New restaurant marks new life for Jasmine

By Yenni Djahidin

WASHINGTON, DC (JP): She made news in May last year when her house burned down during the anti-Chinese riots that forced former president Soeharto to step down. Today her name is written on a sign hanging outside an Indonesian restaurant in a suburb of Washington, DC.

Jasmine Wibisono, the daughter of economist Christianto Wibisono, decided to leave the country after the tragedy. She said she wanted to start a new life with her husband and two young children in the United States.

"I was disappointed by the violence last year and what happened to our family," she said during the opening of her restaurant in a corner of a strip mall in Rockville, Maryland, recently.

They still keep photographs of their ruined Jakarta townhouse.

"All our belongings, including our wedding pictures, were destroyed," said her husband Tandiyo Tan, while caressing the hair of their 15-month old son.

A year ago, her family and parents moved to the state of Oregon, where they have relatives. But Jasmine said there was not much opportunity for them there so they decided to move east to Washington.

"We decided to open an Indonesian restaurant because there is only one around here, and the taste is not very authentic," Jasmine said of her decision to open the 50-seat capacity eatery.

They are not the only Indonesians trying their luck in that business. There is an Indonesian restaurant in the state of Virginia which is owned by a daughter of former cabinet minister J.B. Sumarlin, Jasmine said.

And then, there is another one, a small nice restaurant called Satay Sarinah, owned by Christine Pribadi who has been in business for over 10 years.

At Jasmine's, the work is shared by the family members, including her mother and her sister. She said she only employs one person.

"Tandiyo is the cook," said Jasmine, adding that his East Java background dominates the restaurant menu.

"We serve different kinds of noodles, rawon (traditional beef stew), nasi pecel (rice with vegetables and peanut sauce) and sate kambing (roasted lamb)," she said.

As guests waited in line for the food to be served, some Indonesian music played in the background. Jasmine and her family were busy serving the guests and at times trying to fix an Indonesian wayang puppet that kept sliding down the wall.

One guest, Theresia Lewier, who has been living in the country for 10 years, said the food was good. "It's just a little too hot for my tongue," she said.

When asked how her restaurant would compete against popular ethnic restaurants, Jasmine confidently said her restaurant offers not only food but an Indonesian atmosphere.

"In the long run, I want to make this place become the center of gossip about Indonesia," she said with optimism in her eyes.

"People can talk about politics, economy and culture here," Jasmine added.

She said her target customers were Americans, but the restaurant would maintain an authentic Indonesian taste.

The family spent more than US$60,000 to start-up the business. After one month of preparations, the doors of "Jasmine" were opened to the public.

"We did all the paperwork and licenses by ourselves," she said.

Tandiyo gave some examples of American safety standards they had to meet, such as having a front door that can only be locked from the outside and the installation of drywall which can withstand fire for at least an hour.

Like Jasmine and her family, many Chinese Indonesians fled the country after the riots, which has resulted in criticism on the flight of capital.

Christianto, the father, said in his speech, that the family was not a conglomerate flying capital out of Indonesia.

"We are only small businesspeople who want to resettle in this country after a bad year," he said in front of a crowd of mostly Indonesians. Among the guests was the Indonesian ambassador to the U.S., Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti.

"We speak only some Chinese and that's why we don't open a Chinese restaurant," Christianto said.

He added they still wanted to contribute to Indonesia by opening the restaurant to be what he termed, a center of Indonesia.

Will the family return to Indonesia?

Jasmine answered: "Some day." Tandiyo, who was involved in a garment business before leaving Indonesia, was more up front.

"It was a very traumatic experience for us," he said. After a while he added, "maybe we will go back one day".

Javanese music was playing when the guests made their way out and wished the family lots of luck.