Fusion food that pleases your taste buds

Maria Endah Hulupi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After a visit to a foreign country, people like to bring home items including local food or recipes to try to prepare in their own kitchen.

Sometimes, people also like to do a cross-cultural food tasting to spice up their taste buds.

This is exactly what Frenchman Gilles Marx from Riva Bistro and Bar at the Park Lane Jakarta and Italian Dario Congera from Bruschetta restaurant at the Borobudur Hotel Jakarta have done.

Gilles, who has spent the last three years of his career at a fine dining restaurant in Hunter Valley, Australia, has returned to the Park Lane hotel in Jakarta to prepare a range of Australian-influenced dishes that he would like to introduce to Jakarta food lovers during a food promotion, dubbed Gilles' Australian influence.

During the promotion, which ends this Friday, the chef will prepare three starters, three types of fish and meat dishes with three desserts and Australian wine served by the glass to complete the culinary experience.

Gilles says that Australian cuisine has a blend of everything, including Asian and European influences, which gives it a unique character. "But its typical flavor is a little bit from all over the world," Gilles said.

The menu features dishes, prepared using popular cooking items from the continent like Australian beef, Pacific oysters (served fresh or with poached yabbies on a fresh beetroot salad and light champagne sauce) and kangaroo meat, one of the country's exotic meats along with koala, emu and crocodile. All are imported straight from the land down under.

Kangaroo, he explained, has already been specially bred for culinary purposes in Australia and the meat is known to be lean, which is the reason why it is better to be eaten rare.

"When it is prepared medium or well done, the meat tends to become tough. It is advisable to serve it rare by cooking it very shortly to maintain its tender texture," he said about the meat which is especially famous among tourists in Australia who wish to try its flavor and texture.

"Each meat requires different handling and cooking technique so as to get the best of it," Gilles added.

He uses the loin because it is the most tender part of a kangaroo. He prepares panseared kangaroo loin on warm cumin scented couscous, with blackberry juice and mango salsa.

As for the beef, grass-fed Australian beef is leaner with a healthier type of fat and the cattle's diet gives the meat a stronger taste. Among his beef dishes is the classic Hunter Valley-style grilled tenderloin, crispy bacon and shiraz sauce.

And as a sweet ending to the meal, Gilles prepares popular desserts, pavlova and sticky date pudding that can be found everywhere in the continent. Also on his dessert list are the dry meringue filled with fresh fruit, passion fruit sorbet and cinnamon-scented sticky date pudding and brandied vanilla sauce.

Chef Dario will specialize in gnocchi (pronounced nyo-kee), a kind of pasta-based dumpling, which is a popular, versatile dish from Italy during the promotion that ends next Saturday.

From basic ingredients, like potato/polenta/semolina flour, egg and cheese, gnocchi can be prepared in various flavored and colored dishes with different shapes and presentations. Among the classic ones are Romana gnocchi (typical gnocchi that is popular in Rome and is cooked with semolina flour), carrot gnocchi and basic potato gnocchi.

Each region in Italy has developed its own typical gnocchi dishes. In the northern part of the country locals use more cheese; chili and tomato and herbs in the south; and olive oil in the north west.

Gnocchi talks about popular culture, too. Dario said that in the past, Italian housewives prepared gnocchi dishes for their families. Today, most of them have a career to pursue and spend less time in the kitchen so they prefer to buy from fresh pasta shops which sell many different kinds of fresh gnocchi to choose from.

"Except on the weekends, maybe, when they have time to cook. But ready to cook gnocchi is very practical. All they have to do is boil it in salted water and remove it once they float to the surface.

"With different herbs and ingredients or whatever they have in their kitchen, Italians can prepare an elaborate gnocchi dish," Dario added.

Gnocchi can be eaten alone, served separately or together with a sauce. The most popular sauces to go with it are quattro fromaggio or four-cheese sauce, veal/lamb/chicken ragout, bolognese and pesto.

And like many other pasta dishes, the dish is usually enjoyed after the appetizer and can be eaten as a one-meal dish for lunch or dinner.

"Italian people are happy with a plate of gnocchi and a slice of bread when they are hungry. Such a dish is quite satisfying and already provides them with meat and vegetables and they have enough," Dario explained.

For this promotion, the chef prepares among others potato gnocchi with tomato and pesto, Romana gnocchi with Parmesan, ricotta gnocchi with spinach on eggplant, cheese, olive oil, basil and diced tomato; and carrot gnocchi with veal ragout, capers and lemon.