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Jakarta’s Chinese chefs talk up New Year’s feasts
To help you manage the holiday, The Jakarta Post sat down with several hotel chefs to see what will be on offer at their restaurants or their signature Chinese kitchens.
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Chef Chai’s Treasure Pot at JIA at the Shangri-La Jakarta (Shangri-La Jakarta/File)
I
t’s been a busy – and festive – week, as people in Jakarta celebrate the back-to-back holidays of Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year’s Day.
Of course, the best way to see in the Year of the Dog, which starts on Friday, Feb. 16, is with a feast – or at least with a high tea surrounded by barongsai dancers.
To help you manage the holiday, The Jakarta Post sat down with several hotel chefs to see what will be on offer at their restaurants or their signature Chinese kitchens. We also asked some of these culinary masters about their personal memories and special favorite dishes for Chinese New Year.
Lion and dragon dancers will spread a festive spirit at the Shangri-La Jakarta on Chinese New Year’s Day, as the Lobby Lounge invites guests to welcome the Year of the Dog with a special Chinese-themed high tea in the afternoon from 3 to 6 p.m. on Feb. 16 and through to the end of the month.
On offer will be roast duck baguettes with barbecue sauce, open sandwiches of Hainan chicken, baked scallop stuffed-shrimp paste and bean-cured miso mayo, pan-fried beef tenderloin with sliced garlic bbq sauce, matcha and red bean cakes and sesame balls.
Meanwhile, SATOO, the hotel’s international buffet restaurant, will add Chinese specialties and Yee Shang (naturally) for Chinese New Year’s Day brunch.
It’s a busy time for the Shangri-La Jakarta’s Executive Chinese Chef, Christopher Chai. In a 26-year career, Chef Christopher has regularly spent his Chinese New Year’s Eves and Days working in the kitchen, but during his days off over the holiday, he says that he likes to take his family to dine out.
In an email interview, Chef Christopher said he really enjoyed bringing home Bak Kwa, a Chinese salty-sweet dried meat similar to meat jerky, but which is more moist and grilled to perfection over charcoal fire, and Nian Gao, a Chinese New Year sweet sticky rice cake made of glutinous rice flour that is steamed for many hours.
The essential dish for Chef Christopher, as always, is Yee Shang. “It is basically the Chinese salad eaten only once a year for the Lunar New Year celebration. The big plate consists of carrots, cucumber, turnip, radish, mango, ground peanuts, golden fried wonton, dyed dried vermicelli, lime juice and peanut oil.” Chef Chai adds slices fresh salmon, lobster and tuna for the special occasion.
Read also: A mash of Chinese New Year, cultural diversity in Surakarta
One of Jakarta’s finest fine-dining Chinese restaurants, Li Feng at the Mandarin Oriental, will be offering a special 12-course “Year of the Dog” set menu from Feb. 16 to 18 for lunch and dinner.
Li Feng, under Executive Chinese Chef Chang See Loy and one of China’s most notable chefs, Chef Fei, will be offering a Prosperity Yu Sheng, served with crispy fish skin and homemade sweet plum sauce, as well as gold swan dumplings with black pepper duck meat, the classic Beggar’s Chicken and baked lobster with cheese and XO sauce.
The Jakarta Post caught up with Chef Chang See Loy to ask about his celebrations for Chinese New Year.
Chef’s favorite dish for the holiday? Definitely Yu Sheng prosperity noodles. “It is a traditional Chinese New Year dish that is prepared by most Chinese families–and which is believed to bring good luck.”
Mixing the prosperity noodles is one of Chef’s favorite parts of the holiday. “Typically my family has a Yu Sheng salad and steamed hot pot to celebrate Chinese New Year. We usually recite certain Chinese phrases and sayings while we are adding and tossing the ingredients together.”
Until Feb. 18, Chef Eric Lau will be offering guests the chance to feast on signature Yu Sheng, with traditional Chinese set menus of “Reunite” with options for up to 10 people per table. On offer will be salmon Yu Shang, double-boiled sea cucumber with dried oyster and lotus root soup, deep-fried garlic-flavored crispy sesame-seed chicken, steamed marble goby with fragrant preserved vegetables, braised fat choy, abalone, sea cucumber and mushroom bailing with garden green and much more.
Forty-four-year-old Chef Eric, who hails from the foodie paradise of Penang, Malaysia, has spent many Chinese New Year’s Days away from home, whether working in Australia or Brunei or taking care of high-roller gamblers in the kitchens of hotel casinos in Singapore. Asked about his plans for the Year of the Dog, Chef Eric was phlegmatic: “Make my customers happy. My Chinese New Year is planning to work.”
Chef Eric’s favorite Chinese New Year memory? Running away with his angpao gift envelopes when he was around nine years old, instead of letting his mom deposit the money at the bank. “Sometimes you wanted to keep it,” Chef Eric says. “Go buy your ice cream, buy your fireworks….that year, my mother–she punished me,” he adds, smiling.
Read also: Thousands of lanterns light up Singkawang for Chinese New Year
Executive Chef Marco Riva at the Four Seasons Jakarta will be transforming the stunning space under the gorgeous, 13-meter-high cupola of Palm Court into an exquisite buffet spread to mark the arrival of the Year of the Dog, from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Feb 16.
Of course there will be Yee Shang, as well as beef shank to roasted rib eye, roasted duck, Peking duck, a lomien station and also traditional Chinese desserts.
DoubleTree by Hilton Jakarta – Diponegoro
DoubleTree by Hilton Jakarta – Diponegoro has exclusive, tailor-made offerings for Chinese New Year to celebrate the prosperous month. Festive dinner and lunch packages are on offer at OPEN} Restaurant on Feb. 16, featuring traditional flavors such as braised hoisom with taukan and sea moss, salted-egg prawns and other traditional favorites.
Read also: Nike, Converse to launch Chinese New Year collections
Le Meridien Jakarta is ushering the Year of Dog with a buffet dinner themed “Flavours of China” at La Brasserie Restaurant until March 4.
Roni Gunawan, Le Meridien’s hotel-trained chef of Chinese cuisine, has prepared dishes from several different regions in China, including Hong Kong-style steamed fish, soy chicken, Peking-style duck, and five-spice crispy chicken, along with Chinese-style sweet crepes, peach-and-strawberry bean curd and red-bean doughnuts. (kes)
