CUISINE ON A SHOESTRING
Savor spices, prices at Bali, Zaffron buffets

By Matthew Gray
Advertiser Restaurant Critic

This month, we'll take a look at two interesting buffets that are easy on your wallet and pleasing to your taste buds.

Waiter Chris Chiu delivers exotic drinks at Bali Indonesia, 1901 Kapi'olani Blvd. The restaurant's luncheon and dinnertime buffets feature such offerings as Javanese barbecued chicken, deep-fried tofu and gado-gado salad, a mixture of lettuce, vegetables, tofu, eggs and shrimp crackers served with a peanut dressing. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Indonesia taught the world to use spices and herbs. Its cuisine is known for juxtaposing flavors and textures. A typical meal may showcase combinations such as lemon grass and galangal, cardamom and chile pepper, tamarind and turmeric. In some of the more complex dishes, vinegar and tamarind are added to palm sugar to produce a sweet-sour spiciness.

Many people tasting Indonesian food for the first time may notice similarities to Thai, Indian, Vietnamese or even Chinese food. It is quite flavorful, but it's not spicy hot like many of the cuisines from that region, unless you use sambal, an Indonesian chili condiment.

Begin your experience with a plate of gado-gado salad; lettuce, mixed vegetables, tofu, eggs and shrimp crackers, served with a creamy peanut dressing. This peanut dressing (similar to the Thai satay sauce) tastes good over anything, it seems.

Deep-fried tofu (tahu goring) with chili sauce always is on the menu, as are the Indonesian version of egg rolls (lumpia semarang), stuffed with chicken, shrimp, carrots, bamboo shoots and green onion. Hey, we're just getting started ...

A selection of meat dishes is offered in rotation.

You might find Javanese barbecued chicken, Indonesian fried chicken pieces or chicken sauteed with margarine in a black sweet & sour sauce. The beef dish, rendang, is braised in a spicy coconut-milk sauce.

A dish called capcay blends an assortment of vegetables with chicken strips, shrimp, sliced meatballs and mushroom, almost souplike in consistency.

Veggie lovers will want to try the tofu in a light curry sauce and the stir-fried spinach, flavored with shrimp paste.

Noodles and rice selections always are on the buffet. They are prepared either plain, or with meat and vegetables, and will soak up all the flavors on your plate. Before you leave, be sure to try the light, cold and refreshing dessert of coconut and jackfruit in iced coconut milk.

Zaffron Indian
69 North King St.
Buffet Lunch ($8.50): 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., weekdays; also dinner
533-6635

After a number of years of offering a delicious dinner buffet ($14.40, 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday), Zaffron has recently begun a weekday lunchtime buffet as well.

The flavors of India can be fiery hot, but here they are toned down significantly to allow everyone an opportunity to try the food.

If you need a bit more heat, just ask for some of the spicy-hot pickled veggies. That will surely do the trick for those with an asbestos-lined tummy.

There's always a fresh salad on the buffet line here. The dressing is raita, a popular yogurt and cucumber-based sauce that's refreshing and tart. Many Indians enjoy raita with everything, not just as a dressing for salad.

Each day you can delight in a fish curry, usually mahi-mahi, in a creamy and assertive sauce. I was told that so many people requested this dish that Zaffron decided to offer it every day. A chicken curry or tandoori chicken also is on the buffet line each day. I've had both and enjoy them quite a lot. These saucy treats are even better when piled over a mound of rice.

Vegetarians love this place because there are always three veggie dishes on the lunch buffet line. These are all safe for vegans: no butter, cream or other animal products are used in these recipes.

You may find dal, a yummy lentil-based preparation, or chana, a garbanzo curry, and mixed vegetables such as carrot, cabbage, potatoes and more. You may find spinach one day, even okra.

Hot chai (tea) is included with your buffet. It's sweet and a bit creamy.

Both these spots are friendly and helpful, willing to answer your questions. Give them a try.

Reach Matthew Gray at mgray@honoluluadvertiser.com.