Feasting and festivities for Chinese New Year
JAKARTA (JP): It's time to feast and relax as Chinese communities all over the world celebrate the Lunar New Year on Wednesday.
And many Chinese-Indonesians will have more time on their hands this year, thanks to a holiday for "those who are celebrating" the Year of the Snake, local newspapers reported on Tuesday.
It's a day for high hopes for better fortune, and the courage to face what lies ahead.
Of course, the place to be to celebrate the festival is Glodok in Chinatown, West Jakarta. The area is always abuzz with activities, from markets selling unusual items used in Chinese recipes, to VCDs and nightclubs.
If you want to celebrate in the more hospitable surroundings of a hotel, then the choice is yours. Many of the capital's hotels are donning their Chinese colors for Wednesday and the rest of the week.
Hotel Borobudur, for instance, is offering a special room package (Rp 750,000 per night) to mark the occasion; the rate, valid on Wednesday, is inclusive of a set menu dinner at its Teratai Chinese Restaurant.
The Golden Ming restaurant at The Acacia will provide a special set menu (Rp 62,800), which includes a bowl of shark's fin soup, on Wednesday. For those who want to get their kicks, a kung fu show is scheduled at the hotel's Pharoah bar.
Hotel Horison, which says that most of its visitors are locals, is having a special lunch on Wednesday and Thursday at its Pondok Samudra seafood restaurant. At a price of Rp 65,000 ++, it includes Szechuan specialties such as beef in pepper sauce, Shanghai rice and kwetiau noodles.
Another hotel with Chinese New Year on its mind is the Hilton in Central Jakarta. Through till Jan. 31, the hotel is offering a set menu for lunch at its Lotus Chinese Halal Restaurant. However, it's a pricey Rp 150,000 ++ for the minced prawns with black mushrooms, wok charred beef tenderloin in XO sauce and braised duckling. From Jan. 25 to Jan. 31, a special dinner menu will be available for the lavish price of Rp 250,000 ++.
Another five-star hotel, The Regent, will have a dragon dance in its lobby at 7 p.m. and a Chinese New Year Hawker BBQ beside the swimming pool. The buffet, beginning at 7 p.m., includes a traditional performance at 8:15 p.m. and costs the tidy sum of Rp 188,000 ++ for adults and Rp 88,000 ++ for kids. At those prices, start fasting now to get your money's worth.
Snake
For those who really want to get into the year of the snake, one hotel is even placing some of the unfortunate reptiles on its menu.
The Mulia Hotel Senayan will serve the delicacy of king cobra at its Samudra Shark Fin restaurant, contending that the animals have long been eaten in China for health benefits.
"The meat, tastes slightly sweet and the texture resembles that of fish. It is very popularly cooked into soups," said Benny Tan Ngee Heng, head chef at the restaurant.
"The poisonous part is in the snakes' mouth, especially its teeth, but one need not worry when consuming its meat and blood, which are edible and good for one's health."
The meat is available in certain markets only, including Lokasari market in Mangga Besar, West Jakarta at Rp 12,000 per ounce of meat or a three-meter-long king cobra snake costs Rp 450,000.
For those interested in savoring the meat in a genuine Chinatown setting, then head down to Glodok, where several sidewalk eateries specialize in cobra meat. Of course, it's a delicacy which is not for the squeamish (lup/brc).