Piping ‘haute’ cuisine

You say Alabang, and if it’s 6:30 p.m. on a November weekday, you better have a pretty compelling reason to have me endure the South Super Highway traffic, coming as I do all the way from ABS in Quezon City. The compelling reason was the promise of really excellent food, and the one making the very decent proposal was Sunshine Y. Puey. Along with the ABS Publishing group of Thelma (San Juan), Carlo (Tadiar), Mawi (de Ocampo) and Raul (Manzano), I had been intrigued by the great word-of-mouth I had gathered about Sunshine’s cooking. And as the grapevine went, if Sunshine’s modern French cuisine was anywhere near the highly acclaimed Chinese and Japanese cooking of her mother, Bella, then the agony of the hours spent on the road would be dispelled by ‘first bite.’

In her late 20’s, Sunshine (or Anna) has done stints at Tante Marie’s Cooking School in San Francisco, the Institute of Culinary Education in New York and the Ecole Ritz Escoffier in Paris. Rather than compete with ‘Maman,’ she opted to make French cuisine her specialized ‘turf’ and has earned plaudits for the RCBC events she has catered for. At the request of her Lolo A.Y., she even took on the reins of the corporate canteen/cafeteria, proving she could go broad market with panache, when she has to.

For the Alabang degustation, it wasn’t your classic French cooking, but neither was it outright nouvelle – instead, it was a refreshing mix of both, with the plating more akin to nouvelle, but with portions brought to a level that had us wishing a bed could be set right beside the dinner table! The starter was a trio of mushroom cappuccino, a spoonful of porcini mushroom salsa and a Parmesan chip. The second course was again a trio; but this time, of salmon. One was a confit (a flan of very delicate flavor), one was a poached slab of fillet, and the third was ‘heaven’ – a tiny ‘apa’ filled with diced salmon and cream cheese! Just when you thought you were already in heaven, in came her pan-seared foie gras with homemade raspberry ice cream on top. Right then, I was made a ‘convert.’ The main course was boneless beef ribs with a rolled-up crepe of goat cheese on top of the beef. And if you didn’t leave space for her desserts, then you may as well have gone back to purgatory. It was a deconstructed chocolate Napoleon, and a pear-filled crème anglaise that really made one wish we had had them as starters!

The irrepressible Chito Antonio (with his ‘overkill’ caramel cheesecake), Sunshine’s sister Aimee and husband Rene Fuentes were part of the dining party, and between the conversation and great company, the only real regret I had as we left was that I couldn’t wake up the next morning to find Sunshine’s kitchen had moved next door. She does cater for private dinners; and if you want to check on what she can whip up for that special Holiday season dinner (or just any occasion), call her at 0920-9622846. She also has a line of pastries and specialty food items that can serve as delectable Christmas gifts.

Scents and sensibility

Picking out a scent can be torture for a man – that’s why, more often than not, we’re creatures of habits, stuck to the same cologne for years on end, oblivious to the winds of change and products. And yet, if we took the time and went to establishments like Essenses, we’d see a whole new world beckoning. Back in the ’60s and ’70s, it was Faberge’s Brut and scents like Dior’s Eau Savage, or even Old Spice, that would rule the roost. Then came the onslaught of designer scents, like Ralph Lauren, Armani and Boss. For the last couple of years, it’s been spa lines with cleaner, fresher scents, and specialized olfactory houses like Jo Malone and Creed that have staked their claims. What’s really topmost when selecting a scent is finding which one really suits your own body. Take advantage of the sample bottles, use coffee beans to give your nostrils a fresh start, dab the scents on your inner wrist and give the fragrance a few minutes so you can evaluate how the fragrance reacts with your body. As a rule, colognes with higher concentrations last longer than toilet water. Over the next few columns, I’ll share with you my ‘smelly voyage of discovery’ at Essenses.

Acca Kappa is a wonderful Italian spa line. Its White Moss (Muschio Bianco) line is my favorite, with notes of wood, amber and moss. It’s a subtle, sensuous scent that’s popular across gender lines. There’s also a full line that includes a hand cream, shaving foam and cream, deodorant, shampoo, shower gel, soap and body lotion. The variant is Kappa’s 1869 Eau de Cologne, this one has a more masculine tone, with cardamon and greanium giving us summer vitality, tempered by vanilla and amber. Love these scents, but on me, for some reason, the fragrance wouldn’t really last. Luckily, this subtlety only means I can give myself a fresh spray; and the White Moss is perfect throughout the day, not heady at all, and a great daytime fragrance.

Another scent that appeals both to the feminine and the really daring masculine comes from Diptyque, and it’s their L’Ombre dans l’Eau. Best known for their home furnishings, accessories and scented candles, Diptyque has always developed eau de toilettes that do not refer to any specific gender. The L’Ombre comes from the floral olfactive family and is evocative of a lush water garden. The headnote is Bulgarian Rose, and added to these are blackcurrant leaves. If you’re looking for something heady and something that will really linger, this scent fills the bill. Stay tuned for my next column, when I take on Goutal’s mysterious Mandragore and Sonia Rykiel’s sober Grey.