"Al Andaloss: A taste of Arabian food

JAKARTA (JP): How to start a review on something you don't know anything about, the "anything" in this case being food from the Middle East?

And having begun with that question, yours truly is forced to confess to an untruth made quite some time ago, namely knowing delectables from every corner of the earth, so maybe an apology is in order.

Sorry, folks, I don't know anything about food from the Middle East. But "not knowing" is not the same as "not having tasted", so the untruth is really a half-truth, because food from that region has been known to arouse the tastebuds, from way back before I even thought of writing about whatever it is humans fill their tummies with.

Roughly 20 years ago would probably be the most accurate estimate of when I last tasted "Arabian" food. But whether what I had then could be described as representative of the entire region is also questionable.

There are, after all, so many countries in the Middle East with just as many differences from one country to the next (not to mention the various regions in each of them) as regards cuisine.

There are three types of cuisines I remember having had a taste of. Please note, however, that I've never visited any Middle Eastern country and that I had the samples in overseas restaurants specializing in such cuisines.

Anyway, the three types are Turkish -- which I found quite rich, mainly because of the overly generous dollops of yogurt; a Lebanese-style roast lamb which was utterly delicious; and a Moroccan chicken dish, also very tasty.

Incidentally, does Morocco -- and its food, of course -- classify as Middle Eastern? Then there were private dinner parties but on such occasions the Middle Eastern dishes functioned as additional features to lend a touch of color, not as complete meals.

Jewish potato pancakes spring to mind, also Algerian couscous -- though this dish, I was told, is common to the entire region.

If I've never eaten food from a Middle Eastern country in Indonesia it's because I've never come across an eatery offering such cuisine in Jakarta, nor have I ever seen ads promoting such places in the few of the far too many Jakarta news rags I read regularly.

But one day I passed three, all in the course of one short taxi trip. Three? Was some supernatural force orchestrating my daily activities?

Though I didn't stop at any of them at the time, I made a mental note to do so at the first convenient occasion. That moment duly arrived, so after going "eenie-meenie-mynie-moe" I settled for Al Andaloss Restaurant & Coffee Shop in Jl. Raden Saleh, Central Jakarta, which is one of two Middle Eastern restaurants on that street.

It's located on the third (top) floor of a small shopping center on the left side from the direction of Cikini hospital, about 100 metres past the bridge.

Incidentally, you may have to ask around for the entrance because it's not immediately visible from the street.

On entering the place there are two things which will immediately attract your attention: first, a notice requesting customers to remove their footwear and second, the padded mats and large cushions all along the walls and around the pillars in the center of the room.

That's right -- you sit on the floor. A piece of white cloth is spread out in front of the customer, or group of customers, on which the food and drinks are laid.

Being rather ignorant about Middle Eastern cuisine I had the waiter assist me in ordering. What, e.g. does Nashweyat stand for? Roasts, I was told. Alright, I'll have roast lamb ribs.

What does it come with? Bread. Oh? What kind of bread? From his description I sensed that it was unleavened bread, akin to Indian roti chanai.

But, if I wanted, I could also have kabbsa, rice cooked in stocks and herbs with either chicken or beef. My thoughts immediately turned to briyani (yes, Indian again). However, I thought I decided to stick to bread.

As for vegetable dishes, these came under the heading of Mukabbelat which means salads. There was one kind called Greeke which may well point to Greece.

What I had though, was tebbulea, which consisted of chopped tomatoes and onions, shredded lettuce and a hot dressing (served separately) containing mashed onions, garlic, chilies and lemon.

The Arabs (I was told the cuisine was Arabian) seem to be fond of the latter, because there were quite thick wedges of lemon accompanying the lamb ribs and the tebbulea salad.

After the first bite I thought a bit of salt would do wonders to enhance what I had, so I took one of the three small shakers and sprayed some on the lamb only to discover that it was sugar. Oh, well... my fault.

Took the other shaker which had the right stuff in it and that made quite an improvement, considering that the three different flavors, sour, sweet and salty were joined in a very unsubtle combination, i.e. the one being just as pronounced as the others.

Quite different, I think, from many cuisines which call for a careful balancing of flavors... sometimes too careful.

Al Andaloss Restaurant & Coffee Shop doesn't only serve Arabian food. There's also quite a wide selection of Indonesian fare. The place even offers some that have a Chinese slant, like sayur cap cay and cah kangkung as well as a dish listed on the menu as spagety biones (which, to me, comes suspiciously close to spaghetti bolognese), but of course I disregarded these.

The place also has a selection of soups. There was one which rang a bell, okra, but I can't for the life of me remember where, if ever, I'd come across it.

The reason I bring up the soups is that they may well contain more spices than the items I had. Somehow, food from the Middle East invokes visions of a liberal use of herbs and spices like cumin, gen-galen, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, etc.

Then again, these may feature in cuisines of other Middle Eastern countries.

Not knowing much about Arabic food I find it a bit difficult to come up with an evaluation of the place. However, while there, and rather liking what I was eating, a group of Arab-looking men entered and had a meal there.

Well... you know, of course, what they say about ethnic eateries -- go where the ethnics go.

--Bonne Bouche