The ecstasy of Li Li

The streets do not seem to be as crazy now as they were about a month ago, when red was more predominant you would swear you were in China. In more ways, that was never truer, and it scared the heck out of all local businessmen and had a few foreign investors scurrying. Some are still packing their bags, ready to haul out, but the few who have elected to stay see the long drawn-out battle running out of steam, a tentative sign that it may still be worth staying for. We’re still gearing for the indoor battles within the august halls of congress, and this may well seem to be the calm before the storm, but any semblance of normalcy and quietude, even for the shortest time, is welcome before the wheels of impeachment start turning.

A few bits and pieces of good business news have sprinkled the papers with welcome breathers, so we can at least afford to go back to the old grind and enjoy the good life again. We were at the New Hyatt Hotel & Casino Manila a few moons ago to celebrate a family occasion, my wife Baby’s birthday, and we thought one big table celebrating life with a good hearty meal would be one joyous occasion indeed. There’s something about special Chinese cuisine (read: no sweet and sour pork or other such mundane dishes please!) that pleases the palate and warms the heart enough to keep the conversation flowing throughout the night. So we found ourselves with one big round table at the Li Li Restaurant of the New Hyatt Hotel & Casino Manila. And we have the hotel’s very efficient PR manager to thank for making sure we had the best function room reserved for the occasion.

The table sat 12, a mixture of full-fledged adults and young adults, and hearty eaters all.

Dinner started with a selection of appetizers, a platter of roast pork, thin, not thick in girth, that was mostly crispy skin with a layer of almost milky meat and a hint of fat in between; an array of cured meats, and a heap of strings of jelly fish flavorfully drenched in sesame oil that provided a contrast in textures to the rest of the platter. That was wiped out in no time.

The imperial Peking Duck was served next, slices of tender, plump duck in soft warm patties. We’ve all enjoyed this delicacy dozens of times before, but the warm thin wrappers, the Chinese version of Pita, and the subtlety of the Hoi Sin, and the hint of leeks to foil the oiliness of the duck fat that night spelled a difference from the old Peking ducks of yore. Pretty soon, not one or two exclaimed — what, no more?

The soup was braised seafood soup with conpoy and bamboo piths. Conpoy is something I am not familiar with, and too shy to ask, I simply enjoyed the superior soup, warm, with a promise of spiciness that doesn’t get quite fulfilled to the very last spoonful. A small bowl of this was just enough to whet the appetite. A second bowl would sit heavily in the stomach and pre-empt the other good things to come.

The Chinese seem to have the patience to sit through a long drawn-out meal, and have mastered the art of enjoying lauriats without getting impatient, or getting hungry in-between. Pinoys, like Americans, would rather have the full range of selections laid out in living color right before their eyes, not having the patience to wait for the next course. We all seemed to think in the same wave length after the soup was served, our appetites fully awakened by now. So we asked the very courteous and well-trained service staff of Li Li to please, please serve the rest of the dinner at once. At the rate we were going, with four young adults who had voracious appetites and could eat you out of your home, I was seriously considering if there would be enough for all by the end of the lauriat.

After a patient wait, a few banters, and in-between sips of our assorted drinks, the rest of the food was finally going to be served in a grand way. But first, allow me to tease your imagination with the drinks we had that night. The younger set had raspberry iced tea, which wasn’t as innocuous as it sounds. There was tea all right, and it was raspberry flavored, but sitting in the bottom of the tall iced tea glass was a soft mound of raspberry ice cream. If you prodded it with your straw, some of it would flavor your tea and make it creamier, or you could spoon it out in between sips of your tea. A splendid idea. The others had other versions of iced tea. One had guava-flavored tea which was also interesting. The more staid had the house tea which was chrysanthemum, a delicate flavored tea which even had pulpy bits of the petals steeped into the hot beverage, served piping hot. Perfect for a heavy meal like what we were having that night. At least I know it washed off most of the duck fat sitting in my belly earlier.

Then came the food. The aroma that wafted from the platters set before us was heady with a promise of a gustatory treat. There was a huge platter of wok-fried shrimps, no, make that plump juicy prawns with sweet pine nuts in XO chili sauce. The menu said shrimps, but those were definitely the plumpest prawns, butterflied to better coat them with the spicy sauce. There was a generous sprinkling of pine nuts, in fact the whole platter was red and white from the bits of chili liberally tossed into the dish and the abundant pine nuts in the sauce.

The meat from the Peking duck earlier served was minced, then wok-fried, and wrapped in lettuce. The coned lettuce-wrapped minced duck were enormous and tasty.

A Chinese meal is not complete without the veggies, so we had braised seasonal vegetables with black mushrooms, the mushrooms huge and plump, the sauce just rightly thick, the vegetables not soggy, with just the right crunch.

What Chinese meal is complete, too, without a full platter of fish? Because the other dishes had their quota of oil, the fish was a delightful oil-free dish. It was steamed live garoupa, with fresh tender morsels in light soy-flavored sauce with a hint of sesame oil. There were two medium-sized fishes, and both were demolished in no time, head and all.

The fried rice was served with the rest of the meal, as we requested, because this was the only way we would eat a Chinese meal. It came in a generous helping, with a lot of diced duck and vegetables, in fact a full meal in itself. But it was savory, not at all oily, and with just the right saltiness.

With all those goodies, there was hardly room for dessert. Even the youngsters who could out-eat any of us had to beg off. But dessert came without pity anyway. We had one platter of fresh fruits, all prettily arranged in reds, yellows and purple – mangoes and melons, ripe red seedless watermelons and bunches of grapes that presented a colorful summery end to the dinner. Then we had a full platter of buchi, crunchy on the outside but very soft underneath the crust. Being deep-fried, they were naturally oily, even to the touch, but they kept refilling our supply of chrysanthemum tea, so that took care of that.

As they say, when you’re in the company of family or good friends, and the talk is free and easy, and the food is plentiful and heavenly, you are thankful for the apples and peaches that come your way every so often. I’ve had my share of lemons, and have lost count of the pitchers of lemonade I’ve done with them. But good dinners in between these pitchers make them sweeter.

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Kudos to the 4th RCDG, particularly the 403rd CDC under Col. Joseph Galam INF (GSC). Reservists from the 1st Laguna Ready Reserve BN under LTC Gregorio L. Javier held their weekend training in Camp Capinpin in Tanay, focusing on the Scout Ranger’s course.

Kudos too to the Laguna State Polytechnic College in San Pablo City for having the highest number of ROTC enrollees at 1,114, with the State Polytechnic College in Sta. Cruz coming in 2nd with 1,018.

The ARESCOM is indeed perennially on its toes in making sure the program of swelling the ranks of reservists a continuing success.

Mabuhay! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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