Mediterranean fusion at Tuscany restaurant, Bandung

Mediterranean fusion at Tuscany restaurant, Bandung

BANDUNG (JP): After a day out on Shoe Street and Jeans Street,
and having nasi Padang for lunch and gorging ourselves at every
other es cendol and pisang goreng stall on the street, we decided
to settle for something continental for dinner.

"Wood fired pizzas" and "nightly buffets happenings" in the
Events Newsletter in our hotel room was enough to draw us towards
Tuscany's at the Sheraton Bandung that evening.

As we approached the restaurant from the bright blue
amorphous-shaped swimming pool, we could immediately hear the
bustle from the restaurant - gentle clanging of cutlery and
plates, and a friendly hum as guests engaged in conversation in
the cool evening.

The clientele was varied - businessmen, families with young
children as well as couples.

We were particularly taken by the tabletops. All of them were
tiled - many in primary Provencal colors, while others were in
slightly muted tones. They were all clearly Mediterranean in
design.

Tuscany had one of the largest number of choices in each
category we'd ever seen. Four appetizers, four salads, three
soups, seven main dishes, five side dishes, four pastas, eight
pizzas, one dessert pizza and six desserts to choose from. We
were truly spoilt for choice!

Executive Chef Simon Bornan and Sous Chef Albert were mingling
among the guests and we asked them to recommend some of their
best dishes.

We started with the Mediterranean Antipasto (Rp 25,000) served
on a huge platter. There was a variety of little appetizers
arranged in a circle with a cucumber garnish in the center. There
was Tatziki, Humus, black olive Tapenade, Baba Ganouche and whole
marinated mushrooms. My favorite was the Humus. It was not
smoothly ground and I liked the rough wholesome texture. It had
an unusual touch of tuna.

The King Egyptian Prawns (Rp 36,300) wrapped in yogurt pastry
and infused with Middle Eastern spices were crispy. The Sweet
Cured Salmon (Rp 39,900) was one of the finest salmon we've
tasted. It is best eaten on its own without the rich trimmings of
garlic croustini, goat's cheese confetti, marinated onions, pea
sprouts, tapenade and balsamico. It did not reek with oil and
tasted almost unsalted. It was smooth, lightly smoked and freshly
made. According to the Chef, the Salmon was prepared in-house.

We skipped the salad and soup courses, took a breather and
watched the enthusiastic waiters in white shirts with rolled up
sleeves and black pants, and long aprons scurrying by. At 9pm,
customers were still streaming in. In the background, guitar
music was playing tunes like Autumn Leaves and Desperado.

For the main course, we decided to ask Sous Chef Albert to
prepare his signature dish - Pasta Marinara (Rp 35,000) - which
was not on the menu. We had heard of his famous pasta by word of
mouth.

When it came, we were not disappointed at all. Served on a
colorful porcelain dish with a long handle, the spaghetti was al
dente and the sauce was delectable. It was tomato based, and I
could taste a small dash of cream, which made the sauce fairly
smooth to taste. There were crayfish and prawns and bits of fish
fillet.

Tutto pizza (Rp 23,000) was Tuscany's all-in-one pizza made
with toppings such as mixed seafood, Italian meats, marinated
vegetables, anchovies, black olives, mushrooms, basil tomato
sauce and the house's own blended cheese. The person who ordered
the pizza was vegetarian so she'd asked the meat to be left out.
We liked the fact that we could order things that were not in the
menu and to leave stuff out that we didn't particular like. The
aroma from the wood-fired pizza was wonderfully rustic and all it
took was three minutes to cook in the oven right before our eyes.

The Open Style Lasagna (Rp 36,200) was a very interesting
concoction. Instead of the traditional meat sauce, there was
seared Red Snapper with marinated peppers and eggplants.

To compliment the dishes we ordered Roasted Ratatouille. It
was delicious and crunchy with an unusual roasted flavor. It was
prepared a la carte and was not prepared the traditional way
where the vegetables are stewed.

Dessert sounded tempting so we begged the Chef to prepare for
us smaller portions of desserts as we were already full. The
dessert pizza (Rp 19,500) was an interesting sweet pizza topped
with caramelized bananas, and topped with homemade vanilla ice
cream.

The tiramisu (Rp 28,500) could not come any smaller because it
was prepared in a cup on a saucer. A very big cafe-au-lait cup on
a saucer! This was Tuscany's own version of Italian Marcapone
cheesecake layered with liqueur. It was very rich indeed and we
couldn't really do justice to the wonderful dessert because we
were so full.

The dessert that takes the cake was the freshly-baked Baklava
with cinnamon ice cream (Rp 24,000). It was made up of wafer thin
filo pastry filled with crushed nuts and honey butter. The
Baklava was served the untraditional way - like a slice of apple
pie and topped with homemade cinnamon ice cream. The combination
was excellent and the taste so delectable we ate every morsel
even though we were already so bloated.

An enjoyable evening out in Tuscany in Bandung.

-- Epicurus