Buffet bonanzas, any time of the day, at Chiao Tung
JAKARTA (JP): There's one place in town where you can get decent food any time of the day. Chiao Tung at the Hotel Mercure Rekso Hayam Wuruk, 123 Hayam Wuruk in Glodok, runs a 24-hour restaurant and is the hotel's only food outlet.
This modest medium-sized outlet with 120-seating capacity features three types of buffet, at various times of the day, plus an a la carte menu.
From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays (and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends and public holidays), the dim sum buffet is offered. And if you long for some warm sustenance between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m, a Taiwanese porridge buffet is served. The a la carte menu, which consists of 80 percent Chinese and 20 percent European cuisine, is available round the clock. From 3 a.m., the breakfast buffet is served.
Many people know Chiao Tung for its dim sum and Taiwan-style buffets. According to restaurant and room service manager, Darisman, when the restaurant first opened, dim sum was limited to about four to five items. It has now expanded to a whopping repertoire of 88 items although not every item is served at any one time. But if you are there long enough, you will notice that some of the items are replaced by new items when the steaming rack is replenished.
Dim sum at Rp 32,800 is a steal. All the items are prepared in-house, and the chef responsible for this is Sutrisno-Din.
According to Darisman, the most popular item is the harkow (shrimp dumpling). It is easy to see why: it is made with big pieces of shrimp with hardly any fillers, wrapped daintily in an almost-perfect translucent dough, and tastes so good that you can eat it on its own.
Steamed chicken feet are another dim sum favorite among the regular clients. Apparently the preparation is a long, arduous process. The chicken feet are first blanched with boiling water to hydrate the skin. They are then deep fried and dunked into cold water immediately. Special spices are then added to them, and then they are steamed.
The steamed chicken feet were spicy and not too sweet. The feet had been "properly" prepared so that they were full of flavor and did not taste raw, and the bones were very soft and tender.
The bubur telur pitan (century egg porridge) was good. It was thick and exceptionally smooth, with enough bits of century egg without being overwhelming. There were also bits of chicken, and some crackers to provide a crunch.
On the a la carte menu, there were 80 Chinese, five Indonesian and 12 Western dishes. The Chinese dishes mostly come in 3 sizes -- small, medium and large -- according to the number of people eating.
For starters, I had the combination shark fin's soup (Rp 48,000). It is dark in color, with shark fins, sea cucumber, chicken and shrimp. Please do not mistake it for the whitish traditional shark fin's soup with crab and egg drop, or you will be disappointed. It is what it says it is -- combination shark fins.
The black pepper beef (Rp 50,000) was very tender with lots of well-done onions and a mild taste of black pepper.
One of my favorite dishes was the nasi goreng ikan asin (fried rice with salted fish). It was very tasty and rich with small pieces of chicken and seafood. There was a sufficient amount of salted fish pieces without being overpowering. At Rp 32,000, it was good for two people.
Another interesting main course was the deep-fried prawn roll with ham (Rp 50,000). It was made up of minced prawn wrapped in ham and then fried in batter, and served covered with a thick sweet and sour sauce. There were six substantial pieces per serving.
So the next time your tummy growls -- whatever the time -- and you want a wide selection of hot food, you know where to go. Bon appetit! (Grace Segran).