Healthy food: Vegetarian dish

Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sun, 07/20/2008 10:38 AM  |  Lifestyle

For eons, religions have taught the faithful to eat right.

Observant Jews, for example, must keep kosher, which requires food items meet certain specifications, while Muslims have halal food, prohibiting the consumption of pork and alcoholic beverages. And in the Old Testament, God banished Adam and Eve for eating the wrong fruit.

Theology aside, finding healthy food can be costly. Organic goods, in particular, are more expensive because cultivating fruits and vegetables without pesticide is an arduous and time-consuming task.

If you find yourself in Los Angeles, check out Native Foods, an organic vegetarian store in Westwood Village, near UCLA. Native Food's vision is to promote greater health, compassion for all living beings and environmental conservation.

Among its best-selling items is the Bali Surf Burger, a grilled tempeh patty served on a whole wheat bun.

After tasting it, I felt guilty about having once mocked a TVRI report on the local invention of tempeh burgers. As it turns out, Indonesia has been making trendy health-conscious food for decades.

Nevertheless, Jakarta, long considered a food mecca, has not been known to cater to vegetarians, vegans or the weight conscious in search of guilt-free food.

That is changing, however. One sign of the times is Jakarta's big chain hotels, where vegetarian platters have become mandatory on some menus. Take the Shangri-La Hotel, for example.

"Our head office, the Shangri-La International Management, has required all restaurants in our hotels, down to the basement canteen, to serve a minimum of five vegetarian dishes," Shangri-La Jakarta spokesman Yuska Tuanakotta said of the guideline, which has been in effect for at least a year.

At Rosso, the hotel's Italian restaurant, a vegetarian menu is available for both lunch and dinner.

To start off, try the Rosso Tropical, made of orange and banana juice mixed with honey -- quite filling and healthy too.

The vegetarian set menu consists of a choice of antipasto (starter), soup and a pasta or risotto.

Starters consist of vegetable millefoglie with cheese sauce, grilled vegetables with greens and an apple balsamic vinaigrette or a marinated artichoke salad with castel magno cheese.

For your soup, choose between tomato with mozzarella and basil ravioli or green pea with asparagus and truffle oil. A soup of the day is also available, at select times.

Main dishes include risotto ferron with a porcini and parmesan cheese sauce, eggplant and taleggio ravioli with fresh tomatoes and thyme, homemade chitarrine pasta with vegetable carbonara, and polenta with wild mushroom and gorgonzola sauce.

Chef Alessandro Santi, from Italy, said that 70 percent of the restaurant's ingredients are imported from his native country.

"For example, the artichoke is imported. Now is the season for artichoke. If it's not in season, then the price would be higher," said Alessandro, who aims for an authentic Italian taste at Rosso.

In order to prepare healthier foods, Rosso uses olive oil from Liguria in most of its dishes. "Liguria, which has nice weather all year round, has the best olive oil and basil in the world. Pesto was born there," he said.

"I rarely use butter, which is basically fat."

As it turns out, the choice to eat healthy is yours to make in Jakarta, as many places here now cater to the health conscious.

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