Chinese culinary enjoys popularity

Chinese culinary enjoys popularity

T. Sima Gunawan, Contributor, Jakarta

Many people eat not just to survive. Eating for them is much
more than putting some food into their mouths and swallowing it.
They taste every bit of the meal, savoring the flavor and feeling
the delight of chewing it.

Eating out has become a pleasure of relaxation. People enjoy
not only the food, but also the way they are served while taking
into consideration the ambiance of the eating place. And probably
there is no better place to go than a Chinese restaurant, where
guests can enjoy a great variety of dishes in a friendly and
relaxed atmosphere.

Jakarta indeed is a haven for Chinese cuisine. The food is so
popular here that you can have it at every corner of the city,
from sidewalks and shopping malls to high-rise buildings and
star-rated hotels.

Some great Chinese restaurants in town have existed for
decades, like Cahaya Kota on Jl. KH Wahid Hasyim in Central
Jakarta and Eka Ria on Jl. Zainul Arifin in West Jakarta. The
younger ones include Ming restaurant on Jl. Rasuna Said in South
Jakarta, which also opened a branch in Kelapa Gading, East
Jakarta, a few months ago, and Summer Palace Restaurant, which
last year moved from Jl. Menteng Raya in Central Jakarta, to the
Central Business District. Now occupying the Summer Palace's old
venue is another Chinese restaurant, the Golden Palace.

The Crystal Jade Palace, a classy Chinese restaurant from
Singapore, opened an outlet here in Wisma 46 on Jl. Sudirman,
Central Jakarta, in 1997. It apparently enjoys a robust business
as 2000 saw the opening of its second restaurant in Plaza
Indonesia, Central Jakarta.

Many star-rated hotels also offer Chinese dishes, for both the
hotel guests and also residents or anyone who wants to satisfy
their need for a dining adventure.

Gran Melia Hotel, for example, has a Chinese restaurant called
Tien Chao, which literally means Sky Paradise. Specializing in
authentic Cantonese and Szechuan cuisine, it offers a wide
variety of dim sum dishes for lunch as well as an extensive a la
carte menu for lunch and dinner.

Shang Palace, located in the Shangri-La Hotel, features
classic provincial Chinese cuisine with chefs from Hong Kong who
prepare a wide selection of Cantonese and other traditional
delicacies under the guidance of Shang Palace Ltd. in Hong Kong.

In order to provide better service and more choices for
guests, Hotel Borobudur Indonesia also offers Chinese food at its
Teratai restaurant.

"Our special dish is pan fried goose liver. It is French goose
liver cooked in special Chinese style," said Sari Priskila, a
public relations officer of the hotel, adding that the dish, as
well as other items like shark fin, abalone, seafood and dim sum
are all specially prepared by its Hong Kong chefs.

Even though it specializes in Cantonese cuisine, the chefs are
also able accommodate the guests' special requests.

Pearl is the Chinese restaurant in the JW Marriott Hotel,
which has two other restaurants serving Japanese food and
international food.

Mellani Solagratia, the hotel's public relations manager, said
Chinese cuisine had long been popular in Indonesia so people were
familiar with the taste.

When it was launched in 2001, at the same time the hotel
opened, the restaurant had a chef from Hong Kong to maintain the
authenticity of the cooking and to supervise the quality of the
food. He has been replaced by a chef from Malaysia who earlier
worked in Singapore.

In order to attract customers, since last year the restaurant
has offered a special "all you can eat" promotion. For Rp 78,000,
you can have a la carte meals from a 58-item menu, including
desserts and appetizers. In total, the restaurant has more than
150 items on its menu, including some items with a Thai flavor
like snapper with Thai sauce.

A Thai flavor is also added to some of the dishes at Cahaya
Kota, one of the oldest Chinese restaurants in town.

Despite its age, the restaurant stays modern by keeping up
with all the new food trends.

"We offer more than 200 dishes, including 'new' ones like
'baby kaylan', jamur kuping (wood ear mushrooms) and kacang mede
(cashew nuts)," restaurant director Mukian Muliana said.

The dishes are offered at a reasonable price. The asparagus
and crab meat soup costs Rp 25,000 per person while a portion of
ayam Kong Nam (chicken cakes in crab egg sauce) is Rp 35,000.

Unlike most Chinese restaurants, Cahaya Kota, which was
established in the late 1940s, excludes pork from its menu. It
offers Cantonese and Szechuan cuisine, modified to meet local
tastes. Its customers, according to Mukian, include high-ranking
officials and foreign diplomats.

Mukian, however, complained that fewer people were coming for
dinner since the extension of the three-in-one traffic policy
earlier this year.

Under the new regulation, vehicles with fewer than three
passengers are not allowed on certain main roads from 4 p.m. to 7
p.m., Monday to Friday.