If the Burmese proverb is true that 'a real chilli, seven fathoms under water, will still taste hot' then be prepared to go deep-sea diving at Causeway Bay's Restaurant Indonesia.
The writer William Marsden noted on a trip to Sumatra in 1783 how chillis seemed to be used in 'almost every article of food' - and Restaurant Indonesia is proof that, 200 years on, old habits die hard.
Indonesian cooking offers myriad tastes and textures from spicy curries and sambal to crispy rice cakes on nasi goreng (fried rice), now a standard hotel dish. However, not everything on the menu is destined to provoke spontaneous combustion. The cuisine blends Malay, Indian and Chinese spices with indigenous roots and flavours such as tamarind, turmeric, garlic and chilli.
The restaurant excels in simple, authentic dishes, and is packed from 6.30 pm onwards with local and Indonesian diners, a sure stamp of approval. One of my dinner companions was a Malaysian-Chinese, so I knew he would know a good laksa (spicy noodles) when he saw one.
What this restaurant lacks in decor is made up by the swift service and great food. Moreover, situated at the backdoor of Sogo department store on Lockhart Road, it serves as a perfect post-movie pit-stop, or shoppers' refuge.
The menu provides ample choice, from reasonably priced set menus at $218 for two, which include spicy chicken, curry, satay, rice and dessert, to the 13-item banquet: the rijsttafel.
The latter is more a challenge than a meal, originating from the Dutch words meaning 'rice table'. It was described, in 1912, by Augusta De Wit as a 'Dutch lunch that takes 23 men and a boy to serve'.
