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

0 comments:

Post a Comment