Gorontalese cuisine

The Gorontalo recipe book "Trailing the Taste of Gorontalo" won the "Best in the World" award at the Gourmand World Cookbook Award in Yantai, China in 2016 for the Asian Cuisine from Asian Books category.[8] In addition, this Gorontalese recipe book has the opportunity to appear to represent one of Indonesia's culinary treasures at the Gourmet Gallery in the Frankfurt Book Fair 2016 series, Germany.[9]

Traditional cuisines in Gorontalo are named based on the cooking techniques, such as:[10]

• Boiling (ilahe and bilanggahe)

In Gorontalo culinary, the technique of boiling fish or other proteins is named differently with that of boiling carbohydrate foods. The technique of boiling fish, prawn, and meat is named "ilahe", while boiling banana, corn, or taro is named "bilanggahe".

• Grilling (ilalango and tilenehu)

As with the process of boiling, the naming of dish that involves grilling is different between protein and carbohydrate dishes. The technique of grilling protein dishes, such as meat and fish, is called "ilalango", while that of grilling banana, corn, or taro is called "tilenehu".

• Frying (tilinanga)

Frying In terms of frying technique, there is no difference in the naming of the dish in reference to either protein or carbohydrate dishes. All fried dishes are called "tilinanga". For example, a fried banana is called lambi tilinanga, and a fried fish is called tola tilinanga. One exception is for fried flour-coated banana, it is called sanggala.

• Wrapping (ilepa'o)

The technique of steaming wrapped dishes is called "ilepa’o" with the banana-leaf package containing food and then steamed or grilled on charcoal.

Gorontalo also has typical spice mixture such as:[11]

• pilitode and iloni

Pilitode is a genuine type of Gorontalese gulai sauce and iloni is a type of Gorontalese grilling sauce. Both of it are using candlenut, ginger, turmeric and coconut milk. This type of dish usually involves fish, chicken, beef, and seafood, as well as banana, cassava, and pumpkin.