Eating Marijuana leaves?

When my friend told me that she's going to bring me to eat at a restaurant that serves marijuana (cannabis) leaves as a condiment, it definitely really intrigued me! I was surprised that it's legal to eat marijuana leaves because for sure it's illegal to smoke it.

When we arrived at the restaurant, I was like... Oh my, I've been passing this "Rumah Makan Medan Baru" so many times because it has been here since about 35 years ago, but all this time, I thought it's just an ordinary Padang restaurant which actually turned out that this restaurant is serving Aceh food (trans: rumah makan means restaurant).

A little introduction about Aceh:
Aceh is a special territory of Indonesia, located at the northwestern Sumatra island. According to the history, Aceh was the first place where Islam established in Southeast Asia and so far, it's considered as the most religiously conservative area among places in Indonesia. In December 2004, Aceh was hit by the tsunami resulting about 230.000 people killed.

As soon as I stepped into the restaurant, I could see the same attraction like at those Padang restaurants where the waiters bring many food plates at one time on their forearms.

Can you count how many plates are there on one forearm? ;)

Inside the restaurant.
It's divided into non-air conditioned room and air conditioned room.

Our table.... so full of food! :)
No... no.... no..., we didn't eat all the food on the table!
We just took the food that we wanted to eat on our plate and paid for it.

The best way to eat this kind of food is with your fingers! ;)

And you know what? I learned that this place is actually the best place in town for the Gulai Kepala Ikan (fish head curry) . The kind of fish that being served is ikan Kakap Putih or barramundi fish. It costed us Rp. 89.500 (it depends on the weight) plus 10% tax.

It tasted so delicious, the gravy was sweet, rich taste and creamy from the tick coconut milk. The fish meat was so soft like cotton and some parts of the meat tasted like jelly.

The owner of the restaurant was so helpful. He came to our table and showed us that actually inside the fish bone, there's still meat. He opened it by using 2 forks, pretty interesting to see the trick to open it. Then, he poured the sauce of "asam ganja" on the fish bone.

I had a chance to see how they prepared the fish head.

For me, the most interesting dish from all is the marijuana leaves which is the condiment of the fish head named "Asam Ganja".
(trans: Asam means sour; Ganja means marijuana)

I asked the owner what's actually inside the asam ganja. He told me that the ingredients beside the marijuana leaves are shallot, belimbing buluh (it's a family of starfruit), dried shrimp, lemongrass. So, how did it taste? Yumm... A nice tanginess that definitely gave a zing :)

Fish eggs.
I wonder how many million eggs where there on the plate.

Fried Pigeons
What a big surprise to see the inside of the pigeon's stomach!
It freaked me out at first but then I was able to take a pic of it :)
The meat of pigeon gives off a pungent, chicken-like aroma but then, I absolutely prefer chicken meat.

The rest of the food on the table:
From left to right.

Sweet soy bean cake with chilli, anchovy and peanuts. Cassava leaves with long beans, bean sprout and grated old coconut.

Boiled papaya leaves. Deep fried sliced beef with chili.

Potato with stinky beans and shrimps. Gizzards curry.

Fried pineapple with red chilli. Pickles (cucumber, shallot and red chilli)

The lunch was ended with a glass of Tamarillo (Tree tomato) juice. Here in Indonesia, Tamarillo is known as Terong Belanda. If you are interested to see the Tamarillo fruit and how to make the juice, click here.

Rumah Makan "Medan Baru"
(Medan Baru Restaurant)
Jl. Raya Krekot Bunder No. 65
Pasar Baru, Jakarta Pusat
Indonesia
Tel: 3844273, 3844922, 3858992

Disclaimer:The review and opinion expressed here are purely according to my personal taste. There's a possibility that the taste of the food might change later on, which could affect the review and opinion here. I also affirm that no monetary or non-monetary compensation has been received from this restaurant for writing this review.