Archipelago food promo at the Peninsula

Archipelago food promo at the Peninsula

By Grace Segran

JAKARTA (JP): From Aug. 14 until the end of the month, the
Menara Peninsula will be running a food promotion featuring
cuisines from around the Indonesian archipelago at its Kafe
Coleman.

Kafe Coleman Wintolo executive chef Suparto and food and
beverage manager Stephane Servin were on hand to see that the
promotion was running smoothly.

"The concept of the promotion is to showcase the different
ethnic cuisines of Indonesia," said Suparto. "Each day the
spotlight will be on a cuisine from a particular region."

Indeed, the day we were there, there was Javanese, Madura and
Surabaya food with a special emphasis on Balinese cuisine.

"The Indonesia archipelago has so many different cuisines,"
said Servin, "that to promote food from each ethnic group would
easily take an entire year."

According to Servin, there is even variety for any one dish.
Take soto, for example. In Madura, the soto is different from the
soto in Betawi. The gudeg in Yogja is different from the gudeg
you would find when you drive 50 kilometers out of Yogja.

Moving quietly among the lunch-time crowd to serve or to clear
tables are staff dressed in traditional costume. Like the dishes,
the traditional costumes are representative of different parts of
the archipelago.

Pak Iwan, the duty manager, was dressed in a Sundanese outfit.
He wore a close-fitting headgear called the bendo that matches
the design of the dodot made of batik lereng tied around his
waist and hips. He looked elegant in his Sunda beskap, which is a
white long-sleeved jacket with a Nehru collar, and black pants.

Another member of the staff was dressed in traditional Betawi
costume. He had on his head a peci -- an upright, oval black
velvet cap. The white top called a baju koko had discreet
embroidery on the front panel. He wore the typical betawi
checkered sarong over black trousers.

With Independence Day just round the corner, we thought the
archipelago food promotion was most timely.

The spread was impressive, taking up two of four chambers of
the large dining room. There was a salad bar with three different
types of dressing; 10 types of appetizers; a soup tureen; seven
main warm courses with rice or potatoes; carvings of roast beef
striploin; a stall preparing dishes; a nasi station and more than
10 cold and warm desserts.

While the cafe was promoting ethnic Indonesian food, it also
served such popular items as smoked salmon, sushi and sashimi,
and roast beef.

We started with the comoh, a Balinese crabmeat soup. The
consomme was a winner at our table. It was very peppery with fine
bits of shell among the crabmeat, verifying that it was authentic
crabmeat and not the imitation stuff found in many outlets these
days. The soup had a lovely subtle crustacean flavor.

The satay lilit, a traditional dish from Bali, was made from
minced beef formed around a stalk of lemon grass and grilled over
charcoal. "The minced beef was marinated in spices such as
turmeric and chili," said Suparto, "and the lemon grass on which
the satay is grilled emanates its flavor to the meat."

Soto ayam Madura was prepared at the stall when ordered.
Besides the usual ingredients of shredded chicken, vermicilli,
cabbage and the usual condiments, it also had cubes of chicken
liver.

An interesting dish was the ayam bertutu, which also comes
from Bali. "The chicken is marinated with turmeric, ginger,
galangal and chili. Then it is wrapped in banana leaves and baked
in the oven together with cassava leaves for about 45 minutes to
an hour," said Servin. It is then cut up into bite-size pieces
and served. The result was delectable and tender chicken.

"There are many ways of serving rice in Indonesia," said
Servin. "There is nasi liwet, nasi gudeg, nasi Padang,
to name a few."

Today was nasi rawon komplit. It consists of plain steamed
rice served with beef stew, salted eggs, fried beancurd, tempeh,
cucumber, basil, mung beans and chili sauce. Nasi rawon is
commonly eaten in Surabaya. The beef stew was made with a local
nut called buah keluak and it is this nut which gives it its
distinct black color. While the stew may look "strong" because of
its dark color, it was pleasantly mild in taste.

For dessert, the warm Javanese biji salak was particularly
good. It consisted of sticky rice balls in palm sugar and coconut
milk. Or there was the ubiquitous pisang goreng, which was
prepared on the spot. Unlike the banana fritters we find at
pisgor (short for pisang goreng) warungs all over the
archipelago, which are eaten plain, we could have ours with
toppings such as sugar, chocolate, etc.

We had an enjoyable lunch getting to know the different
Indonesian cuisines. At Rp 50,000 ++, the archipelago food
promotion was a steal.