For those who want a Western-style feast with their relatives this holiday season but hope to skip the cooking, one option is family restaurant Kenny Rogers Roasters, currently offering a shepherd's pie meal.
Shepherd's pie is a traditional English dish, made up of ground lamb in gravy, with chopped vergetables and herbs, covered with mashed potato and, often, a gratin layer.
Kenny Rogers Roasters' very own shepherd's pie is a bit different from the original one, having been adjusted for local taste.
The potato-based dish is mixed with chopped broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, onions, chicken wieners and black pepper sauce before being baked to a golden brown.
"The black pepper sauce is our shepherd's pie signature sauce that you won't find in any other eatery," says Maya Santoso Utomo, general manager of Kenny Rogers Roasters Indonesia.
The mashed potato pie crust is applied with a pastry cone, resulting in a wavy texture.
The dish is served with a quarter rotisserie-roasted chicken, a side dish and a homemade muffin.
There are 13 hot and cold side dishes to choose from, including pasta, baked beans, fruit salad and tomato cucumber salad, while the restaurant has three tempting flavors of muffins: vanilla, chocolate and banana.
"We recommend our guests pick vegetables as the side dish, so they get complete nutrition in one plate, from protein to carbohydrates to vitamin, because we're very concerned with the concept of a wholesome meal," Maya says.
Kenny Rogers Roasters was established in 1991 by popular country and western singer Kenny Rogers and the former governor of the state of Kentucky, John Y. Brown Jr., offering roast chicken as the main menu item.
The chicken is marinated for about 30 hours in a herb and citrus mix before being slow roasted.
Maya says the chicken is a low-fat, low-salt, low-calorie dish.
"The chicken is skewered on a spit and roasted in a rolling motion. We ensure the fire doesn't scorch the chicken so it doesn't contain carbon, which is believed to be harmful for the body," she says.
Diners can choose the original chicken with either mushroom sauce or black pepper sauce.
The menu and the interior of the restaurant, in a predominantly red decor, really help create an ambience suiting the holiday season.
- JP/Triwik Kurniasari
