“One of the most remarkable things ….in Java is the “rice-table” [rijstaffel]
served at tiffin time [lunchtime] in a peculiar way such as is only seen in
Dutch colonies…... The dishes are handed
round by native servants, whose bare feet render the service very silent,
dressed in clothes of a semi-European cut incongruously combined with the
Javanese sarong……….”
From “JAVA THE
WONDERLAND” (Guide and tourist handbook dating back to the early 1900s)
A typical Rijstaffel luncheon during the early 1900s (Photo from Trompenmuseum)
68 years after our Dutch mothers left Indonesia for
Australia/NZ after WW2, my cousin Siane and I – both on flying visits to
Jakarta - meet up at the Oasis Restaurant on Jalan Raden Saleh for our first Rijstaffel
experience. Accompanied by her husband
Tim, she meets me precisely at the opening time of 6pm. We have to start early
as I am on my way to the airport, bags ready and waiting in the back of Pak
Ahmed’s car. “If I leave two and a half
hours before the plane departs, it should be ok” I wager as I play a mental
game of roulette against the infamous Jakartan traffic.
“For my
part, I shall never forget my first experience of the thing [rijstaffel]. I had just come in from a ride through the
town, and I suppose the glaring sunlight, the strangely-accoutred crowd, the
novel sights and sounds of the city must have slightly gone to my head (there
are plenty of intoxicants besides Gin....).
For our part, a refreshing G&T enjoyed in the bar lounge
of this grand Colonial building, built in 1928 as the private home of a Dutch
plantation owner, is just what is needed.
Notes from a set of
traditional gamelan musical instruments – at once chaotic and melodious - draw
us into the main hall off of which is the Kalimantan dining room where a large
chandelier hangs gregariously over the diners from the high, beamed ceiling, and casts a
golden light onto rich and elaborate fabrics hanging on the walls.
Rejected after Indonesian independence in the 1940s as an
example of colonial extravagance, I am aware of no other restaurant in modern
Indonesia where this kind of banquet - an elaborate Dutch adaptation of the
traditional local Nasi Padang - is served in the traditional manner with 12
waitresses offering up dish after dish.
A lavish spread or “Makan Besar” …….literally: “Big Eating”.
“I looked at the […] table groaning under its dozens of rice bowls,
scores of dishes of fowls and fish, and hundreds of sambal [chilli sauce] saucers, arrayed between pyramids of bananas, mangosteens and
pineapples, as if I could have eaten it all by way of “aperitif”
Round 1: The team in blue. Tim is
optimistic and all looks well
Like children suddenly faced with the agonising pleasure of
too much choice, wide-eyed, we hastily select everything: Red rice, white rice, soup, corn fritters,
fish, spicy chicken, spicy prawns, beef and chicken satay with peanut sauce,
bean curd with vegetables, deep fried beef, grated crispy coconut with peanuts,
Kerupuk (shrimp crackers), mixed sauteed vegetables in coconut gravy and……..no
less than four kinds of freshly made, fiery red sambal (chilli paste).
“[I] Sat … down [and] heaped my plate up with everything that came my
way…”
“What followed, I have no words to express. Suffice it to say, that in less time than I
now take to relate it, I was reduced to the most abject misery – my lips
smarting with the fiery touch of the sambal ; my throat the more sorely scorched for the hasty
draught of water with which, in my ignorance, I had tried to allay the
intolerable heat; and my eyes full of tears, which it was all I could do to
prevent from openly gushing down my cheeks in streams of utter
misery...........”
In the spirit of over indulgence, we progress eagerly to
round two. This time, emboldened by the now-full
restaurant’s lively atmosphere (it seems to be a favourite for expats and
Indonesians alike), and by a second glass of red wine, all four of the sambals find
their way onto our plates.
Round 2: The team in red.
Tim, a beaten man
It’s at this point that an otherwise elegant evening morphs,
somehow seamlessly, into the incongruous:
A group of four guitar-toting musicians
in traditional Batak (Northern Sumatran Tribal dress) move from table to table,
playing folk songs and draping their Ulos [traditional sarong) around our
shoulders.
A large 18th century gong in the main hall begs to be hit
“ People began to leave the table and I was told it was time for the
siesta – another Javanese institution, not a whit less important, it would
appear, than the famous rice-table......
Perhaps the preceding meal possesses somniferous virtue; or, perhaps the
heat and glare of the morning predispose one to sleep; or, perhaps – after so
many years of complaining about “being waked too soon” – the sluggard in us
rejoices at being bidden, in the name of the natural fitness of things, “to go
and slumber again”.
For us, there are no thoughts of slumber. Perhaps it is the sambal palpitations, or
perhaps the marginally cooler temperature of the evening (not the traditional time
for rijstaffel) or perhaps – after so many months of complaining about under-stocked
bars - the epicurean in me rejoices at
being able, in the name of the natural fitness of things, to have “just one
more glass” of that very respectable red.
Vowing to return again sometime for another multi-sensory
whirlwind feast, we say our goodbyes. Pak Ahmed nervously checks his watch before he
sets off down a system of “Jalan Tikus” (literally “mouse roads”) - narrow
lanes that snake between, beside and below the high rises and main throughways
of Jakarta - short cuts that he hopes
will get me out of the city proper and to the airport in time for my flight.
No sooner have I landed in my seat, than a deep and enduring
sleep hijacks my flight to HK.
The OASIS restaurant also serves Rijstaffel at the more
traditional lunchtime. But be warned:
“Even those who kick most vigorously at the rice-table, lie them down
with lamb-like meekness to the siesta.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
Jalan
Raden Saleh no. 47, Jakarta 10330, Indonesia
+62(021)
3150646
Monday
to Sunday: 11am - 3pm & 6pm - 10pm
No comments:
Post a Comment