9 courses in 90 minutes

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For a variety of reasons I have neglected Goldfinger this year, and that's not a nice way to treat a friend. Thankfully B Bestie extended an invitation to a dinner at Andō for their collaboration with the team from August in Jakarta, giving me the opportunity to at least show my face...

As friends sharing my table were late, I had some time to chat with Chef Hans Christian and partner Budi Cahyadi. I admitted that, amazingly, I have never made it to Jakarta... as I followed the advice of Indonesian friends to go elsewhere. I've transited through the capital city's airport on my way to more remote parts of the country, but not made my way through the infamous city traffic...

A few days ago, I discovered to my horror that I had a board meeting to attend tonight. I suggested to B Bestie that I would just pass up dinner as I would have to leave the restaurant early, but he promised that the kitchen could speed things up for me, and there was plenty of time as long as I started at the appointed time of 6:30 p.m. Well... some people were pretty late in getting to the restaurant, and by 7 p.m. I decided I needed to start without them.

This "welcome drink" was apparently a "cold brew tea" based on lemongrass and ginger along with some grapefruit juice. Unfortunately I didn't like it... as it tasted medicinal.

Then came four snacks:

Scallop, carrot, Kristal caviar - I was told that Alaskan pink shrimp was in the tart, even though the menu said scallop... We've also got a layer of carrot and passion fruit jelly, topped with caviar from Kaviari. This was definitely fragrant and fruity thanks to the passion fruit.

Beef tartare, waffle, escabeche - the tartare sat on a thin waffle and came topped with ribbons of pickled cucumbers and chilis. The waffle was nice and crispy, and the beef was fragrant with spices.

Balfegó tuna Trout, ginger flower - they substituted trout from Hokkaido for the sustainable bluefin tuna (which I would have accepted), and this was seasoned with smoked soy sauce and fragrant ginger flower oil.

Carabinero skewer, grapes, laksa - they sandwiched a peeled grape that had been smoked in between two chunks of carabinero, and we were meant to dip them into the laksa sauce on the side.

Noodle, jelly fish, cakalang - these chewy noodles are known as mie karet for their rubber-like texture, and they were served cold along with strips of crunchy jellyfish, and a generous sprinkle of floss made from cakalang - otherwise known as bonito or skipjack tuna.

This was very fragrant, and I thought there might have been kaffir lime leaves in the mix. There was some acidity to go along with the savory and umami flavors of the fish floss, which was nicely done. I really, really loved this dish.

Lobster, saffron pancake, shallot, shimeji mushrooms - well... yes, the homard bleu de Bretagne is a nice dish to have, and Goldfinger was kind enough to reprise his role, but... looking at the amount of gold on my lobster, it's pretty obvious that not enough love given results in not enough received.

There was a "saffron pancake" underneath - no idea what that was - with shallots and "Japanese mushrooms".

The lobster was very nicely executed, and I found comfort in the familiar flavors of the saffron-infused sauce. Nothing to complain about.

Suzuki, bilimbi broth, baby local green, pearl onion - the Japanese sea bass was, unfortunately, rather on the fishy side. As a result it really needed the bilimbi sauce - with its fruity acidity - to help neutralize those fishy flavors. It's not an exaggeration to say that the sauce really made (or saved) the dish.

Spanish lamb, garbanzo, caramelized curry, green sambal - I guess they substituted chickpeas for the garbanzo beans as that was how this was introduced. The "curry" was made with caramelized galangal.

The Spanish lamb was pretty intensely lamby, and it really needed the green sambal on the side to make it work. It's not everyday that I run into a piece of lamb that I find to be too much for me.

Apparently these guys received a special batch of Yi O Rice from the current harvest for this collab event.

Arroz caldoso, soto, spiced coconut broth, beef tripe, tendon - the team from August added some coconut into the broth, and this version featured beef tripe and tendon, which was very crunchy and bouncy.

The paste that was mixed into the bowl was made with garlic, chili, shallots... which had a spicy kick with pretty heavy flavors, but it was really nice.

White peach, peach sorbet, verbena foam, shiso and mint gel - we have different textures of Japanese white peach, including diced fruit, sorbet, and sauce. We've also got a little gel on the side made with mint and perilla leaves. The verbena leaves were very fragrant and nice, and the tuile made with rice flour was very delicate.

Chocolate, sea salt and caramel tea, cocoa nibs, dark rum sponge cake - it was difficult to see what was underneath the thin and translucent tuile other than the warm chocolate foam made with 62% dark chocolate.

We had rum sponge cake with ice cream made with sea salt and roiboos tea. A very rich way to finish, with a good temperature contrast.

Finally, we had the mignardises:

The bon bon was made with coffee and gula melaka. This was nice, but I was really hoping for a lot more gula melaka flavor and sweetness in the liquid center.

Crema catalana tart

Turrón ice cream

Tonight I was served 9 courses and I finished my meal in 90 minutes, and this was honestly a lot of food to stuff into my system in such a short time. As I briskly walked back to the office for my meeting, I felt a little unwell... but I survived.

Very grateful for the kind invitation for tonight, and hopefully one day I'll make it to Jakarta and pay Hans and Budi a visit.