Indonesian resto enjoys elite patronage

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 06/25/2003 3:14 PM  |  Life

Zora Rahman, Contributor, Paris

In France, not much is as important as good food. At every corner in Paris, there are restaurants -- some of them with no more than three tables but all of them are occupied at almost all the time (except the morning, when French people prefer to soak their bread in giant bowls of milk coffee at home).

Only a few of these restaurants have exclusively French food: Many are Italian, Spanish and Greek bars, Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai restaurants, food from Maghreb, South Africa or Latin America. And among all these uncountable multicultural eateries, you would expect several Indonesian restaurants.

The best known one, the Restaurant Indonesia at Rue Vaugirard, is strategically situated in the middle of Quartier Latin, one of the most popular areas in Paris for going out. Just a few houses from the famed Odeon Theatre, and near the Jardin de Luxembourg and Sorbonne University, people almost automatically trip over the entrance sign by walking from one to the next Boulevard.

Consequently, it is not always easy to find an empty table in the two narrow, bamboo-decorated dining-rooms. Most of the guests are French people, like Olivier Chevalier, a lover of all kinds of Asian cuisine who found the recommendation for Restaurant Indonesia in a guide book of exotic restaurants in Paris.

The environmental engineer raves about the variety of the food: ""I love this Rijstafel, it is very nice to have ten courses paraded onto my table"". His wife Andra, a marketing expert, praises and enjoys the tastes of Southeast Asia just a few steps away from her favorite park, the Jardin de Luxembourg.

In accordance with French custom, the menu offers several fixed-price meals for around 10 to 15 Euros with at least three courses -- starter, main-dish and dessert.

Consequently some dishes, that are usually eaten together with others in Indonesia, take on new roles here: Soto Ayam (clear chicken soup), Gado-Gado (vegetables served with peanut sauce) or Urap-Urap (vegetables served with spicy grated coconut), for example, are served as hors-d'oeuvre on small plates. Everything can also be ordered as a single dish.

Adjusted to French preferences are as well are the so-called Indonesian aperitifs, sweet alcoholic drinks before the meal to stimulate the appetite. ""Indonesian Tonic"", for instance, consists of litchee liqueur, Indian Tonic and grenadine, ""Bali Blue"" of coconut milk, coconut liqueur and Curacao Blue. Freshly fried krupuk (replaces the usual peanuts and olives). Of course, there are also fruit juices, Indonesian tea or coffee, beer and a choice of French wine on the menu.

The rijstafel can be ordered in different large combinations, with meat or vegetarian style, with fried rice or nasi kuning (yellow rice). Everything, so far as possible, is prepared with fresh ingredients from the Asian market. The chicken in lemon sauce is very tender and slightly spicy, so are the satay and the fish in Bali sauce.

Nothing is as spicy as one would expect in Indonesia: Another concession to the tongues of the French customers, who prefer the taste of rendang (meat simmered in spices and coconut milk) without feeling the fire of chili to the tips of their hair. Nevertheless, it is no problem to have it spiced up to Indonesian tastes.

For dessert, the menu presents some Indonesian specialties beside fruit and ice-cream. The sweet dishes are not the strong point of the chef. The Kolak (sweet compote made of starchy fruits like bananas or cassava stewed in coconut milk and sugar) -- with banana as the only ingredient, does not satisfy the anticipation of somebody who knows what they taste like back in the archipelago. And the Tap (sweet cake made of slightly fermented rice or tubers) definitely does not have the same qualities as it does in Indonesia.

But maybe this is exactly what should be expected in a country with only a few hundred Indonesians living here. Although Paris has a huge choice of exotic markets, it is not real easy to get all the ingredients and seasonings that can be found at home. Restaurant Indonesia was established in 1982 and it was even more difficult to get some ingredients back then.

From the beginning, the restaurant has been organized as a co-operative by Indonesian exiles. As a result, they never got any support from the former Indonesian government. ""At that time, we urgently had to do something to survive. Because of the language problems and our abilities starting up our own restaurant seemed to be the best alternative"", says one of the founding members.

But in contrast to other Indonesian restaurants in Paris, Restaurant Indonesia still exists with only one surviving competitor. Nowadays, there are also students and younger people supporting the remaining older members of the cooperative, who still are alternately working at the restaurant, that has become their second home.

One of the reasons for this success might be the prominent customers, who penned their names and recommendations in the numerous guest books documenting the history of Restaurant Indonesia. For example Danielle Mitterand, wife of the former French president, who regularly had meetings with her organization, France-Libert, while dining Indonesian style. Or former Indonesian president Abdurrahman ""Gus Dur"" Wahid, who just passed by again during his last visit to Europe in May this year.

i-box:

Restaurant Indonesia S.C.O.P. Fraternit 12, Rue de Vaugirard 75006 Paris +33-01.43.25.70.22

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