Lara Djonggrang Imperial Indonesian Cuisine
When you enter the restaurant, you will feel like you’re in a museum. A lot of statues, ethnic and antiques stuffs decorate the place, creating a mystical vibe around the place. The restaurant has many private rooms with different touch of decorations, such as: China Blue – decorated with Chinese ceramics and dominated by blue and red colors; La Bihzad bar – a cozy bar with huge antique pillars (it used to be pillars of an old temple), decorated with a repro-painting by La Bihzad on the wall and some imported antiques rice barns; Marilynn Monroe room – a private room embellished with Marilynn Monroe’s classic pictures on the wall; Bali room – a private room, perfect to have a formal meeting, decorated with some Balinese artifacts.
The main room is called Lara Djonggrang room, where the Lara Djonggrang statue is located. In the corner of the room, one can find a Buddha statue as well. Up above the wall, you can find some “wayang kulit” shadows, as if those shadows tell you a story of Lara Djonggrang. There’s one corner where you can find some antiques stuffs, “wayang golek”, small Buddha statues.
About The Menu
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Journeys through the regions during the times of the King Hayam Wuruk, who held the reign of the Kingdom of Majapahit at the beginning of the 14th century. Nagarakertagama chronicled the King’s expeditions to cover Pajang (1353 AD), Lasem (1354 AD), Lodaya (1357 AD), 1359 AD (Lumajang), and 1360, 1361, 1363.
Each of these dramatic royal expeditions, that took up to ten months at a time, had been composed by hundreds of troops and palace maids following the king and the queen on horses, elephants and horse-carriages.
Each expedition contains the following ceremonies:
- Pre-expedition ceremony with the cuisine experienced in the palatial compound.
- Gastronomic experience while dining with the regime of each district.
- Ceremonies in the temples paying tribute to the ancestors, the founder of the Kingdom of Majapahit, and thereafter followed by dinners presented by the local villagers.
- Ceremonial dining with the local villagers throughout the return voyage back to the kingdom capital.
- Blessing ceremony upon returning safe to the palace.
As the king travelled from one region to another, he was presented by his simple people with the awe-inspiring, delectable, vast varieties of dishes of the hinterlands.
As the royal expeditions continued to explore the coasts, they were dazed by the exotic richness of the cuisine that had developed in the coastal port cities that made the archipelago’s Silk Route. Through hundreds of years, the harbour cities of the archipelago, such as Samudra Pasai, Pidie, Pantai Barat Sumatera, Palembang, Sunda Kelapa, Banten, Cirebon, Semarang, Demak, Tuban, Gresik, Sumbawa Besar, Pontianak, Banjarmasin, Makasar, Selat Makasar, Ternate, Tidore, Perairan Maluku, Barus had been visited by the silk merchants who traveled back and forth between China and Europe. These cultural interactions had their significant influences on the indigenous, distinctive culinary resulted in these port cities.
Lara Djonggrang’s menu, blended with the mystical, romantic atmosphere where you are currently sitting in, we humbly present to remind the nowadays world, to bring back to life, and to pride ourselves with the unparalleled beauty of ancient Indonesia’s history.
Jakarta,25/3/2015
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