Curry Club back at Sahid's Shah Jahan

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After an absence of about a year, Indian restaurant Shah Jahan is now offering again a special buffet of curry dishes at a reasonable price with a free flow beer for curry-lovers.

"We're providing a buffet of about seven to 10 dishes of curry on the last Friday of every month," Shah Jahan public relations officer Marjam J. Tarantin said.

At only Rp 100,000 (US$11), curry-lovers may savor delicious paneer makhini (lamb milk tofu with cashew nut sauce) or Kashmir rogan josh (lamb curry).

Even better, the restaurant, which has a beautiful interior decor, offers free-flow beer from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. On other days, Shah Jahan provides a regular a la carte service.

"Our regular customers usually come late at night, at about 9 p.m.," Marjam added.

Curry Club usually attracts about 30 curry-lovers once a month to sample curries and also enjoy themselves.

"Back then at Shah Jahan, the club usually elects a president every month. The president then decides what kind of experimental curry they should have at the next lunch," said Sahid chef and beverage manager Gordon Fairley.

"One time they had curry eaten from a freshly cut coconut shell, which was suspended from their necks," Fairley said, adding that the lunch was a fun event because they spilled the curry on their shirts.

Many club members are foreigners, mostly Australians, who love beer. That's why the four-hour, free-flow Heineken beer is a most attractive offer.

Shah Jahan, which has been one of the best Indian dining venues since the early 1990s, has recently hired a new Indian chef, who is known as chef Singh.

"One of our latest successful experiments has been paneer makhini," Fairley said.

He said that Shah Jahan made the tofu-like cheese from lamb milk delivered freshly from Bogor.

The experiment produced a soft cheese with a milky flavor but without a trace of lamb milk odor.

Shah Jahan Hotel Sahid Jaya 18th floor Jl. Sudirman 86 reservations: 5704444 ext.1434