Recovery & reunion on Claire Grill menu

I didn’t know that there’s such a place called Dampa Seaside Paluto on Diosdado Macapagal Blvd., Pasay City, until a few days ago when Claire dela Fuente invited me and old friends Raoul Tidalgo (Balikbayan journalist from New York), Mar d’Guzman Cruz, Robert Cheng and Ernie Pecho to a "seafood dinner" at her own Claire Grill & Seafood, two of them actually, the one in front occupying 160-plus square-meters of the 1.5-hectare complex.

Anthony Taylor (a.k.a. Freddie Gargantilla), the manghuhula (and movie writer on the side), joined us just before the "six-course" dinner was served.

"There are 36 restaurants here all in all," said Claire, wearing black and a sad look in her soulful eyes because she’s still grieving for her husband, Moises "Boy" de Guzman, who died of liver cancer before Christmas last year at age 58. "And two markets where you can buy all kinds of fresh seafood."

Claire described her two outlets as "high-end" and you know what she meant when you drop by one of these days (and I suggest you do, preferably with the whole family).

"We charge per kilo," explained Claire who, besides being a top-notch singer, is also, without making people knowing it, a "gourmet cook" who used to cook, she said, "just for entertainment" and who knows the seaside seafood market along a road somewhere else in Parañaque City and the Farmers Market in Cubao as well as the lines in her palms. "I know the markets and the prices like I do the lyrics of my songs," said Claire. "Kabisadong-kabisado ko because I do the marketing myself for my family (two grown-up boys of whom she’s now a single parent)."

Over chit-chat about the grieving process and a long-delayed unscheduled reunion (although minus a dozen other friends), Claire asked the waiters to bring in one by one "samples" of goodies she herself had chosen from the market a stone’s throw from her place.

Talaba

"The good thing about running a restraurant here is that you’re spared from doing the marketing. You don’t have to worry about inventory. It’s the customers who do the marketing. They choose where to have their food cooked and where to eat."

Crabs

Asked how she managed to put up a restaurant when she’s up to her pretty neck with the long-dormant career that she has successfully resumed and with her job as president of MBOA (Metro Bus Owners Association), Claire smiled, "Time management. If you are set on doing something, you can find time for it."

Fish Fillet

It has been years since Raoul, Robert and Mar have seen one another, Raoul being based in New York where he works as entertainment editor and columnist of The Filipino Reporter. I get to see Raoul almost regularly because I get invited to Hollywood press junkets held alternately in Los Angeles and New York (the last one there was for Memoirs of a Geisha at the legendary Waldorf-Astoria, favorite hotel of former First Lady Imelda Marcos).

Back then, when The Beatles were lording it over the airlanes and Susan Roces was drawing ‘em into the Life Theater in Quiapo (it has been turned into a shopping joint), Raoul, Robert and I were members of the group called Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (because there were seven of us struggling movie writers, with now US-based Malu Tronqued-Mapa as our Snow White) who spent nights on movie sets and showbiz parties, invited or uninvited (now called "gaka" or "gate-crashers").

Adobong Pusit

Not many people knew that when Claire became a singing sensation (on the strength of a string of hits led by Sayang, the most enduring of them all), she was already married to Boy.

"Boy was rushing the construction of the Dampa Grill. I knew that he had cancer but I didn’t know that he was dying – so soon. When the grill was inaugurated on Nov. 17 last year, I was in the hospital watching over Boy."

Tilapia

A holder of a master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Western Australia, Claire is planning to take up culinary arts and, who knows, maybe put up more outlets of her grill.

"I’ve been depressed since Boy’s death," she said, breaking into a weak smile, "so I keep on eating and eating." Yes, seafood!

Shrimps

I could see the shrimps jumping, the crabs crawling and the tilapia heaving wide-eyed as Claire brought them in a basket for her cook to prepare for our "recovery and reunion" dinner.

"Really fresh," she repeated, "fresh na fresh!"

After dinner, we retreated burping to Claire’s other grill facing the Manila Bay, offering a ringside view of the World Pyro Olympics which was being held at that time. Yonder, we could see the sprawling SM Mall of Asia which, according to those who have been there, will take you one whole day to cover (yes, it’s that big!).

And as the night wore on, we sat there having coffee and tea, reminiscing the good old days when our hearts were young and our dreams were well within reach, unmindful that life is not all a bed of roses.

(Note: For inquiries about birthday parties, wedding receptions and some such affairs or simple family eat-outs, call Claire Grill & Seafood at 0918-7267261 or 0918-6337765.)

(E-mail reactions at rickylo@philstar.net.ph)