Lai Ching serving up something new at the Regent

By Grace Segran

JAKARTA (JP): One thing's for sure -- you will not find your typical sweet and sour pork at Lai Ching, Jakarta's newest fine- dining restaurant.

To start with, there is no pork there because the restaurant at The Regent hotel, South Jakarta, is halal, conforming to Islamic dietary regulations. Second, the type of dishes whipped up by Chef Peter Tang from Hong Kong are not the run-of-the-mill chop suey and sweet-and-sour whatever.

The range of mostly gourmet dishes is wide and one has to learn to navigate the various menus:

Dim sum is served at lunch. There are 21 varieties of dim sum which change every month, and a soup of the day. In addition, there are more than six types of vegetarian dim sum.

In the main menu, there are approximately 100 dishes, including six of Tang's signature dishes. On a separate menu, the chef recommends 10 dishes every month, and there are 10 desserts to choose from.

For those who prefer set menus, the chef has put together three types of set lunches and three types of set dinners.

Lai Ching has undergone a wonderful transformation from its former life as the Asiatique. The ambience now exudes modern Chinese elegance; we particularly liked the use of wood throughout the restaurant, such as on the walls and chairs. There were minimalist brush paintings framed by pine on the walls and the restaurant is customer-friendly, providing a bench placed beside you for your handbag or briefcase.

The waitresses set the dress code for the restaurant with their black formal cheongsams, and the men their black tops with mandarin collars and sleeves turned up to reveal the yellow satin underneath.

Although there were private function rooms, we preferred to dine in the main part of the restaurant as we wanted to soak in the charm. It was most unfortunate when halfway through the meal, some families arrived and children were allowed to run and play unrestrained through the restaurant. Nannies walked freely up and down the restaurant with infants strapped to their bodies by sarongs, feeding or rocking them to sleep. It would have been difficult to carry on a business dinner under these conditions, but restaurant manager Christopher assures us that it is fairly quiet on a weeknight.

Spoilt for choice, we asked Christopher to help us select our orders. Meanwhile, we snacked on peanuts and pickles, but we felt that Lai Ching, given its upmarket clientele, could have done better by serving fancier tidbits such as cashews or walnuts.

We started our meal with one of Chef Tang's award-winning dishes -- braised whole pigeon with shark's fin casserole (Rp 270,000). The stewed pigeon came in a covered clay pot, and had been stewed for one and half hours in "superior" stock with ginger and spring onion. There were luscious slices of black Chinese mushrooms, and shark's fins that were big enough to taste. The dish was delectable; the pigeon was tender and flavorful, and not gamey at all.

I was at first surprised to find finger bowls came with the dish. As I began to eat, I realized why. The pigeon, unlike a chicken, is very small and hence very fiddly to eat with chopsticks. I eventually abandoned the chopsticks and enjoyed the pigeon using my fingers.

The next dish was deep-fried lobster Bi Fong Tong style. On the menu, it says prawns (from Rp 85,000 for a small plate) but they had run out of stock so we had lobster instead.

The flesh had been removed from the shell and cut up into small pieces, and fried in batter. It was served on a bed of fried garlic mixed with cabai rawit (small green chilies). While it was delicious, we felt that the lobster would have been best served with minimal cooking so that its natural flavors could be savored.

We had two types of dim sum. The steamed shrimp dumplings or Ha Gao (Rp 9,800) were excellent. There were four pieces per portion and they were made from big plump prawns without any fillers. The steamed dumplings, Chia Chow style or Fan Guo, (Rp 8,800) were also generous and the turnip cubes gave a good crunch.

Our fourth course was pan-fried fillet steak in OK sauce (from Rp 75,000). The Australian beef, which came in fairly big slices, was very tender; the OK sauce, made from the bottled sauce of the same name, had been cooked with other ingredients, such as celery. It complemented the beef very well.

Complimentary oriental petit fours were served in a miniature display frame. Steamed lotus seed paste dumplings (Rp 10,000) consisted of three types of dumplings made from an outer layer of glutinous flour, and generous fillings of red bean paste, lotus paste and custard. The chilled mango pudding (Rp 30,000), made to perfection with visible chunks of mango, was the sweet ending to a most enjoyable meal.