Smoking hot!

You would think the Old Swiss Inn at Somerset Olympia in Makati City was burning that sultry night. But no, the restaurant was simply filled with smoke because so many fondue pots were out and burning on each table. It was the restaurant’s Swiss Fondue Night and Wine, a rare food promotion that had Metro Manila’s certified foodies coming in droves, relishing the thought of having three of the restaurant’s signature fondues — Wastlander fondue (crispy bread cubes dipped in melted Gruyere and Emmenthal cheese laced with kirsch), Fondue Bourguignonne (prime beef tenderloin cubes dipped in hot oil served with assorted sauces and fries), and dark Toblerone chocolate fondue (fresh fruits and butter cake cubes dipped in dark Toblerone melted with double cream and spiked with Jamaican rum) — all for the bargain price of P850. Add to that, each fondue would be served with endless refills of wines chosen specifically for the evening’s offering.

Trust OSI’s Katrina Limcaoco to come up with a winning idea. Although announcements of the promotion only came out a week before the event — mostly by e-mail and word of mouth — the Makati branch was packed by the time the first fondues were brought out of the kitchen. And there were more still coming in. Total strangers squeezed in to make more room at the tables to accommodate latecomers. They must all know something about Swiss food.

What is a fondue? Katrina explains that it is just an ingenious way Swiss sheep herders thought of to be able to put to good use stale hard bread and even harder cheese. Cheese and bread: the magical alchemy that results from the combination of these two basic ingredients is considered by many to be the Swiss national dish.

The evening’s first fondue is considered to be the classic Swiss cheese fondue. As the cheese bubbled away, we took turns dipping our bread-skewered fondue forks into it. And the melted cheese that dripped off the bread we caught with a teaspoon specially provided for the occasion. (The teaspoon is an Old Swiss Inn innovation. No Swiss in his right mind would cheat to catch the dripping cheese with a teaspoon.)

When we demolished two baskets of bread cubes, we signaled for the next fondue to be served. The Fondue Bourguignonne is served in a steel pot, unlike the ceramic fondue bowl used for cheese and chocolate fondues. The oil was sizzling hot as we speared our forks with beef cubes and cooked them to our desired doneness. I like my steak rare, so I never cook the beef cubes until they’re well done.

The steel pot was set up in the center of a metal cooker that had a rotating wheel with special compartments for the sauces that go with the beef. There were 12 sauces to choose from: fresh peppercorn sauce; caramelized onion sauce; mushroom sauce; teriyaki sauce; satay sauce; spicy tomato sauce; garlic mayo; mayo mustard; curry mayo; herb mayo; pickled onion and gherkins; and herb tomato.

Which sauce did I like? I don’t really remember. I had a grand time dipping the cooked beef cubes into the different sauces that each was my favorite.

By the time we finished all the beef cubes, we were all ready for the evening’s piece de resistance: dark Toblerone chocolate fondue. What can I say? We were all reaching out for the strawberries because strawberries always go best with chocolate. That’s a fact. By the time we finished all of the berries, we went through the fruits, marshmallows, and cake cubes. As the chocolate in the pot started to burn, we took out our teaspoons and greedily scraped the remaining chocolate. Yummy!

Here are some fondue rules that we ignored that night. If a lady drops a bread cube or fruit slice in the fondue pot, she gives all the guys at the table a kiss. If a man drops his share in the pot, he orders a round of drinks for everyone.

The Old Swiss Inn Fondue Night was just the first in a series of special food promotions the restaurant will be holding throughout the year. Already in the works is an evening of raclette, which is another Swiss culinary institution. This early, foodies are already awaiting word on that, and you can count me in, too.

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Old Swiss Inn has branches at The Garden Plaza Hotel and Suites, 1030 Belen St., Paco, Manila (521-3002, 526-2739, and 522-4835 local 115); at the ground floor, Somerset Olympia, Makati Ave. corner Sto. Tomas St., Makati City (818-8251, 818-0098, and 812-1010 local 511-512); and at the second floor, BMW Autozentrum Lounge, Commerce Ave. corner Madrigal Ave., Ayala Alabang (809-2326).