Mabuhay means sarap! (Delicious)

MANILA, Philippines - The name is very Filipino Mabuhay is about as Pinoy as you can get but the food is very Chinese. It’s an incongruity that serves its clientele well and deliciously!

As Tsinoys  and even Pinoys prepare to welcome the Year of the Dragon next week, the Mabuhay Palace at the Manila Hotel puts on its imperial finery for a grand celebration, starting with a countdown that begins at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 22, the eve of the Lunar New Year, with the dotting of the dragon eye.

Afterwards, against a backdrop of a colorful fireworks display, Mabuhay Palace executive chef Sun Bing will bring out an array of auspicious dishes that symbolize good fortune, longevity and prosperity. There will be a special New Year set menu at the Mabuhay Palace from Jan. 18 to 24.

But it isn’t only during the New Year celebration that you can enjoy Chef Sun Bing’s delicious creations. Chef Sun Bing, executive sous chef and restaurant manager Josephine Tanganco-Candelaria and dim sum chef Hou Zhenhui work their magic daily at the restaurant, serving up traditional Cantonese cuisine but, as chef Joie explains, “new style, with a different presentation.”

The term “new style” set us on edge, as oftentimes chefs play around with traditional dishes with not too palatable results. Happily, the triumvirate keeps the integrity of the tried and tested, all-time favorite dishes, tweaking them just enough to spring a surprise.

Take, for example, their version of shark’s fin soup. Although it may not be politically/environmentally correct to still be serving this delicacy (it has been taken off the menu in some establishments in Hong Kong and the US), this is still requested by guests, especially for wedding banquets. Their “Old Beijing Nobleman Shark’s Fin Soup” is a full-flavored broth with the coveted fins, slow cooked in the traditional way but served in individual bowls covered with a light pastry shell.

They have a wonderful trio of seafood dishes, starting with baby lobsters with Lao Zao and Szechuan chili sauce (it is a bit difficult to eat if you don’t use your hands, and if/when you do, you’ll find yourself licking your fingers!), a crispy deep fried (fortunately it does not taste oily) seafood roll with mango in Thai chili sauce (a bow to Asian fusion, but the best thing about this dish is unarguably the bed of fried spinach leaves), and the conventional steamed lapulapu, a whole fish that is perfect for the New Year’s table.

A healthful but delicious (this is not to say that the two are a contradiction) dish has sea cucumber and pork tendon (good for those aching and creaking joints) braised in a brown sauce with black mushrooms. Chef Joie shares that they have a pork belly dish “cooked the traditional way, healthy and spicy.”

We asked Chef Sun Bing and Chef Joie for their house specialities, and they obliged us by narrowing down their choices to the Manchurian lamb dumpling, a take on the classic Beijing dumpling, a double-boiled Cornish chicken stuffed with shark’s fin, and a jumbo xiao long pao that is served with a straw for you to savor the broth inside the pao. Now that’s innovation!

Chef Hou, who is the dim sum master, reportedly makes the best hakaw (shrimp dumpling) in town (we will have to verify this for ourselves one day soon), as well as a fried radish cake with XO sauce that will make you hear music.

Chef Sun Bing has been living and cooking in the Philippines for over two decades, lording it over the kitchens of the Chinese restaurants of two hotels in Manila before joining the Manila Hotel in 2009. A native of Beijing, he trained for two years at the Special Cooking School for Chinese Food in China and worked at the Beijing Hotel before coming to Manila. Although he has picked up some Filipino, the chef is most eloquent when speaking about his dishes in Chinese, but of course his eloquence is best expressed in the food he sets before you.

Chef Joie, for her part, is inexhaustible and irrepressible, regaling you with stories of how dishes came about, how a menu is planned and how she became a chef in ten days, working from 8 a.m. to midnight. Although she had been cooking since she was 10 years old, becoming a chef was at the time not a profession looked favorably upon. So she worked in her family business, then in her husband’s business, had two children (a son now 11 and a daughter 5) then finally enrolled in cooking school. She also made the rounds of hotel kitchens, until in January 2009 she was brought in to the Manila Hotel and tasked to open their signature Chinese restaurant in 12 days.

The Mabuhay Palace is envisioned by owner Emilio Yap Sr. to evoke visions of an imperial palace, swathed in bright reds and orange and gold. On the walls are jade murals depicting scenes from the life of the philosopher Confucius, particularly telling of his emphasis on education and critical thinking. But at the Mabuhay Palace, thankfully critical thinking is only limited to making choices from the menu; the rest is critical tasting.