Gourmet delights

What a joy to read Maria Endah Hulupi's review of the dinner meeting of the Jakarta Chapter of the Chaine des Rotisseurs. I am still salivating as I visualize the gourmet delights savored by the members (The Jakarta Post, Feb. 7, 2001: Culinary society puts food on the front burner).

If I may, I have just a couple of comments to make. 1. I may be dating myself, but as I recall, the sherbet was always served following the fish, the idea being to cleanse the palate before the next course - it was also the only acceptable time during the meal to partake of a cigarette, usually a black Russian. The chocolate may also be a little rich for this point in the menu. 2. Escaffier considered the serving of the savory - Goat cheese Saint Manre - to be the Englishman's gastronomical abuse. If it is to be included, and it gets my vote, should it not follow dessert rather than precede it?

JOHN E. ALDERSON

Pangandaran, West Java