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