Not much taste of Thailand at Chinese restaurant
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