The P40,000 dinner

MANILA, Philippines - I have two passions in life: Music and food. For the past seven years I have actively pursued my passion for music by staging and producing concerts featuring my musical heroes whereby in the process neglecting my other passion: Food! In the ’80s and ’90s, I did so much traveling (in fact two to three long haul flights every month) with my travel buddy and kumpadre, Joey de Leon, and visited gastronomical havens of the world like the White Truffle market of Alba, Italy (where the best White Truffles come from), the Rungis Market in the outskirts of Paris, the endless stalls of Jamon Jabugo at Las Ramblas in Barcelona, the cavernous food halls of Harrods in London, the Spice Market of Istanbul, etc. for our foodie adventures.

Nowadays because of my daily radio show and tight concert schedules, I take two-day foodie escapades to nearby capitals like Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Macau whenever possible. On a recent Macau trip, I visited a restaurant at the Lisboa Hotel where I always stay whenever I visit that I’ve been ignoring for the past three years: Robuchon A’Galera.

I never realized this was a three-star Michelin restaurant managed and ran by one of my haute cuisine heroes, legendary French chef, Joel Robuchon, also known as the “Chef of the Century.”

Robuchon A’Galera is located at the third level of the Lisboa Hotel. As you enter the restaurant, rows and rows of expensive reds like Petrus, Chateau Margaux, Lafitte Rotschild, etc. stacked from floor to ceiling greet the dinner.

In my opinion, the restaurant décor is elegantly classic but a bit overdone. I love restaurants with simple and basic decor where the main focus is on the product. 

As the maitre ‘d seated us beside the window, I checked the wine list. It was thick as the phone yellow pages and had so much variety. Old world wine dominated the list though. The price of a bottle ranged from a few hundred dollars (HK$) to over HK$200,000 for a circa 1900 red. Jesus Christ, P1,350,000 for a bottle of wine. I decided to pass on the wine and ordered orange juice. Incidentally, the most expensive bottle of wine in the world belongs to wine enthusiast Christopher Forbes; a 1787 Chateau Lafitte believed to be owned by Thomas Jefferson and valued at US$156,000 or around P7,800,000.

As the smooth textured fragrant breads that hinted of cheese and butter were served, I ordered the eight-course black Truffle sampling menu. The best black Truffles come from the Perigord area of France. The whole course took short of three hours to serve. The servings were austere, reminiscent of Nouvelle Cuisine and left you craving for seconds and maybe thirds.

First to arrive was a mini-crostini topped with chopped pork and shaved black truffles. It was good for one bite and perked our appetite. Next came exotic eel wrapped in Nori drizzled with black truffle puree ala sushi accompanied by a jellied consomme accented with bits of black truffle and cream.

The next dish brought me to truffle heaven: A thick layer of sliced black truffles on thin filo pastry. Indescribably delicious. The truffle-infused onion soup which served next didn’t make much of an impression. I felt that the onions overwhelmed all the flavors. 

Prior to serving the most anticipated dish in the menu, our taste buds were again stimulated with a slice of Brittany lobster drizzled with a sauce made from its roe topped with slivers of black truffles. I’ve run out of adjectives to describe it. Wish there were more.

Two hours after we sat, the piece-de-resistance arrived. It was the highlight of the tasting menu. A tenderly grilled slab of Kagoshima Beef (another Japanese specialty from Kagoshima Black Cattle bred in Kagoshima prefecture-more tender and tastier than Wagyu or Matsusaka beef) accompanied by tubes of pasta stuffed with chopped black truffles lightly seasoned with black pepper and a generous serving of sliced French Foie Gras. How could they make beef this good? As you bite into beef, a medley of flavors explode. No need to chew because it almost melts in your mouth. It is so rich though that you can only eat a small portion then get too overwhelmed.

As the last course, pureed chestnuts with a hint of rum on top of a scoop of vanilla ice cream garnished with a paper-thin gold ribbon. (Yes, gold is edible) was served.I secretly unbuttoned my trousers to make more space for dessert. The bill for the dinner was around HK$6,400 or P40,000-plus. I smiled at the waiter as I handed the money and patted my belly and said to myself “There goes my shopping money!”