Padang, the capital of the province of West Sumatra, is mostly used by tourists as an access point to Bungus Bay, the surfing sites of the Mentawai Islands the inland hills of Bukittinggi and the Kerinci Seblat National Park. That said the city is very pleasant with a nice promanade along the beach, distinctive Padang architecture and wonderfully friendly people. The city is also the home of the delicious Padang food and the town is stuffed with restaurants and street stalls. The locally available guidebook 'Sozzie Sumatra' can be referred to on arrival for upcoming local events and a current 'what to do' section Padang cuisine (or Indonesian calls it Masakan Padang) is probably the most popular across the country. Padang or Minangkabau is the capital city of West Sumatra. Their local specialities are very delicious and you can find their restaurants in every region in Indonesia. Padang/Minang restaurants are easily recognizable by the neatly stacked food basins in their windows. What makes them unique is how they serve the food. When you come to the restaurant (especially the big ones), the waiter will come to you with array of dishes all deftly balanced on his left arm and will place the food on the table in a kind of Asian buffet. Then you can choose which food you would like to eat ... they will bring you different kind of dishes, from stewed meats, fish, eggs, chicken and curry. The famous-mouth-watering speciality from Padang is Rendang Sapi , a spice-encrusted dry beef dish cooked for a long time in coconut milk. But they have some other delicious meals such as Dendeng Balado - it's a beef served with a hot chilli sauce and Gulai Daun Pakis - its fern tips cooked with coconut milk or red snapper curries. But be aware, some of Padang dishes are very spicy. To cook 300 grams of chillies to 1 kg of meat is not unusual. If you are a spicy food lover, it's definitely for you. Otherwise you don't need to worry, they usually serve chilli sauce, or as Indonesian calls it the 'sambal', separately and used as condiments or dips.