Not all the gems sparkle at Crystal Jade Palace<\/p>\n
By John Aglionby<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Any restaurant that not only has its lobby seats
\nfilled regularly but also the overflow area outside must be a
\nquality establishment, or so one would think. But, as with many
\nthings in life, appearances can be deceptive.<\/p>\n
I thought I had circumvented the popularity of the Crystal
\nJade Palace, located behind the Fashion Cafe on the ground floor
\nof Wisma 46, by both booking in advance and arriving on time.<\/p>\n
No such luck. Not only had the front desk given my table to
\nsomeone else, I was still waiting half an hour later. Perhaps the
\nmanagement can afford to be so hopelessly inefficient and chaotic
\nbecause there are 50 floors of hungry office workers with few
\nalternative lunch spots slaving away above them. I, however, was
\nnot impressed.<\/p>\n
Three days later, I ventured back. This time, we got past the
\nlobby and to a table. The fact that we had to ask for the menus
\nonce we got there seemed of little consequence after the triumph
\nof actually getting a seat.<\/p>\n
Two words of advice at this point. Take a jacket or sweater.
\nThe sports hall of a room -- there are no nooks and corners to
\nhave a quiet candlelit dinner in a room decorated in styles from
\n1920s art deco to 1990s functional -- was freezing. We were
\ncovered in goosebumps before we knew it, which the never-ending
\nsupply of tea served by overattentive waitresses did little to
\nremedy.<\/p>\n
The other tip would be not to go with anyone indecisive, or
\nyou'll be there forever. Fifteen minutes after arriving, we were
\nstill ploughing through the 143 items on the regular menu and 32
\nvarieties of Dim Sum.<\/p>\n
As it turned out, we might as well not have bothered because
\nwe ended up with some dishes we had not ordered and instead were
\nserved items we had taken care to avoid.<\/p>\n
Once the teething problems are ironed out, the service should
\nimprove. The snag is that the quality of the food -- styled as
\nHong Kong\/international -- varied from exquisite to awful, with a
\ngood dose of mediocrity in between.<\/p>\n
Most of the various Dim Sum selections were tasty and combined
\nwell together. The spring rolls had a subtle, tangy flavor,
\nalthough the accompanying sauce tasted bitter and of not very
\nmuch at all; the deep-fried Wan-Ton in a sweet and sour sauce was
\nexcellent; the deep fried mixed meat dumpling was a little
\nstodgy, but offset the other dishes well and another dish none of
\nus could identify. We certainly hadn't ordered it and could
\ndetect chicken and mushrooms, but nothing on the menu consisted
\nof chicken and mushrooms.<\/p>\n
There were no such identity problems with the final Dim Sum
\ndish. It was clearly chicken feet, although they had definitely
\nnot come from an Indonesian chicken, as they were far too fatty.
\nThe sauce was a brown jelly-like mass with far too high a
\nmonosodium glutamate (MSG) content for my liking.<\/p>\n
Our noodles with crab meat and dry shrimp proved to be as
\nanonymous as the dish we hadn't ordered -- or perhaps we weren't
\nbrought noodles with crab meat and dry shrimp.<\/p>\n
Never having been to Hong Kong, I was not aware of what the
\nserving sizes meant. There were three on offer: small, medium and
\nlarge. Unfortunately, we were not told that \"small\" meant large,
\n\"medium\" enormous and the large portions probably require two
\nwaiters to bring them to the table.<\/p>\n
The only way to get a reasonably small helping is to go for
\nthe snacks. The marinated duck meat Chiu Chow style would have
\nbeen the a main course in most other restaurants, and was as good
\nas any duck I have eaten in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The same could be said for the deep-fried prawns with garlic.
\nThey were cooked simply, but rolled gently out of their shells
\nand down one's throat, leaving one wanting more.<\/p>\n
Equally impressive was the fried rice with chicken tomato
\nsauce over one half and cream of prawn sauce covering the other.
\nThe MSG content was just about right, the flavors were not
\noverpowered by spices and indeed this too could easily be a meal
\nin itself.<\/p>\n
We did not fare so well with the rest of the pot-luck meal.
\nThe overcooked vegetables took one back to school-dinner days;
\nthe stewed brisket in a claypot was fatty and swamped in MSG and
\nthe fresh abalone and sea cucumber with dry shrimp roe was
\nstunningly bland.<\/p>",
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