The grapes of rapture
July 13, 2006 | 12:00am
When dining out, how do you spot the Filipino?
He will be the one at the café or wine bar asking for food to accompany his drink.
It’s an unwritten rule – one that most Pinoy restaurateurs know by heart but that some still have trouble with: In the Philippines, the beverage cannot stand alone. Some food – even the tiniest dish of pica-pica – must be served with the drinks.
Wine expert Kitt Schroeder held out longer than most. As the owner of Brumms Quality Wines Inc., she happily sold the best German and Austrian white wines for 18 years before a sly suggestion here and there made her think that yes, her wines would go perfectly with some fine food!
And so, with no culinary training, just gut instinct guiding her ("It’s a feeling," she says), Kitt set out to build the restaurant of her dreams.
First, she had to find a chef. Friend Michi Calica’s husband Josemaria Sotto was a New York-trained chef, but he was busy with another restaurant and badly needed a hiatus. So the Sottos suggested Golda May Ranada, a promising 33-year-old who’d worked as Jose’s sous chef at Beluga Bar and Bistro. Golda had cut her teeth at Le Soufflé, learning classic cuisine from mentor Andreas Katzer.
With the chef problem solved, Kitt turned to another friend, architect Jose Mañosa (Bobby’s son), to build the restaurant. She already had the perfect location – an old building in the family compound in Horseshoe Village – situated above her state-of-the-art, 27,000-bottle wine cellar. Mañosa rebuilt the structure to her specifications – that of a Mediterranean villa found in Ana Capri, southern Italy. Kitt named the restaurant Lemuria after a favorite subject she had been reading up on. "Lemuria is an ancient civilization, along with Atlantis," she says. "I was fascinated to learn that it’s the mystical name of the Philippines."
If you don’t know where to look, finding Lemuria could be as tricky as hunting for a lost civilization. The sign posted roadside merely reads "The Winery," referring to Kitt’s famous cave. But go past a flower-wreathed wooden gate, and you’re ushered into a different, much quainter, world. A carp-filled pond with waterfall points to a stairway up to Lemuria. Everything about this eatery says "well-kept secret," from the intimate seating that accommodates only 26, to the rustic interiors that emphasize light wood, red brick, and antique maps framed on the walls.
Kitt herself provides as warm a welcome as you could want. A Lena Olin lookalike, she’s every wine connoisseur’s dream sommelier – open to all suggestions about the menu, but very knowledgeable and sure-handed about her wine list.
To start, she suggested an aperitif of apricot liqueur. While we perused the menu, a warm mound of homemade foccacia and walnut bread was brought to the table. Should we have an appetizer of seared foie gras with fig glaze and braised cabbage salad, or seared scallop salad with caviar brown butter? Kitt took the matter out of our hands by serving a sampler filled with tantalizing bites. I loved the delicately sliced Muscovy duck breast with pears poached in Zinfandel, and the Lemuria paté with porcini and balsamic syrup, which we spread with gusto on crisp melba toasts. We downed shot glasses of cold cucumber gazpacho with crisp tortellini – very refreshing on a humid day like this one – and were immediately transported to Italy by the homegrown flavors of goat cheese with tomato carpaccio and basil toast.
Chef Golda devised a French-Mediterranean menu to go with Kitt’s European wines, and the concept is beautiful in its simplicity, really. "I want upscale wines to be enjoyed without breaking the bank," says Kitt. "At hotels, you have to pay corkage, plus-plus. Why pay double in hotels when here you have wines at one-third the price?"
While wines are Lemuria’s avowed specialty, the food is every bit as good as the spirits, and on par – if not better – than what you’ll find in any hotel restaurant.
There are only 10 main courses on the menu, and they change every three months, as they do seasonally in the best European restaurants, to incorporate new flavors or to resurrect old favorites. (A relative of mine already has fingers poised on speed dial, awaiting the return of Golda’s lamb osso buco.)
We ordered almost everything on the menu. The ultrafresh poached sea bass had a delightful twist of fennel, and went extremely well with the Riverside Riesling Kitt poured from a blue bottle. The herb-crusted prawns with pasta negra were plump, crisp, and sinfully rich, thanks to an uni butter sauce. The cassoulet is a must-try – already hearty with its stick-to-your-ribs white beans, chef Golda makes it unforgettable with a duck confit that is as unpretentious as its origins. The roasted Cornish game hen with corn polenta; the braised lamb shank glazed with an apricot and red-wine sauce – everything on the menu boasted generous portions of the freshest ingredients, all skillfully cooked and beautifully presented.
"An incredible dining experience must strongly appeal to the senses: taste, sight, and even sound," affirms chef Golda.
I had the Wagyu steak, and for carnivores, Wagyu is a near-religious experience. The meat was marbled all the way through and grilled to a pillow-soft, flavorful doneness. No need for the accompanying Bordelaise sauce.
Dessert was another delicious dilemma. Spiced vanilla pears with ricotta pistachio cream? Cardamom-infused crème brûlée? Creamy carabao-milk pannacotta? We threw caution (and trim waistlines) to the wind and ordered them all. Don’t miss the Valrhona chocolate soufflé cake with mandarin orange glacé, or the trio of gelatos – the basil ice cream is to die for.
Noting our straining waistbands, Kitt took us for a short walk downstairs to see her famous cave, or cellar, which is resolutely 21st-century with its designer metal wine racks. The cellar itself is kept at a crisp 18 to 20 degrees Celsius, 24/7. Wine lovers may hear arias playing when they enter this lovely cave currently housing 12,000 to 15,000 bottles. Of course, she has fine bottles of Bordeaux, Burgundys and Rieslings on hand; but she also features Californian, Austrian and fine Argentinian wines and – surprisingly – a great number of Romanian wines.
Kitt prides herself on her Romanian bottles, and she’s in fact the only big seller here in the Philippines. She resorted to Romania for her reds because she found that German wines were weak in that aspect. "They’re not at par with the white," Kitt says. "I still find it wanting. Their Pinot was very expensive so I was looking, and by accident, met the Romanian ambassador, who said, ‘We have wines.’ I went to Bucharest two summers ago and chose the highly rated regions like the Dealu Mare."
Now, Kitt offers a more or less complete wine list, with rare beauties like "ice wine," made from grapes harvested in winter.
Kitt hopes to promote her cellar with wine festivals in the future, and she hints that a set menu with Pinot Noirs from around the world is underway, so everyone who identifies with Paul Giamatti in Sideways can push the Merlot aside for a while and glory in a dark Pinot.
Upstairs, in Lemuria, she makes it her mission to help diners expand their wine appreciation. Ask Kitt what wine goes best with any dish on her menu, and you’ll get a crash course. "We ask, ‘Are you adventurous?’" she says with a smile, then explains how Pinot Noir – hers are imported from Oregon and California – goes best with duck. And she has much enthusiasm for German Rieslings: "It’s a major varietal. The fruits, acidity and minerals are greatly balanced; they dance together and make a nice tune."
But don’t feel intimidated by such a wine list: It’s all "entry-level," according to Kitt. After all, choosing a wine should make you smile, not sweat.
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