Not much taste of Thailand at Chinese restaurant
JAKARTA (JP): Recently I was handed a fax telling me about a restaurant's new Thai food promotion. So the next time I had a night off, I collected two expert friends of mine -- one of them has traveled extensively in Thailand, and the other is an admirer of Tom Yum Kung, spicy Thai prawn soup -- and went to investigate.
The Hua Ting Chinese Restaurant, in the Millennium Hotel near Tanah Abang, has refined the classic tacky luxury look. It features lots of mirrors, wood veneer, brass door handles, pink linen tablecloths and plastic flowers.
Obviously I did not read the fine print on that fax because it is, of course, a Chinese restaurant, and there are those ink paintings of fish and bamboo and soporific Chinese flute music. Then they handed us Chinese food menus.
So, where was the Thai food then? I would like some Tom Yum Kung.
Sorry, no Tom Yum Kung.
OK, what's this Tantalizing Thai Steamboat we see promoted on these plastic cards on the table?
"You really want to try the Thai steamboat?" we were asked. The way that "really" was placed made us hesitate. What is wrong with the steamboat, I thought, wondering what a steamboat was.
"You have to cook it yourself," the waiter explained, pointing to some gas burners set up on a couple of tables. Apparently it was like a hot pot, in which you cooked Thai things.
An amount of discussion ensued, accompanied by a beer (Rp 24,000) and some delicious complimentary side dishes -- pickled chili, tofu and chili.
To the mysterious relief of the waiter, we decided to eat something from the Chinese menu. This was OK by me, too. I had not had any real Chinese food for a while, and the whole luxurious tackiness of the place reminded me of the time I spent in Beijing and all the good food I had there.
We ordered some Sichuan hot and sour soup. While in China, I learned to be careful of any dish claiming to be from Sichuan. That province's food is often really good, but they put little red chilies in everything.
But there was not a single shred of chili in our soup. It was sour (in a good way), and was full of tofu and some kind of fungus and little noodles. Although someone from Sichuan may not have recognized it, the soup was pretty good.
Then we had black pepper beef, sweet and sour pork, some loh hun tofu and vegetables for our vitamins, and deep-fried duck with yam paste.
Everything was brought over and presented, and then separated into three portions -- very un-Chinese like -- by the team of waiters, who would excuse themselves every time they gave one of us food.
The beef, which came sizzling on a hot plate, was at first delicious, but as I continued to eat, the taste became less interesting. The tofu, my friend explained, was too soft, but the vegetables in the dish were fresh and well cooked.
Then, the duck arrived. The idea was apparently to shred it and mix it with sweet potato. Sounds interesting. But then it was fried probably a bit too deep, and had surfaced crispy on the outside but incredibly greasy in the middle. It was, admittedly, eaten, but so was the cucumber decoration around the outside of the plate.
The head waiter came over to have a chat. We all agreed with him that next time we should perhaps order the Peking duck, and that this would probably be delicious. It costs Rp 160,000 for two people, and they apparently do not do the little pancake things to wrap the duck with, but they used to.
But our meal was winched out of the mud by the good old sweet and sour pork. This we ate with enthusiasm. It had a pineapple- based sauce that was sour as well as sweet, the pork was tender with a little bit of batter and the vegetables were fresh and not overcooked. By all accounts it was the best thing we ordered.
Full, we sat back and listened to the waiters apologizing for taking our plates away and handing over the bill, Rp 320,000 for three people, including two beers each.
-- Epicurus