Feasting and festivities for Chinese New Year
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).