On course for fine dining at Gran Melia's Columbus

JAKARTA (JP): Perched on one side on the 14th floor of the Gran Melia hotel is the Columbus restaurant. As you step in the doorway, there is a very high wall, perhaps one or two floors up, and the ceiling slopes down to waist level as it meets the wall on the opposite side.

The sloping ceiling is almost entirely made of wood, save the last few meters which are glass that transform into one large window. At the window are cozy tables for two. Although these tables are close to each other, they are separated by pillars which provide privacy.

Huge paintings of ships at sea adorn the large wall, and I immediately thought of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, The Ancient Mariner. Above the paintings were doors that opened onto tiny balconies. Often during the meal, I would look up almost expecting Juliet to appear and say her famous line, "Romeo, Romeo where for art thou?"

There were a few artificial trees as though to create a sense of being out on a terrace. We sat next to a knight in shining armor, literally. The decor was definitely ancient South European. It was the waiters, and the excellent service that they provided, that reminded me that we were in Indonesia. The waiters, dressed smartly in white jackets with ties that matched the lapels of red satin with gold paisley batik, were helpful and prepared to make variations to the dishes ordered.

There is a vocalist on Saturday, a pianist on Sunday, Monday and Friday and a guitarist on other days.

Columbus serves South European cuisine. We were recommended to take the Gourmet Menu, which at Rp 155,000++ was a steal when compared to the a la carte prices. The Gourmet Menu is changed every six months. There was also a Specialty of the Day that serves whatever is in season, such as oysters, and is priced between Rp 58,000++ and Rp 94,000++.

Bread rolls topped with herbs were served almost immediately, and we got a continuous refill of iced water. There were four accompaniments for the bread: tapenad, a Spanish paste which is made from black olives and anchovies, olive oil with herbs, olive oil with chili, and whole garlic. The whole garlic was the best of all -- it was mild and warm and had apparently been in the oven for six hours. The cloves of garlic go very well with the potato bread rolls; one has a tendency to get carried away as the waiters keep replenishing the bread and its accompaniments.

The first course, duck terrine with raspberry sauce with oak leaves on the side, was offered with compliments of the chef. This was a piece of duck breast enveloped in a terrine made from minced chicken blended with egg yolk, cream, salt and pepper.

All the courses came elegantly served on a white plate or bowl with a royal blue band on the edge, with gold trimmings.

I asked the maitre d'hotel to recommend the four courses. The first course from the menu was salad of bay scallops and king prawns with mango dressing. It was an enormous portion for an appetizer, with four scallops and four grilled king prawns garnished with frisee and cherry tomatoes. The mango sauce, made from mango puree, vinegar and olive oil, was tangy and tantalizing.

In between courses we enjoyed looking at the menu because it contained lithographs and little snippets of the adventures of Columbus. It tells of how he persuaded the benefactor to fund his voyage to Asia through a westward passage of the Atlantic. There was a beautiful sepia map of the New World on the inside back cover. The ships on the wall must be the Santa Maria, the Nina and the Pinta that Columbus sailed in.

The next course was bouillabaisse which was made from a rich stock of sea bass bones. It was once a poor man's dish but has now been glorified into fine dining cuisine. There were diamond- shaped tomatoes, and pieces of scallops, salmon and sea bass. Served with aioli (made with mayonnaise, lots of garlic and olive oil) on croutons, the meal transported me back in time to the summer we spent in Provence, which is home to this delicious soup.

The main course was sea bass topped with a white wine cream sauce and served on a bed of fennel tossed in raspberry vinaigrette. This was accompanied by carrots which were shaved into flowers, potatoes and broccoli florets.

To round off a memorable Southern European experience of fine dining, we had the traditional crepes suzette with vanilla ice cream. The orange juice added zest to the dish. This was followed by coffee and sweets.

The Business Lunch Menu is popular with the lunchtime crowd, made up mostly of people from the embassies along Rasuna Said. One has a choice of two courses at Rp 85,000++ or three courses at Rp 95,000++. There is a choice of four items in each course. For the main course, you can choose between Spanish seafood paella, pan-fried fillet of salmon with sauteed leek in green peppercorn sauce, grilled lamb chops with zucchini-eggplant tart or carving of the day. The menu comes with freshly brewed coffee or tea and assorted sweets.

-- Epicurus