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Plated acculturation: From foie gras on ‘martabak’ to beef ‘semur'
As we approach Indonesia’s 75th Independence Day on Aug. 17, let us think about how to celebrate. How about by savoring Indonesian food?
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s we approach Indonesia’s 75th Independence Day on Aug. 17, let us think about how to celebrate. How about by savoring Indonesian food? Especially in this uncertain time, when playing traditional games with many people like in previous years may feel unsafe.
A few courses of Indonesian food, well-prepared and combined with special ingredients, could uplift our mood in this difficult time, while showing appreciation for the archipelago’s rich culinary heritage.
Food writer, food stylist and F&B consultant Ade Putri Paramadita recently teamed up with Acta Brasserie – a newly opened restaurant in South Jakarta’s Senayan area – to create a special menu that highlights acculturation in Indonesia.
In the creation of the menu, Ade – who was the local guide of Gordon Ramsay on the Indonesia episode of the National Geographic Channel’s series Uncharted – works closely with Rui Yamagishi, a Balinese-Japanese chef at the helm of Acta.
Ade said it was very difficult to choose just a few of the numerous Indonesian foods.
“We eventually chose the food that most people can find in their daily lives, to avoid having to explain the foods with much difficulty. [And, as] Rui is going to tweak the presentation of each food, it is better if people already know the original look of each food, so that they will be able to compare the real version with the tweaked ones,” Ade told The Jakarta Post.
The tweaking could be as simple as using thick bumbu pecel (Javanese style peanut sauce for vegetable salad) sandwiched between tiny burger buns. Or, using foie gras as topping for egg martabak, an Indian-inspired Indonesian pancake popular as an after-hour heavy snack.
Adding a special ingredient such as foie gras to an Indonesian dish, according to Ade, is a way to attract more attention to Indonesian food, especially from those who are less appreciative.
“We try to juxtapose the original version of the [Indonesian] food with what is sometimes expected by consumers from certain market segments,” said Ade, adding that combining foie gras with martabak required skill.
She went on to say that the foie gras could only be used as topping for the martabak, rather than being used in the pancake mixture.
“[…] so that the foie gras can still stand out as its own,” said Ade, who had decided with Rui that the egg martabak was to be filled with wagyu beef and tofu.
Another Indonesian dish tweaked by the duet is the Chinese-influenced asinan Betawi (Betawi-style vegetable salad with peanut sauce).
A common asinan Betawi features cabbage, beansprouts, cucumber, carrot, lettuce and steamed tofu with peanut sauce and yellow noodle crackers. But guess what Rui did to his version of asinan Betawi: He tucked the cabbage, beansprouts, lettuce and tofu inside long, thin shaves of cucumber and carrots that are neatly rolled. And on top of the roll, Rui put on pomegranate seeds, tamarind gel and parsley. But the icing on the cake is the fried soft-shell crab to replace the yellow noodle crackers, that gives the same crispy texture but more elevated flavor.
“I have to say it’s very clever of Rui to use the soft-shell crab,” said Ade.
Rui, who graduated from Le Cordon Bleu Sydney with working experiences in Australia’s renowned Bentley Restaurant & Bar and Rockpool Bar & Grill, among other restaurants, said that cooking Indonesian food was definitely more challenging than all the food he had cooked during his career in Australia.
He said that Indonesian dishes were intriguing and fascinating especially because the archipelago was blessed with unique ingredients throughout the islands.
“For me, to make authentic [Indonesian] cuisine is way more challenging than modern progressive cuisine, because there are a lot of guidelines and rules that you have to follow,” said Rui.
Aside from the egg martabak and asinan, Rui’s collaboration with Ade also resulted in three other dishes. All five dishes will be offered as a five-course menu titled “Acta Tempo Doeloe” to celebrate Independence Day on Aug. 15 and 16 at Acta Brasserie.
The main course, beef semur (beef stew), also represents a result of acculturation. Rui’s version sees grilled wagyu short ribs at the center of the plate, surrounded with curry puree, rice crackers and honey-glazed carrots. Meanwhile, the typical semur seasoning rich in spices and sweet soy sauce is presented as the sauce for the meat.
According to Fadly Rachman, a lecturer at Padjajaran University in Bandung, West Java, and author of Jejak Rasa Nusantara: Sejarah Makanan Indonesia (Archipelago Flavor Trail: The History of Indonesian Food), semur was first introduced to Indonesia by the Dutch. However, the Dutch people themselves adopted the dish from the German’s schmoren or schmorbraten, which means braising the meat.
“This is a classic German technique in cooking, adopted by the Dutch and brought all the way to Indonesia where the people pronounce it ‘semur’,” Fadly told the Post over the phone.
The uniqueness of semur brought by the Dutch, Fadly continued, lay in the skill of combining European cooking technique with Indonesian spices, such as nutmeg and pepper, as well as the sweet soy sauce, which resulted from acculturation with the Chinese Peranakan people.
