance of flavours I was looking for.
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Gulai talua dan tahu - egg and tofu curry, same liquid gravy as for the other “gulai” (curry) dishes above.
Overall, I felt the Minang dishes here seemed “localised” to suit the Singaporean palate, rather than being out-and-out Sumateran or even Indonesian. Personally, I much prefer Warung Nasi Pariaman, but my lunch partner prefers this one!
Address
Rumah Makan Minang
18 & 18A Kandahar Street, Singapore 198884
Tel: +65 6977 7064
Opening hours: 9am to 7pm daily
