TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The sun was still bright above our heads when we visited Cuca Tapas Bar & Restaurant, in Jimbaran, Bali. The bar is located behind Yoga Perkanthi football stadium. Turned out, the Spanish restaurant is rarely serving guests for lunch, although their website stated that they are open from 12:00pm until 24:00.
Some of the waitresses looked wondering while they were welcoming us and taking out the menu. Maybe they're used to welcome expatriates customers who have a habit of coming there for dinner, not lunch like us, local tourists. And so, we became the only visitors that occupied two of hundreds of seats that were scattered in the garden.
The restaurant is in urban style with a touch of the green park concept. Some of the chairs and dining tables are arranged outdoor on green grass carpet. Above each chair and table, a garden lamp was hung. The owner, Kevin Cherkas, intended to dedicate Cuca for expats who crave for Spanish dishes in a tropical and romantic atmosphere.
Because of its very comfortable place and its familiar-to-expat-tongue menu, Cuca was visited by one of the famous food blogger, Lady Iron Chef in 2013. The review on the Lady Iron Chef’s blog has turned Cuca into a popular topic among the European foodies. A during the next year, the restaurant has never served less than 120 people per day, despite the price of above Rp200,000 for a casual dining set.
The name ‘Cuca’ is taken from the childhood name of Cherkas’ wife, Virginia Entizne.
"'Cuca' means 'dear', that is how Virginia Entizne’s mother calls her," said Abdul Rochman, a waitress at the restaurant.
The traditional Spanish foods served in this restaurant is somewhat different from regular traditional Spanish food, because the dishes were cooked according to Entizne’s family recipe that have been passed on for generations.
For Cuca, good food is food that can give rise to five flavors at once: bitter, sweet, sour, salty, and savory. Therefore, the restaurant uses quite-extreme ingredients combinations.
Before the main course of the Entizne’s family recipe were served, the guests were greeted with unusual Western culinary creations called the Cotton Betutu. This sweet-savory cake is actually a sweet cotton candy that is filled with very spicy betutu chicken dish. The way of eating the snack is unique. One roll of Cotton Betutu should be devoured at once. The first sensation was sweet, and then spicy flavor suddenly burst into the nostrils.
Following the unusual sensation of Cotton Betutu, two cocktails loaded with fruits were served. The first cocktail was the Sun-Gria, cocktail that is a mixture of Bali red wine, red watermelon, and yellow watermelon. These fruits are just not mixed, but blended, before frozen into matchbox-size cubes.
Fruit juice cubes were first put into the glass, while the wine remains in the bottle. When the wine was poured into the glass, the color of the cubes changed instantly. The hissing sound that came out from the mixture invited everyone to immediately take a sip. Not to mention the attractive contrasting colors between the frozen juices and the red wine.
The tannin flavor that emerges from the wine partly derived from pineapple that blends well with the sweetness of the fruit juice cubes. It gave the tongue sour-sweet and cold-refreshing sensation. It is safe to say that Sun-Gria represents the taste of tropical drinks.
"This Sun-Gria is the most-ordered, both by local or foreign guests," said Abdul Rochman.
Cuca still has other mainstay beverage called Blush. The cocktail is consisting of watermelon juice, rosemary syrup, and vodka. It does not seem as sweet and fresh as the Sun-Gria. However Blush has a unique appearance. It comes with watermelon juice cubes that were put as decoration but can be dipped into the vodka. Howeve, we prefer not to dip it, because the taste of watermelon and rosemary syrup will be drowned out by the bitterness of vodka.
Finally, Cuca brought out their specialty which is called Chopped Beef and Roasted Prawns. Chopped Beef uses premium Spanish-style sausage that was mashed and formed into a burger patty-like shape.
The adhesive seasonings that is used to form the meat into the shape is Entizne’s family secret recipe. The sausage meat is very soft when chewed, but does not have a strong meaty scent. The sour flavor of white yoghurt poured onto the dish dominates my taste bud.
Under the meat were the rice trio consisting of white, red, and sticky rice, that give different color to the food. The rice was then topped with lettuce, frozen cabbage, zukini leaves, and finely sliced parsley. The food was then put on the plate and poured with plain yoghurt.
A sip of Sun-Gria between Chopped Beef bites is the best way to eat the dish since there are sour-sweet taste left on the tongue.
The last menu was undoubtedly the champion. It was Seafood Tapas with a familiar taste to Indonesian taste bud. The resto call it Roasted Prawns.
The dish is made of coconut milk and prawn mixed prawn broth. The taste that comes out was undoubtedly delicate and sweet. A honey-fried Zukini leave that is nested between the 60-gram prawns only make it more unbearably delicious.
"The red color of the broth comes from the bits, not sauce," said Abdul Rohman.
CHETA NILAWATY
