On course for fine dining at Gran Melia's Columbus

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