By Tanya Batson-Savage, Staff ReporterA CRAVING FOR Chinese food brought me and my baby sister to the Orchids Oriental Restaurant at the Grande Sport Villa Golf Resort and Spa by Beaches in Ocho Rios, St. Ann. When we arrived, we got more than we bargained for and loved every bite of it.
The restaurant is tastefully decorated to evoke an atmosphere suggesting the Orient and when they say oriental, apparently they really mean in it. The offerings provide a tour of Asia via your tastebuds. In our case, we received a guided tour of Indonesia, the Philippines, China and Singapore, courtesy of our waiter Percival.
Evidently quite efficient at his job, Percival was able to give much needed advice and never pointed out that baby sis and I were merely ignorant tourists in the world of Asian cuisine, blindly going beyond most things that do not start with 'chow'.
Fortunately we were smart enough to take his advice, because we rather enjoyed the results of it. For example when baby sis ordered the Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice) as her entree, Percival deftly suggested that she take it as an accompaniment to another entrée.
Though he pointed to the name on the menu, we were unable to record what it was, simply being impressed with his description of it. To viciously brutalise Shakespeare, what's in a name... taste is what counts. And whatever they call that inspired concoction of chicken, shrimp and red peppers, it tastes good.
When it arrived, I began to question whether my order of Barbecued Red Pork from China had been a smart move. I was overcome with plate envy, that evil thing which always makes your companion's meal look more interesting than your own. Before touching my plate I quickly took a few stabs from baby sis'. The chicken was juicy and the shrimp was... well it was shrimp. Simply great! However, fortunately, I had not decided to change my pork, because the pig is king. Succulent and flavourful, it hit the spot several times. baby sis' meal was good, but the pork was hmmm-hmmm good.
SEMOSA
For appetisers we had explored the Philippines and Singapore with Lumpia and Vegetable Semosa respectively. Both were good, but as the Lumpia was oilier than I expected I appreciated the Semosa more.
Dessert threatened to be disappointing, but once more Percival came to our rescue. The chocolate mango cake (a concept I was unable to grasp, but it says chocolate so nothing else matters) was the only one which piquéd our interest. When we explained this to good old Percival, he explained that he could retrieve cheese cake for baby sis.
So said, so done. Percival brought a feast of cheese cakes with a range of toppings. When the chocolate mango cake arrived, it looked disappointingly simple. The cake was beautifully presented with the mango sauce on the side and a dollop of whipped cream to bring it off. The cake, however, did not look as though it would deserve an e-mail home.
One should not always judge a cake by its cover, though. A single bite irrevocably declared that it was the chocolate version of ambrosia.
It was the perfect end to what had been a great taste- bud adventure through Asia.
