The Oooh-La-Lamb gustatory safari

Here’s the deal: Four lamb dishes, four restaurants, four short trips via a coaster and four points against my battle with a bulging potbelly. This is my personal take on the Lamb Safari Tour as part of Meat & Livestock Australia’s (MLA) Oooh-La-Lamb Festival, with around 40 establishments (restaurants, hotels and retail chains) showcasing new lamb dishes. Journalists have been invited to visit four different restaurants and partake of a four-course meal in a sort of lamb "safari." Hey, this is challenging work for this writer who eats like a fish (and yet, somehow has the build of a lanky tadpole). After all, many people have the impression lamb meat is very heavy on the tummy, riddled with calories, and tastes best when roasted, grilled, and, uh, did I say roasted?

Well, I had to toss these misconceptions aside like shaved wool when I got to talk to Agnes Itchon, Philippine representative of MLA, a company owned by Aussie farmers which handles marketing and research for the Australian red meat industry. She dispels the myth that lamb meat (in rack, shank and cutlets) is not as versatile as the more homogeneous beef or chicken.

According to Itchon, "The objective of the festival is to tap the creativity of chefs in coming up with different lamb dishes and to show people that there are many ways of cooking lamb."

She adds that they give out recipes, so that people can whip up their own versions of Thai lamb salad, the lamb and rosemary kebab, or (would you believe?) dim sum dishes with lamb in a starring role just like lamb and sweet peanut dumplings or the lamb potsticker dumplings.

"More and more people are starting to acquire a taste for lamb," shares Itchon. "Preparing lamb is simple. Just trim out the fat so the meat is leaner and the cholesterol content is lesser." A piece of trivia: Red meat like lamb is a rich source of vital nutrients like iron, zinc and vitamin B12. Trivia no. 2: Lamb is a five-month-old sheep, a hogget is a 24-month-old sheep, and mutton is a sheep more than 24 months old. So, you won’t break into a sheepish grin when somebody in the know says you got your lambs confused and you can't tell your hoggets from your muttons.

Lamb can be used for salpicao, kaldereta, etc. Hey, she even enthuses that some people have come up with lamb adobo and (I’m not making this up) sinigang. Sinigang? Imagine lamb meat in a blurry, sour stew of sampalok, sili, kangkong and gabi. Nothing’s impossible with lamb meat and a cook staring at a pot like an artist gazing at canvas.

Well, like Colin Mackay who owns Sala and People’s Palace, both on J. Nakpil Street in Malate.

Our tour starts at Sala where we have Australian lamb moussaka tartlet. The dish is a Greek-inspired appetizer, which fuses lamb (chopped or ground) with eggplant, onion, oregano, garlic, tomatoes, etc. Mackay’s version of the moussaka is unique: The cinnamon has an overpowering taste. Those mini tarts (with the cinnamon sweet enough and the lamb tender enough) make good preludes to a good meal.

Afterwards, it’s off to People’s Palace next door to sample the Australian-Thai lamb satay with peanut sauce. Hey, I admit I’m prone to using meal money to buy John Coltrane and The Clash CDs, but I’ll entertain second thoughts when it comes to Thai food. I love tom yung, pad thai, and fried wild boar with chili – all spicy, funky tongue-burners. So, using Aussie lamb with hot, habit-forming Thai dips and sauces is for me a great idea.

Mackay says he buys spices in Bangkok, Thailand every chance he gets since he belittles instant, just-add-hot-water curries. Authenticity is the key for him. Colin adds that food in those mammoth Thai markets is super-cheap.

The Palace’s satay is served with saw-tooth coriander, Thai basil (really minty leaves) and cucumber sticks to help cool one’s tongue down. Plus, guests at the People’s Palace can wash down their skewered meats with okra flower juice, a concoction that can be compared with sweet and tangy raspberry. The okra’s dried spider-like flowers are boiled with sugar until they become crimson. The result is a funky brew that goes well with an equally funky dish. Well, so far so good.

We hop on the coaster and visit a place called Patio Guernica on J. Bocobo St. Here, we enjoy a meal called Australian lamb chop Provençale, to the strains of a guitar trio doing a faithful cover of Eres Tu. In this particular dish, the lamb meat is smothered with tomato sauce, Spanish herbs and chopped tomato. Mashed potatoes complete the meal.

In Portico along Adriatico St., the fourth stop of our gustatory safari, we have barbecue Australian lamb shoulder. Chef Vicky Pacheco explains that the trick is not to cover up the natural lamb flavor but to enhance it. She used a thick and a mildly sweet barbecue sauce.

Participating in the Oooh-La-Lamb Festival this month are: Hyatt Regency Manila, Hotel Inter-Continental Manila, New World Renaissance Hotel, The Westin Philippine Plaza, Aqua, Bianca’s Café and Vinotek, Carpaccio Ristorante Italiano, Casa Armas-Greenbelt 3, Casa Armas-Podium, Casa Armas-Jupiter, Cascada, Chateau 1771, Cirkulo, Ilustrado, La Tienda, Le Souffle-The Fort, Le Souffle-Ortigas, Top of the Citi, Mamma, Mario’s-St. Francis Square, Mario’s-T. Morato, MYLK, Nu Vo, Old Swiss Inn-Makati, Old Swiss Inn-Paco, Patio Guernica Restaurant, People’s Palace, Portico, Raj, Restaurant 9501, Sala, Soleil, Tender Bob’s Steak House, Uva, Zucchini’s Grill & Vinotek, Restaurant 12, Una Mas and retail outlets Price Smart, Santi’s, Monterey and Shopwise.

Man, if you visit one of these outlets be prepared to take in a lot of delicious lamb meat and put away a lot of erroneous lamb myths in the process.