Medan is the capital of the province of North Sumatra, Indonesia. Located in the northern part of the province along the coast, Medan – which has a predominantly Chinese population – is the fourth largest city in Indonesia.
Every time we land at Medan, the first stop after clearing the airport we’ll head straight to the no-name coffee shop at 15, Jalan Kumango for their famous bihun bebek – rice vermicelli cooked with chunks of duck meat.
The shop opens at 6am in the morning and is sold out by 10:30am. It is said that at that time, the owner will go next door to the bank and convert his takings into US dollars and deposit it into his US-dollar account.
The wait for the delicious dish is long – first you join the long line of people waiting to get in, and when you finally get in, you’ll still need to wait at least half an hour for your bowl of delicious, lip-smacking, garlic-laced bihun bebek to arrive.
But it never fails to hit the spot!