For the first time I ate in a Chinese restaurant without using a drop of soy sauce or chili sauce. Not just out of respect for the chefs who were sitting at our table — that’s one of the pet peeves of chefs, that people drizzle and sprinkle their food with all sorts of condiments even before tasting it — but because I didn’t need to.
The food at Shanghai Bistro in Eastwood City , Libis, is so flavorful you don’t need to add anything to the dishes to enhance their flavor. In fact, you lose on the authenticity when you do overdo it with condiments. Let delicate-tasting food remain delicate on the palate, and let strong-flavored food be just that: strong without being overpowering.
Shanghai Bistro serves cuisines from Shanghai and Hong Kong, two cities in China leading in modernity and competing for top financial status and lifestyle trends. They are also renowned for their exciting cuisine. Executive chef Wong Kam On previously worked at Makati Shangri-La Hotel’s Shang Palace and in Hong Kong, while executive dim sum chef Daniel Leung also worked in China. Chef Wong has 31 years of hotel and restaurant experience behind him (13 of those were spent in the Philippines) while chef Daniel has 17 years of experience as a chef, 13 of those in Hong Kong and four years in the Philippines.
At a tasting dinner, we start with dessert. Pumpkin Balls made of sweet rice that look as delicious as they taste. They may look distinctly Halloween-ish but these babies are definitely for year-round enjoyment. Dim sum chef Daniel Leung says that apart from the usual dim sum offerings that every Chinese restaurant has, he has to keep creating new fares to keep customers happy. He’s right, of course, as every dim sum cart in the city offers the same things with the only difference being how good they are.
There are 26 kinds of dim sum at Shanghai Bistro, not counting the new Pumpkin Balls. My favorites include Taro Puff, an egg-shaped delight of deep-fried gabi that’s piping hot and soft on the inside. If you’re a tofu lover, get the Steamed Bean Curd Sheet Roll, which is layers of tofu sheets steeped in soup stock; you may also want to try the Crispy Bean Curd Sheet Roll, which comes with three kinds of mushroom, but for me is a tad oily. Of course, there’s the classic hakao, siomai, beef ball and radish cake, too.
Chinese cuisine is inherently celebration food. While individuals are given a small bowl of rice each, everything else is in a platter. Go to any Chinese restaurant and you’ll find that all the tables are big, meant for families or meals with friends. Not bad for dating either, as there are a few smaller tables, especially if you want to try a lot of dishes and pick on each other’s plates. Some customers, according to the chefs, simply order several baskets of dim sum, which can be very filling.
Whenever I go to a Chinese restaurant, the first thing I look at is the dim sum menu, followed by vegetable and seafood dishes. The restaurant is friendly to vegetarians with 18 entrees of pure vegetables, not counting the dim sums. Vegetarians are not an afterthought at Shanghai Bistro, unlike other places that put obligatory veggie dishes that lack in taste on their menus. It also has a deep selection for those who eat only seafood. As for dishes and soups with “shark’s fin,” you need not worry about the endangered species — it’s not actual shark’s fin so you can indulge in this ancient delicacy without guilt.
If you’re a bangus fan, this is the place for you. The chefs seem to love milkfish so much that they prepare it in seven different ways. They steam it, braise it, fry it and simmer it. They top it with minced garlic, bitter melon, celery leaves, black bean sauce or steep it in vinegar or tomato sauce. Having tried several of these dishes on different occasions, my favorite would be the Fried Milkfish in Sweet Vinegar Sauce, which is a little more delicate on the taste buds than daing na bangus and a lot plumper.
I’m also partial to chicken, and here, it’s cooked so many ways. You have your usual fried crispy chicken, Kung Pao Chicken, with beancurd and salted fish, chicken in Peking sauce, and with lemon sauce. One of the restaurant’s specialties is the Shanghainese Drunken Chicken, a whole dressed chicken marinated in Chinese wine and then steamed, with sidings of ginger and soy sauce.
If you’re a pork lover, get the suckling pig platter or the one that comes with pancakes (the platters come in three sizes). The Chinese way of roasting pig is very different from ours, starting with the appearance. On a trip to Hong Kong with friends, we laughed ourselves silly in all the restaurants we went to because they displayed pictures of pigs with cherries on their eyes — as opposed to our way of putting an apple in the pig’s mouth, which is no less bizarre, of course. I finally got my explanation. Chef Wong Kam On explains that they do that mostly during celebrations, such as weddings, because the pig apparently makes a grand entrance. The lights are dimmed, and in comes the pig carried by chefs or waiters and in lieu of the small lights inserted in the pig, which would make the eyes glow, they now just put cherries.
And what’s a Chinese restaurant without roasted duck? Shanghai Bistro’s version of Roasted Beijing Duck is so good — the duck skin is especially crispy — that you’ll be tempted to polish off your plate without regard to your cholesterol. It can also be cooked three ways. Or why not try the crispy pigeon for something more unusual?
Shanghai Bistro’s noodle and rice selections are just as varied. Noodles come fried or with soup. Try the wanton and fishball noodle soup if you like something hot to warm you up or the Singaporean- style fried rice noodle for a bit of a spice, or the Hong Kong classic fried beef hofan. For office workers who want a heavy lunch to break their workday, Shanghai Bistro has executive lunch sets good for four persons, ideal for meetings or just to share with friends. Set 1, priced at P1,350, consists of dim sum combination (taro puff, pork siomai and steamed vegetable dumpling), minced beef soup with Chinese parsley, king dao pork ribs, fried squid in salt and pepper, braised bean curd with mushroom, rice and dessert. Set 2, priced at P1,400, has roasted pork belly; dim sum combination of pork siomai and spring roll, minced beef soup with Chinese parsely, chicken wings in salt and pepper, sweet and sour pork, pak choi with garlic, rice and dessert. Set 3, priced at P1,600, has barbecue honey pork, dim sum, soup, chicken in orange sauce, milkfish with salt and pepper, sweet minced pork with okra in spicy sauce, rice and dessert. Set 4, at P1,700, has dim sum (scallop dumpling and steamed beancurd roll), soup, milkfish in sweet vinegar sauce (a real winner for bangus lovers), stir-fried beef with scallion, pork ribs in salt and pepper, pak choi with garlic, rice and dessert.
On Fridays and paydays, it holds all-you-can-eat buffet with seven to eight dim sum and entrees, plus desserts.
Shanghai Bistro first opened in 2003, when there was a dearth of Chinese restaurants that would cater to the middle market (hotel restos were too expensive and fast foods were just too ordinary) with great food and service. It fuses the cooking styles of both Shanghai and Hong Kong with its elaborate menu that has won a following in the Chinese community who troops to the restaurant to celebrate Chinese festivals. No wonder the restaurant’s slogan is “Celebrations of life,” which is also a celebration of good food.
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Shanghai Bistro accepts reservations for baptismal parties, birthdays, weddings, corporate functions, seminars, meetings, social events, and does catering services. It has branches in Eastwood City, Libis, and at Paseo Center in Makati. Call the Eastwood branch at 687-1077, 687-7103.