Novo Bistro Steakhouse

La Chaine des Rotisseurs held a dinner soiree at the newest restaurant in town, the Novo Bistro Steakhouse (former Chez Lucie, Banilad, phone # 2315028) last August 22. The venue, which has been described as a "Frenchy high-end watering hole and restaurant," was the destination for these gourmands for an informal fellowship, limited to 50 members and guests only.

It is difficult for a restaurant to host a Chaine dinner and is doubly difficult for a new restaurant. It has to have a staff capable of providing the service to which the organization is accustomed to. The kitchen must be well-equipped and staffed with personnelcapable of producing the dishes for these gourmands. And it has to have the "right ambiance" for that perfect dinner.

If the Novo Bistro Steakhouse succeeds in hosting this affair for this international band of gourmands, then it proves it can provide the service for any discriminating clientele.

First entrée was the escargot in garlic butter, Novo Bistro Salad, warm seared beef tenderloin, organic garden greens, tomato, Feta cheese, stuffed olives and bacon focaccia in Balsamic dressing.

From a nutritional point of view, complete na this first dish: protein is provided from the escargot (land snails, a delicacy in France), bacon and the beef; carbohydrates from the focaccia (flat oven-baked Italian bread from); fats and oils from the butter and cheese; vitamins and minerals from the garlic, tomatoes and greens and; anti-oxidant from the olives. But my beloved readers, this is a La Chaine affair, excuse me, and life is a bit more sophisticated, onwards to the baked onion soup with melted cheese and croutons.

Your favorite food columnist has a slight advantage because, to fulfil my duties as an officer, I joined the food tasting and have surveyed the battlefield, er, buffet table with a camera in hand to document the dishes. I know exactly where the better dishes are.

I had to choose from among the following: rosemary chicken, risotto with forest mushrooms, Osso bucco cremolata braised in rich red wine sauce, Cassoulet (duck, pork sausage and kidney bean stew), seafood curry (tiger prawn, grouper fillet in creamy curry sauce), garlic fettuccine, roast crispy pork belly with apple sauce and the sautéed vegetables.

But work is work and I had to sample each of the dishes except the vegetables (overdose na with home-made kimchi!); these days, however, I seem to linger on the cassoulet. There are several versions of this dish and the more popular ones are from Toulouse (pork and mutton), Castelnaudary (roast duck instead of mutton) and Carcassome (double portions of mutton, sometimes duck replaced with partridge). The Etats Generaux de la Gastronomie Francaise of 1966 decreed that the cassoulet should have 30 percent pork (sausages, mutton and even preserved goose) and 70 percent beans (haricot beans, pork rinds, herbs and flavorings).

Although the cassoulet had humble beginnings, there are now haute cuisine versions with an initial simmering of beans with aromatic vegetables before finally coking with pre-cooked roasted meats. These are now available in cans or glass containers and the best are those cooked with goose fat with Toulouse sausages. When loaded with some cholesterol, very delicious gyud, this dish!

There is also a Cebuano version and I call it "linat-ang mongos nga may kamunggay, gisubakan ug bukog sa hamon nga Hock Siu" or casserole of mung beans and leaves of the Moringa vegetable tree (Moringa oleifera) simmered with the leg bones of Hock Siu ham. With Christmas fast approaching, lots of bones would be available.

Final offering to such a wonderful evening was Chef Dietmar Dietrich's signature dish, the Rendezvous of Sweets (Double chocolate mousse, Apple tarte tatin, Mango Mille-feuille, Profiteroles Mont Blanc and Orange fruit). And the events of such an elegant dinner at the Novo Bistro Steakhouse will forever be encoded in the memories of La Chaine members. 

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