Dining guide an appetizer, but not the main course

Dining guide an appetizer, but not the main course

Jakarta Dining -- The Jakarta Restaurant Guide 2000
PT Indo Multi Media MNC Group, Jakarta
120 pages
Rp 22,500

JAKARTA (JP): Need an easy-as-pie directory of Jakarta
restaurants but too lazy to flip through the hefty restaurant
section of the Yellow Pages?

Jakarta Dining, chockful of names, addresses and colorful
advertisements helpfully arranged in various categories of
cuisine (French, Indian, International, etc.) fits the bill.
Thrown in for good measure are informative, well-written articles
about all things culinary, including ones on Indonesian cuisine
and street food, plus a map of the capital to help Jakarta
neophytes locate the site of their choice.

That, in a nutshell, is that. The bulk of the book is devoted
to pithy advertising blurbs; the unknowing might mistake these
for reviews were it not for the occasional use of the first
person and the requirements for advertisers tucked away in the
back of the guide. One of the "rules" required for inclusion in
the book is dependent on "owning or managing a good restaurant
within Greater Jakarta", which conjures up the unlikely scenario
of some restaurant owner mulling whether to place an ad because
his or her establishment may not be up to snuff.

Jakarta Dining is a glossy, slickly produced guide. It does
not purport to present a critical assessment of the restaurants
despite the glowing foreword, no doubt ghostwritten, from the
head of the Jakarta tourism agency touting the "top-flight
selection of over 230 restaurants".

Take the advertising copy with a generous pinch of salt, for,
it is, after all meant to get buns in seats. Still, buried in the
flowery plaudits one sometimes gains unwitting insight into what
awaits in the dining experience.

For instance, the entry "Expect titillation from the camp
waiters" for a high-profile trendy restaurant should be read as a
glitzy, all-frills establishment 1) serving culinary slim
pickings 2) providing over-the-top service by a gaggle of limp-
wristed waitpersons who answer to the names Mary and Blanche and
3) this is most definitely not an establishment for the entire
family.

Another blurb, touting the great family dining at a ribs
restaurant, held ironic meaning for this writer. Times change,
but when I reviewed the same establishment in 1997 I found "the
lashings of food and affordability come at the expense of
taste ... there was no craving for a return trip anytime soon".
Such is honesty -- a crack, in hindsight probably unwarranted,
about the frozen cheesecake spinning off the fork and running the
risk of putting a fellow diner's eye out earned an irate letter
from the proprietor.

The advice here is to take the entries for what they are -- a
clear-cut directory for sussing out new restaurants, finding
their locations and trying them for yourself. If something reads
like an ad (even if it comes under the nebulous rubric of a
newspaper "review"), replete with raving compliments and gushing
thanks to the chef, waiters and sundry help people for their
"advice" in choosing the most exorbitantly priced items on the
menu, well, then, chances are the so-called reviewer was a tad
subjective.

The old adage of the proof of the pudding is in the eating
really is true. It is up to you to taste for yourself what is on
offer, but be sure to call ahead first as at least one of the
restaurants has closed since the book was published.

-- Bruce Emond