The art of tasting food at Asuka

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sun, 10/21/2007 4:05 PM | Life

Susanna Tjokro, Jakarta

Countless restaurants offer Japanese cuisine in Jakarta, however, very few offer degustation menus. Meaning ""tasting"" in French, a degustation menu consists of several small courses often accompanied by a wine degustation. These days, degustation is associated with the art of tasting food.

For those with petite appetites, easily overwhelmed by Jurassic dishes, the degustation menu is a great way to sample various chef's signature dishes in just one sitting without filling to the brim.

Asuka, located at JW Marriott Hotel Jakarta, offers Japanese cuisine -- both a la carte and degustation menus. While in other restaurants, degustation may mean that the chef chooses what dishes he wants to serve you (so you may get some surprises), at Asuka, you will read the courses on the degustation menu beforehand.

Japanese cuisine is healthy food with natural flavoring, rather than artificial ingredients used to enhance the flavor of the dishes, so naturally the dishes are MSG-free.

While freshness is essential to a dish's quality of taste, proper preparation and skill also contribute to the dish's overall flavor.

Japanese chef, Miyazaki Yoshikatsu and assistant chef Bambang Heryanto are in charge in the kitchen. While Bambang has been involved with Japanese cuisine for 20 years, Miyazaki has been honing his culinary skills for 39 years.

The degustation menu will set you back Rp 700,000++, excluding wine and sake. A list of wines and sake has been carefully selected to complement each dish. For example, to accompany the scallop with Japanese green tea Soup, the chef recommends Japanese sake Hon Jozo (Rp185,000++ per glass) or Australian Chardonnay (Rp80,000++ per glass).

But the seemingly steep Rp700,000++ does include high-quality Japanese marbled beef, Matsuzaka, which is renowned for its flavor and remarkable tenderness.

""The chance of bumping into a restaurant serving Matsuzaka in Jakarta is very slim,"" says Bambang.

The pan seared goose liver with miso paste is an appetizer of buttery, delicate foie gras with the miso accompaniment to balance the rich flavor. The seared tuna with mustard sauce is perfectly prepared with just a hint of a searing on the outside leaving it deep-pink and tender on the inside.

The Wagyu beef with spicy sauce was next on the menu. Wagyu (""wa"" means Japanese and ""gyu"" means beef) should be served rare or medium rare. The beef was exquisitely tender and cooked to perfection, simply delicious. Served with spicy sauce -- a blend of flying fish roe, chili powder and mayonnaise -- the wagyu dish was a unique combination of flavors: salty yet slightly hot and sour.

Seafood fried rice and miso soup followed. The miso soup -- the traditional, healthy soup made of niban dashi (Japanese vegetable stock) mixed with black miso (fermented soybean paste) and added with tofu and wakame seaweed -- was divine.

Homemade chocolate cake, a refreshing homemade Green tea ice cream, and assorted fresh fruits served as the finale. The cake was crafted from luxurious Lindt dark chocolate and -- since the theme of the dessert was ""Green Tea"" -- a generous amount of green tea powder was sprinkled on top of the bittersweet cake. Simply sinful, it's a great way to end a meal.

To bring a spice of excitement, the degustation menu changes monthly. However, it is possible to order degustations of previous months. The degustation in this review is from September.

Asuka
JW Marriott
Jl. Lingkar Mega Kuningan
Kav. E I.2 No. I & 2
Mega Kuningan, Jakarta
Tel: (62 21) 5798 8888

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