Rocking the Casbah with the capital's latest food trend

By Maria Kegel

JAKARTA (JP): A Jakarta resident does not have to travel to Lebanon or Turkey to savor its delicious cuisine. Look no further than Central and South Jakarta, where several restaurants featuring food from the areas are taking the capital by storm.

In the past year alone, Jakarta has seen the appearance of four new restaurants that serve the two cuisines.

Their owners and chefs had mixed views as to the reason for their rise in popularity, but most agreed that the public were ready for a new taste, and the restaurants were satisfying that new niche market.

One of the newcomers, the Lebanon Restaurant, on the first floor of the Djakarta Theater building in Central Jakarta, has been riding the crest of that wave of interest since it opened in September.

Manager Robert Saleh said it came down to curiosity.

"People like to try new things. Mexican and Indonesian cuisines are far apart in taste, but people here are trying Mexican, and now it's our turn."

Habits are formed after people satisfy their curiosity, Saleh said, adding that the restaurant had many regular diners as well as new ones walking in.

"Everyone was surprised at how we could open a Lebanese restaurant in a country where people prefer hot and spicy food, as our cuisine consists of about 80 percent vegetables," he added.

Saleh said restaurants serving this cuisine were found all over the world.

"So when we opened this restaurant in Jakarta we didn't look only at having patrons from Arabic countries, although they come automatically, but we wanted to appeal also to European, American and Australian patrons."

And Indonesians, too. To date, customers from the Middle East make up 40 percent of the clientele, with 35 percent Indonesian and 25 percent from other countries, he said.

Chahid Youness, who has been the executive sous chef at the Al-Nafoura restaurant in the Meridien Hotel since it opened three and a half years ago, said their mix of customers was the other way around, with only about 20 percent Arabic, compared to the 30 percent who were Indian and Indonesian, while the majority were from Australia, America, France and Britain.

Al-Nafoura, which was the first restaurant on the scene to serve up Lebanese food (the veritable Sinbad on Jl. K.S. Tubun has been making mix of Yemeni and other Arab food for years), has been popular from the beginning, Youness, who is also from Lebanon, said, adding that its increasing monthly revenue was showing no signs of slowing.

Public relations executive at the Meridien Umayanti Utami S.R. added that Indonesian customers were open to trying new tastes, and that the increase of diners at the restaurant was part of a gastronomic trend toward the cuisine's unique flavors sweeping the city.

Business opportunity

Deepak Samtani, the owner of Anatolia restaurant in Kemang, the Turkish Cafe in Plaza Senayan and Mediterranean fast food outlet Tasty Bites and noodle eatery Chopsticks in the Jakarta Stock Exchange building, sized up the business opportunities in opening up his eateries.

"You see less of them (Middle Eastern restaurants here) that's why people want to go for something new. There's a lot of business opportunities right here."

In his case, Deepak said the market was right, but the main reason for the restaurants he opened (Turkish Cafe and Tasty Bites opened in the last few months) was that he wanted to expand into the restaurant business.

Laksmi Pamuntjak, a culinary expert and author of the Jakarta Good Food Guide 2001, said that there was a global trend of people dining out more and the realization that people's tastes were becoming more varied.

"There's a demand for different types of food as well as there is a sizable Middle Eastern and Mediterranean community in Jakarta and they see it as a very logical thing to come up with to cater to that market," she said.