Orient Express Part 1

Forkplay gets lost in Binondo

Lech-Get It-On!

Jon goes toe to toe with Uncle Cheffy's garlic studded pork belly lechon

This Diet Ain't Proletariat

Raise your forks to the revolution! Discover Hunan and Sichuan cooking at Komrad

Apple of My Eye

Bianca trades the Big Apple for real apple-picking in upstate New York

Pork Barrel

Roast with the most or hyped up ham? We put the Anthony Bourdain-acclaimed Zubuchon lechon to the test

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Off Tangent in the Orient


“You’ll have to try the coffee braised beef hot pot. But don’t forget the buchi; it’s got Reese’s chocolate filling.” These were words alien yet familiar; the usual suspects found in a Chinese restaurant’s menu. As Chow Fun’s owner Danio Caw did his roll call of dishes each came into sharp focus, wheeled in on the Lazy Susan of my mind. The hotpot, when brought in, was a bubbling bowl of dark caramel-hued stew meant more for the small, amazing eateries I imagine lining Beijing or Taipei’s side streets. Instead, it’s off Wilson Street, flanked by a Chinese herbal drugstore and facing a Buddhist temple.

Forget Starbucks, get your caffeine jolt from Chow Fun's Coffee Braised Beef. Right: Modern art - Chow Fun style

Free Zen meditation classes at the Ocean Sky temple facing the restaurant
Like other neighbourhood favourites Ristras, Chicken Charlie, and Kanzhu, Chow Fun is casual modern. Instead of red and gold decor, productions Yue Minjun’s grinning paintings hang on concrete walls. Chairs are deliberately mismatched, and so are the overhead lamps, which crowd above each table.

Chow Fun's modern interiors by designer Gwyn Guanzon
As with interiors so with the menu too: Expect a cross-section of China’s food map that delightfully goes off-tangent. The tender braised beef could nearly, effortlessly slide down your throat, but it’s the robust, assertive coffee flavour that makes it stand out. Duck spring rolls are crisp and oily, kind of like pulutan begging to be hand with a cold bottle of Tsing Tao. While a mildly gamey taste will coat your mouth, the dish is served with three sauces – orange, chilli, and vinegar.

A duck! Precisely!: Fowl-filled spring rolls with three kinds of sauce
Bigger portions include a Lechon Macau on hefty mound of fried rice. It’s a meal on its own, and while the pork is crisp enough, you’ll want it crunchier if possible. There’s a pork bun version too for merienda stop-overs. 

Lutong Macau: There's no secret to Chow Fun's hearty Lechon Macau with rice
While most dishes are good, a few are more stellar than most like Chow Fun’s House Fried Chicken. Don’t let the pedestrian name fool you – this amazing chicken could be enough to wean most off of their Bon Chon addiction. Without anything else, it could be the dish most fried chickens could aspire to: juicy white meat under a crispy skin with excellent texture.It comes coated in pepper and dried plum powder – think champoy – that reels you in with sweetness, then becomes peppery, and finally back to sweet.

The House Fried Chicken comes coated in powdered plum, and a vinegar dip on the side
And the buchi? A molten, gooey Reese’s core left us weak-kneed and pining for more!

Chow Fun's buchi comes in two versions: Dark chocolate and Reese's filling. Lord have mercy
And more there ought to be: Despite not being over six months old yet, and still refining a fluid menu, Chow Fun shows a lot of promise. Dynamic and slightly unhinged, upbeat and creative instead of staid, it puts its own stamp on what Chinese cuisine can and should, proving to us that bending rules are often fun.           

CHOW FUN Modern Chinese Bistro
Ground Floor, 103 J. Abad Santos Street, Little Baguio, San Juan City
Tel. 6241009 / 5700826

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Korean food - Gangnam Style

I have many dreams in life - and after watching Korean rapper's Gangnam Style music video for the seventy sixth time, I'm adding another one to the list: Being able to do Korean rapper PSY's horse-dance with a flash mob in the middle of Edsa. Because really how awesome would be to spontaneously break into synchronized fake galloping in the streets of Manila?

Also, because of K-Pop fever, my hair kind of looked like this for six months:
Thanks Tony & Guy! That was a poorly made life decision.
Fortunately there's not much to be confused about with a steaming bowl of bibimbap. With Filipinos' ongoing infatuation for all things Korean, it's no surprise that Korean food - hearty, exotic, and often spicy - have many smitten. From family-run groceries that make their own kimchi to barbecue dens all over to chains like Bon Chon, Sariwon, and Bulgogi Brothers, the culinary floodgates are wide open.

Chef's Noodle, one of Korea's celebrated restaurant chains has finally arrived in Manila. Taft Avenue to be exact, and pioneering it is no less than the founder, Chef Choi In Sun:


Why does Chef Choi In Sun always wear a fedora? I'd like to believe it's because he moonlights as a gumshoe detective. Or archaeologist. You'll know him because he also shows up in your tamago.

How egg-cellent! . . . Shutting up now.
Their specialty, the aptly-named Chef's Noodle (P150) gives a potent kick of flavors with every slurp. This salty and peppery broth is chock-full of tender beef slices, tofu puffs, scallions, and beansprouts (giant togue that's a recurring theme in Korean cuisine). The noodles themselves have good 'bite' - not too flimsy or soggy. For most, a bowl is more than enough, but then again, there's more to Chef's Noodle than - er - noodles.

Chef's Noodles by Chef's Noodles
What makes it the restaurant's bestseller? Until Chef Choi tells us, we'll just have to assume only the most delicious of ingredients...

No, Po's father. Just no.
For starters, the Wanja Steak Jun (P175) reminds us of breakfast, the hearty kind had by high schoolers who pound their tables for more rice and egg in their meals. This Korean-style burger steak is topped with egg and cheese and comes served in a dimsum basket. Imagine a a deconstructed cheeseburger sans the bread buns. The meat as you'd expect is tender but with crisp, burned edges. It's slathered with a salty-savory-syrupy sauce that goes well with rice.

You've also got Ddukbokki (P150)- a dish that sounds like a special martial arts move in Street Fighter. But it's in fact a Korean favorite. And while sapin-sapin drenched in chili sauce gives me pause, it is in some ways the best description of Ddukbokki. Tube-shaped chunks of chewy rice cake will give your jaw muscles ample exercise. It looks and tastes spicy, but the heat is steady and never reaches scorching levels. Fruit juices add some measure of sweetness too.  

(For the stubbornly ravenous among us, Chef's Noodle has a Ddukbokki-eating challenge. Eat the most, and you can be part of a meet-and-greet with Chef Choi and Grace 'I-dated-the-president' Lee. Plus you get some sweet swag and bragging rights. I imagine a shirt that says "I Ddukbokkick Ass!")

Left: Hearty Wanja Steak Jun. Right: Ddukbokki rice cakes
Though Korean, there's sushi to be had too including raw beef on rice. Your order comes in a neat row of glossy, pink Australian strip sirloin and - because anything on fire is double the fun - is subjected to a constant flame by someone wielding a kitchen blowtorch. (Also, this is a bad ass method for lighting cigarettes.)  Dubbed the Starking Fire Sushi (P160), Chef Choi demo'd this first in South Korea's Star King talent show.

Several seconds under the flame renders the meat medium rare while leaving it raw beneath. The glutinous rice has a vinegar element that perks up your taste buds.

Fire: It makes everything taste better.
Seafood Pajun
Filipinos will find two other dishes surprisingly familiar: Torta's distant Korean cousin, the Seafood Pajun (P99), is an omelette pancake filled with chopped squid and vegetables. Leek Shrimp Twigim (P99) are crunchy, deep-fried shards of shrimp and leeks in tempura batter somewhat like ukoy.

Exotic yet homey, comfort food with a touch of K-Pop coolness, Chef's Noodle just might be Taft's answer to students craving all things Korean.

Oh, and it's almost as addictive as that Gangnam Style song.

Chef's Noodle
2nd Floor, University Mall, Taft Avenue, Manila (facing College of St. Benilde)
Tel. 09328715560
www.chefsnoodlephils.com