Fine China

Crystal Jade Palace serves authentic Chinese cuisine through diverse specialty dining concepts to preserve the rich traditions of Chinese cuisine. Edith Emeralda writes

wenty-five years ago, Crystal Jade Palace in Singapore was the beginning of the Crystal Jade Group. Today, there are 113 outlets in 25 major cities across the Asia-pacific region and the US with myriad specialty dining concepts starting from the casual eateries Crystal Jade La Mian Xia Long Bao, which focus on Shanghai cuisine, up to Crystal Jade Kitchen, with its Hong-kong-style Cantonese dishes, and My Bread, which blends the best of East and West.

On the fine-dining and modern- Chinese side, there are Crystal Jade Palace, Golden Palace, Dining In and the Singapore-exclusive Prestige. Jakarta has its very own Crystal Jade Palace, located centrally in Grand Indonesia’s East Mall, with its vast main dining hall and 10 private rooms decked out in Chinese ornaments and rich colours. Shannon Masrin, Crystal Jade’s partner in Indonesia, and her long-time friend, Debbie Sastra, sat down with Indonesia Tatler one afternoon in the main hall to enjoy authentic Cantonese fare.

Besides the regular menus, only on Chinese New Year do diners get to order two

specialty festive dishes— yu sheng and the “18-treasure pot.” The huge clay pot is a family-style dish containing deliciously thick gravy in which sea cucumber, fish maw, mushrooms, oysters, roast duck, roast pork, white cabbage, bean curd, radishes, squid balls, live prawns, black moss, dried scallops, fresh scallops, broccoli and lotus roots are cooked.

As for yu sheng, the colourful salmon dish symbolising abundant prosperity in the new year consists of white radishes, carrots, red peppers, turnips, red pickled ginger, sun-dried oranges, key-lime leaves, Chinese parsley, chili, jellyfish, chopped peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, Chinese shrimp crackers or fried dried shrimp, fivespice powder and other ingredients aside from the sauce—plum sauce, rice vinegar, kumquat paste and sesame oil—totalling 27 components altogether.

Both Shannon and Debbie usually visit relatives, dine together and perform other traditions with their families during Chinese New Year. “I usually follow my husband’s family customs, although sometimes we can’t really visit all the relatives,” Debbie said. Shannon agreed with her that the traffic in Jakarta makes