M-bracing food creativity

While we wait with bated breath for the opening of the Ayala Museum, which promises to be the new Metro Manila epicenter for culture, style, creativity and taste, it’s no coincidence that I venture into taste. For if waiting can mean hunger pangs and the search for the new "food fix", then the Ayala Museum has already seen to it that that need will never be left unfulfilled. A few steps away from the Ayala Museum (whose architectural lines come to us via Andy Locsin) stands the unassuming entrance to M, the Museum Cafe. My feet don’t fail me as I take some steps towards M because if one has been searching for an Asian culinary nirvana, the Museum Cafe is staking its claim as one of the signposts along that heavenly path.

You name the Museum Cafe with a single letter M and you invite puns to the nth degree: M-bitious, M-brosial, M-barking on a food adventure, M-boldened culinary ideas – they fit the bill for some hype-crazy PR campaign. But at the end of the day, hype comes cheap (well, not so cheap depending on who you hire) and it’s what you put on those tabletops that really counts. In this regard, and in keeping with the motif of being a museum cafe, culinary artist Sau del Rosario mans the spatula and paintbrush in his kitchen atelier. Some of us may remember Sau as formerly connected with Venezia (when it first opened) and Le Taxi at the Pan Pacific in Malate; he has moved on, making his mark in various Asian cities – Singapore, Shanghai, Bangkok. It’s a wealth of experience and peregrinations that Sau brings to M. While maintaining a strict Asian outlook, there’s a very now, fresh modern take on what this Asian outlook translates to in his kitchen.

Along with the famille Wisniewski, Sau is breaking new grounds for what’s on tap within the culinary landscape of Metro Manila. Martin Wisniewski is the man on top of the operations and the night we dropped by, it was Martin and his mother Annabella who waxed rhapsodic about their mission and vision for the Museum Cafe and how the Ayala Group is pulling out all the stops in making M an integral part of the Ayala Museum complex. As Martin recalls, "From the outset, we were issued the challenge of coming up with a restaurant that would lend itself to artistic creativity and making a statement."

Annabella adds, "While the food may be modern Asian, the interiors definitely had to assert Philippine pride. We commissioned Budji Layug to handle that and we used several of the craftsmen associated with Movement 8. Impy Pilapil got invovled with the sculptures and art that adorn the walls. See there on the second floor, that corner of the wall with Impy’s work? I teased her that even at home I have wallpaper like that – peeling off. But kidding aside, I’m really happy with how this all came to be and hope the public will be appreciative.

"One of the last things I wanted to come up with was a menu that would be described as fusion. I’ve always felt that fusion only leads to con-fusion. Sau understood that vision right away; while he may go all over Asia in finding signature dishes for M, he will always improvise within the tradition of that particular country’s cuisine. He’ll experiment with other ingredients, styles of cooking, while remaining endemic to their origins. I think that’s the beauty of having someone like Sau who’s been all over the region. China, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, India, the Philippines – Sau will recognize and create within boundaries."

I certainly found this to be true. Take, for example, his tribute to Japanese cuisine – the Yuzu lime-marinated gindara. Eschewing expectations, Sau offers us gindara with braised spinach, shiitake mushrooms, edamame and soy-mirin glaze. As with his signature dishes, there’s a mix of the familiar and tested, with the unexpected and creative. His chicken adobo comes with foie gras, pickled vegetables, quail egg, crispy kangkong and garlic rice. If one has liver sauce in adobo presentation, he plays on that liver theme by substituting foie gras in this version. One of the noodle dishes is the Siam flat noodles rock lobster; and to pile on the Thai influences, the dish includes dried shrimp, peanuts, galangal, and hot and sour broth.

The night Raul Manzano and I "attacked" Martin and Sau, they had a nine-course tasting feast that really beggared any description. One can think up of new superlatives, but it’s best to apply the dictum that one has to try it for oneself. The codfish curry kofta skewers and the lemongrass prawns were my favorites among the appetizers brought out for our delectation. The Pacific scallops pomelo-mint salad will forever be a favorite of mine. And the tandoori lamb shank, which isn’t on the menu, has to be requested, eaten and then, you can die.

For dessert, if you’re daring enough, order the chocolate creme brulee trio – the two dark chocolates come with ginger and chili, while the third light one comes with holy basil. To taste is to believe – the chili does turn the chocolate creme brulee to a fiery mixture, while the ginger had me teasing Sau that it was chocolate tinola.

Plans are afoot to also serve breakfast, high tea and Sunday brunch very soon. The way Martin and Sau were describing them, they’re going to be a heady combination in the Raffles tradition, mixed with pure Filipiniana. Their descriptions had me watering in the mouth and actually contemplating an early morning rise to hie off to this Makati Avenue-de la Rosa corner.

You add the high-end retail shops of Greenbelt 4 to this museum area, and I now dub the corner Museo Drive – our own version of Los Angeles’ Rodeo Drive.

If you enjoy eating, run, don’t walk, to M. I know there are purists out there who’ll be disgruntled, and even I have to admit that some dishes are much better than the others – but one can say the same of any most-loved restaurant. What I found exciting was the imagination and thought that had been put into the menu. In this day and age of franchising and the ever-broadening similarity of food options, one can understand the economic imperative of going for the safe and tested – isn’t that essentially what makes us so gaya-gaya? It’s like a gust of fresh air that M asserts its presence here in Manila. That it does so within the confines of the grounds of the Ayala Museum is just so apropos. There’s artistry and deviltry going on in that kitchen of Sau’s, and we should only be so grateful. M-bitious? Perhaps, but we are so much the better because of their aspiring.