Buffet bonanzas, any time of the day, at Chiao Tung

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).