Restaurant
Haka
Chinese Food Galore
(Jakarta Indonesia Series 13)
Chinese Food Galore
(Jakarta Indonesia Series 13)
We took a break after at a week of feasting
on delicious
Indonesian food, by dining on
in Restaurant Haka
that specializes in Chinese Cuisine located
in Glodong area
at Jakarta’s famous and historic Chinatown district.
The place had the typical Chinese
Restaurant ambiance and
had these round tables with revolving Lazy
Daisy table tops at the
center for easy access of the food being
served on the table.
Unfortunately, no one speaks English in the restaurant and
they even mistook us for Chinese tourists
as the waiter started
to us speaking Mandarin Chinese, which we
barely understood.
Despite the language barrier, we were pretty familiar with
most of the Chinese dishes that they served
as they are also our
hometown favorites and we wanted to see the
cultural variation
and refinement that they do, to conform
with the Indonesian taste.
We started our meal with a really greasy Wonton Soup
with vegetables served carelessly overflowing in a bowl.
The careless and inattentiveness to from
being prim and proper
is
what the authentic Chinese restaurants endear to the diners
who are looking for a genuine Chinatown
dining experience.
The dish looked a little gross and scary
because of the oil slick
floating on the soup. But looks can be deceiving-
it is the grease
that makes the soup very tasty and really
very, very yummy.
The popular street food called Kikiam, which are fried elongated
fish cakes served with sweet and sour sauce
was a perfect appetizer.
We also had Stir Fried Mushrooms which was served with
lots of fresh crunchy vegetables and tasted very delicious.
The Stir
Fried Beef with Chinese Pechay was
a perfect combination.
The sponge like stalks of the vegetable
neutralized the mustiness
of the beef and the it’s slightly bitter
taste added flavor to the dish.
The Steamed
Fish was very delicious. The tender white flesh
of the fish had a subtle taste of soya and
just a delightfully
piquant aftertaste of the Herbs
and Spices that topped the dish.
I cannot really tell whether the Spicy Shezuan Chicken
is a Chinese or an Indonesian dish. It had the
signature
sweet and sour goodness of what most
Chinese dishes but also
had
the flavorful spiciness of an Indonesian satay dishes.
Whatever it is, it was a perfect fusion of the
exotic Eastern and Far Eastern oriental
cuisines.
I don’t know how they call this Chinese
dish in Indonesia
but for
us Filipinos this is the classic and flavorful Pork Asado.
This dish had endeared to most of the Filipinos as it tastes
like
much our Pork Adobo which we consider our national dish.
And of course, no meal is complete in a
Chinese restaurant
without a noodle dish and we had a platter
of Pancit Canton.
I don’t know it they are called the same
way in Indonesia,
but this dish is so well loved by the
Filipinos as the Canton noodles
have
this pleasant roasted flavor aftertaste that lingers at the
back of your mouth long after you swallowed
the food.
Just like our previous meals in the city, we ended
our dinner with an Oriental Mixed Fruit Platter.
While Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese and Chinese dishes
are some of the Asian Cuisines that have
become very
popular
worldwide, Indonesian Cuisine surprised me.
I wouldn’t wonder if in the near future, it
could become
the next big thing in the International
Culinary World.
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