Delicious seasons of Spring Moon

You could say that it is the Chinese Valentine’s Day," says Anita Chan-Wong. "In the olden times, the girls would stand in their gardens or verandahs holding colorful lanterns of different shapes, while the young men went out to choose their brides. It was a very romantic time." The auspicious day comes 15 days after the New Year of the Chinese Lunar calendar, and this year, it falls on March 4, the day when the new Spring Moon restaurant at the Power Plant Mall in Rockwell Center formally opens.

"The season of spring brings with it the promise of better, brighter days. It means beautiful weather — neither too hot nor too cold. The world is young again and people are more hopeful and more relaxed. The evenings are clear and perfect for going out," continues Anita Wong, explaining the restaurant’s name.

Spring Moon is the newest outlet of the Rio Grande Corporation, a group of friends that include Rep. Lorna Silverio, Aleta Suarez, and Anita Wong. It serves delicious and authentic Cantonese food. "In Cantonese cooking, everything has to be very fresh," says Anita Wong. This accounts for the distinctive flavors and textures of the food. To further ensure that the authenticity of flavors is retained, Fung, a true-blue Chinese chef, holds the reins in the kitchen.

A recent visit to the restaurant enabled us to enjoy familiar flavors and try new dishes. We started out with an uncomplicated Hainanese chicken that was deliciously comforting. The dish is testament to the fact that if one starts out with the best ingredients, one does not need much adornment. A simple dipping sauce of minced ginger with a dash of soy sauce for color was all it took to add a burst of flavor.

Likewise, roast duck was a familiar dish. The bird is baked until it is golden brown and a thin layer of tasty fat underneath complements the crisp skin immensely. The duck meat remained tender and succulent, and indicating that the bird was roasted to perfection. As we all know, overcooking tends to dry out the juices, leaving the meat hard and stringy.

Most people would not venture to eat crab if they do not want to risk getting messy, but crab in garlic sauce was served with a quaint device that is meant to extricate the meat from the innermost recesses of the crustacean. The plastic utensil is like a long plastic stick with a little scoop at the end, and it was a cinch to manipulate the device so that no morsel of crab meat could escape the probing. This is a good thing, since the crabs that are flown in from Roxas City have the hard, orange delectable fat that I find absolutely irresistible.

Marissa Basa, Rep. Lorna Silverio’s sister, recommended an unbeatable combination: squid with bagoong (P320) and beef fried rice (P195). Less adventurous and more straitlaced eaters may argue, "Squid can’t graze and cows can’t swim, so the two can’t go together." To them, I say: Exorcise your food prejudices. On its own, the squid with bagoong might be a tad too salty. The beef fried rice alone has the usual, expected flavor. Together, however, the combination is a winner.

What else did we try? The steamed snapper (P390) was expectedly fresh and tasty, while the chicken and shrimp salad with mango was simple and refreshing. Spring Moon fried rice (P230) was special because it contained more ham, duck, and other morsels chopped into delicious bits. We failed to sample it on this visit, there was an item on the menu called Japanese siomai, that the maitre d’ described as siomai wrapped in nori — Chinese-Japanese fusion. This just goes to show that food is eternally changing and reflective of globalization.

However, the most interesting item on the menu for me was still pigeon. "Pigeon" is so much a part of our daily conversation and you may have used the descriptions "pigeon-toed" and "pigeon-chested." However, did you ever hear of "pigeon-eyes?" Anita Wong says that pigeon-eyed persons focus only on the beautiful part of things or on aspects that are advantageous to them alone, which is certainly not a good thing. The expression comes from the habit of pigeons focusing on their feed bowls. If the feeds fly off the bowl, they do not pick them up.

Aside from being a good topic of conversation, the pigeons served at Spring Moon are delicious. One tip in eating pigeon is to peel the bird to remove the skin entirely so that the skin stays crisp, as the juices from the tender meat tend to soften the skin when the bird is cut up. The special birds are raised in the Silverio farm in San Rafael, Bulacan.

Other than the food, the best part about Spring Moon is its relaxed and friendly atmosphere that allows you to linger, to observe your surroundings, and to learn something new about people.

On the leisurely afternoon of our visit, we discovered that it was Rep. Lorna Silverio who made the sizeable oil painting hanging on one wall. "I started painting last year," she says; sharing that away from her work in Congress and various activities, she works on three paintings each time. It takes an average of three weeks to finish a big painting. "I derive inspiration from nature," she says. Painting allows her to relax and recharge. On the other hand, her friend Anita Chan-Wong says that her jewelry designs are more modern and abstract. And just as springtime is a time for something new, my afternoon at Spring Moon was a time for discovering new facets about the restaurant owners.

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Spring Moon is at 103H, Level R1, Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Center, Makati City. For reservations and inquiries, call 756-0347.