Food Cult: The Asia Restaurant

Last month we celebrated Teachers’ Day at one of the most prestige hotel in Jakarta, The Ritz Carlton Jakarta.

It was Friday and the commute from our school to the venue was awful. Trust me, when a Jakartan like me said awful, it’s really really damn awful. But we did not want to be ungrateful. So we tried  our best to enjoy what were served and not to compare to our usual, teachers’ day dinner at Hotel Mulia.

I had to say, Restaurant Asia, which located on ground floor of RC Jakarta, Mega Kuningan had better Fish Market section than Hotel Mulia. I was there with my friend who was a seafood lover. She dragged me to this section even before we found our tables. But it was nothing to regret about. While my friend was choosing her type of fish to be grilled, I pointed at these squids for the chef to grill. Hmmm…. In no time, I could smell the mouth-watering burnt squid from the grills. I could even smell it now through my imagination. After the sous-chef finished grilling my squids, the other chef, sauted them for awhile in a wok. Oh. I could smell the fragrance of onion, chilli and some basil leaves being cooked.

It took them less than 10 minutes to get my dish ready. I happilly accepted the plate that they handed over to me. Hmmm… looks good. And to my delight, they provided types of sambal as the codiments. So, I took a spoonful of Sambal Dabu-Dabu, Sambal Mangga and Sambal Matah. Yes, I tried 3 out of 5 types of sambal that they provided. hehehe… Not so long after mine, my friend’s grilled white snapper was ready. She took Sambal Mangga and pour it on top of her fish. Hmmm.. that looked yummy as well.

We then finally found our table. Deciding that this was actually not a good starter, we headed for the sushi section. If you were like my friend, you’d love the sushi section. They provided fresh salmon cuts, shrimps, and white squids with lemon zest and selection of mayonaisse. I saw her eating her choose-by-herself sushi platter while I had to be content to my safe selection, avocado roll, californian roll, and some others that I did not even know their names but I knew they would not make my tummy upset.

After we felt a bit civilized, having a proper starter, we started enjoying our seafood. hmm… they were just right for me. And the sambals were awesome. Not so spicy but surely gave rich additional flavour to my grilled squids.

I then decided to browse around, greeting others friends, finding out what they were eating and hunting down some food that they said “verry-goodd”. So I came back surprising my friend with a plate full of these fats. LOL. Among the recommended were grilled onion (which I did not touch, sorry food), beef and chicken sausage with green, yellow and red pepper bells, roasted chicken, roasted turkey and a piece of grilled potato (which, I did not touch as well, sorry again). I poured some bbq and tomato sauce on the side. The taste was not spectacular, but it was not a disappointment. People who love red meat must love these too.

I felt three-quarter full and decided to get some soup to balance the heavy taste. Unfortunately, I did not find their soup my taste. Well, they served, clear soup, asparagus cream soup, crab and clam with clear broth soup, chinese noodle with soup.. but none was perfect for me until I found bakso! Or should I say meatballs with clear soup. hehehehe….  Oh, I like this. I bet all Indonesian love this type of soup. The claimed that the meatballs were freshly made with a wagyu beef. Oh wow. really? It did taste wonderful. And the clear soup was hot and light with a bit crunchy taste from the fried onion that I poured in. Just right after a heavy meal that I just had. People usually added glass noodle in it. But I preferred it clear and with meatballs only. yummm…. 🙂

I felt we were done eating after we finished this bowl of soup. It was not Tom Yum soup that we usually had at Hotel Mulia, but it was acceptable. People were starting to get full, hence started to sing with the band. Some teachers got up their seats, loosen their feet and dance along the beats. Nice atmosphere, I’d say. We were about to call it a day when my other friends asked me to accompany her to the dessert section. Oh no! hahahaaha… of course, dessert! How could I forget?

It was fine sight, the dessert place. There were 8 selections of ice creams. I chose chocolate chips and rum raisin with additional raisin on the side. They also provided sprinkles, dust sugar, cornflakes, dried raisin and some others to be poured on top of the ice creams. I chose some Indonesian fried balls. I dipped them into dust sugar. ohhh… they were lovely. I got three of them, hahahaha… greedy me! For healthier choice, there were selection of fruits, normal fruits and some exotic tropical fruits. I took one, but forgot the name of this fruit, do you remember what was the name of this fruit? There were also lines of lines of cakes. Ugh. I did not get any. But I was certain that you could find anything you want, I guess. Instead I chose jelly with some black berries and a slice of orange. The color was great. That was the reason I took it. And oh! I actually did not want to eat chocolate, but their foundue was soooo inviting. So, I took some dried peaches with my stick and showered hem with melted chocolate.. wooohhoo… hehehe…

Ahhh… what a dinner! Though I still missed Hotel Mulia’s Tom Yum Soup, but I settled with this full tummy for now. Praise the Lord for His blessings 🙂

Visit Jakarta. And when you were starving do come and dine in here.

Asia Restaurant, The Ritz-Carlton Jakarta, Mega Kuningan

Jl. Lingkar Mega Kuningan Kav. E.1.1 No.1, Mega Kuningan, Jakarta