WHEN in Java is hard to find restaurants that provide grain “rijstafel”, especially outside Java! However, it is surprising, it turns out this dish is still found in a hotel in Pematang Siantar, North Sumatra. A town in the interior of Sumatra.
At first a word from a friend that Siantar Hotel, a hotel, never provide Indonesia with a good menu of European-style menu, or commonly called rijstafel it. Curious about this dish, Compass staying at the hotel was built in 1916, or nearly a century old. Rijstafel package is not found in the hotel restaurant menu list of foods and beverages while Europe and Indonesia are also scattered there.
“There sir. Please if you want the message, “said Defril, a waiter in the restaurant, when asked about rijstafel. He explained, had long since there was no package on the menu, but they still serve guests who book rijstafel.
Those who book mainly foreign tourists joined in the tour package. Of course, those who ordered the tourists generally had parents who have memories of the archipelago.
Rijstafel in Siantar Hotel consists of 12 food and beverage menu. Menu as much as it consisted of one form of cream of mushroom menu as appetizers, nine meals in the form of vegetables and side dishes as the main menu, and two cover a cocktail menu and beverage options in the form of tea or coffee.
Nine main meal consisted of shrimp crackers, ca bean sprouts, potato chips and anchovy, oyster sauce seafood seasoning, ve jackfruit, beef satay, fried chicken, and a plate containing a packet of salted eggs and fried bananas mendoan, and also provided the pickled cucumber and pineapple. This package was quite “overwhelming”. Orders for two people apparently sufficient for five people.
Buyer may spend 11 to the price of food is only Rp 85,000. This price is very cheap compared with rijstafel packages are offered at a number of restaurants and hotels on the island of Java.
Guests who want rijstafel package should call and reserve in advance one hour earlier. Restaurant chefs have to prepare the food and drink one after another. At least it took about 45 minutes to wait for the food is ready at the dinner table.
Once you sit in a colonial-style restaurant with large windows and door, a dish of cream of mushroom would be served at the table. Like the opening menu, this cream invite you to eat foods next.
Done with the opening menu, the main menu immediately presented. Waiters will be on guard not far from your desk, a typical colonial style, and will get rice every time you see an empty plate. Looking at the menu and it’s very Java, such as the existence mendoan and sate the taste is very sweet. I do not know, how old it is present in the Java sense Pematang Siantar.
Flavor foods with little to distinguish rijstafel in Java is the presence of food by a waiter called ve. Although the colors and materials were somewhat similar to the ve in Java, this meal felt more like curry, very spicy. This is different in Java ve a tasty and instead tend to salty.
Which is also unusual is the presence of fried bananas in the main menu. This menu is unusual because usually a menu of fried banana cover. Are chefs wrong place?
“It’s like that, sir,” he said. Ah, it seems that indeed the londo ancient custom like that. Sometimes a banana is in the main menu. Banana went into the mouth in the crowd of rice after the waiter said that once people are like that Dutch food.
After the main menu, the menu covers a cocktail served. This cocktail consists of a variety of fruit pieces, from papayas, bananas, watermelon, until the pineapple. Once satiated, the presence of a cocktail is refreshing.
In the menu that really be the cover, the waitress who had been remained faithful stood not far from the dining table would offer a drink of tea or coffee. Somewhat different, in addition to the two types of beverages, it will be also presented a small cup of sweet milk. In North Sumatra, drink tea and coffee mixed with milk is very commonly found.
Rijstafel, serving a variety of Indonesian food with good European menu, the wealth of the Indonesian nation. If no one menghidupinya, will likely be lost, like some food in Siantar Hotel is no longer known as the old restaurant chef could not bequeath it to the chef’s knowledge of his successors.