In cod we trust

MANILA, Philippines – When Cris and husband Nick Barancik discovered Portuguese cuisine on a trip to Macau, it was as if the two epicurean explorers had set foot on a culinary land of promise. The couple’s taste buds would soon garner great expectations for the espetada (bay leaf-skewered beef tenderloin, seafood and vegetables), and the distinctive bacalhau (cod) dishes, chasing these Portuguese staples in every country they journeyed to.

“We fell in love with the cuisine but when we’d come back home, we would wonder why it was unavailable in the Philippines,” Cris explains what pushed the Baranciks to set up O’Sonho, their Portuguese fusion restaurant on Makati’s Jupiter St.

At O’Sonho, pronounced “o-son-yo” and Portuguese for “The Dream,” many would agree that the cuisine’s absence from our soil is definitely not because of the taste. Of course, Cris and her husband’s wild passion for such revelatory cooking is what has turned their gastronomic dream into their customers’ as well.

The spoonful of Bacalhau de O’Sonho I’d heaped onto a broken-off chip of pita was a seafarer’s reverie that slowly unfolded on my tongue; the brininess of the traditional specialty tempered by a mishmash of carrots, potatoes, chickpeas, and tomato chunks that buoy up the stewed flakes of salted codfish. The Caldo Verde is an understated soup with its puree of cabbage and potatoes prepping my palate for such a cod-send. From that first hearty bite of bread-cushioned bacalhau, you will know why cod is the king fish in a country bordered mostly by the Atlantic. At O’Sonho, bacalhau is just as revered, prepared also in a cream-based variant or as tomato-based pasta with capers and black olives — each recipe intensifying the cod’s delightful complexity. 

In fact, the Portuguese spice infused in O’Sonho’s dishes is the sort that accommodates all — especially when washed down with a bottle of Cerveza Negra or a glass of Arkel Merlot, the restaurant’s house wine. Apart from sending customers off on a gustatory voyage — represented by its sepia wall mural of ships out at sea — O’Sonho makes quite the liquor lounge as it is open till 2 a.m. on weekends. A pool deck vibe with plush banquettes and sunset stripes on white walls is as conducive to cocktail swilling as forking an appetizer sizzling from a hot plate — or both.    

Of course, O’Sonho’s tira gosto (appetizer) menu boasts concoctions enriched with just the right amount of kick, from the garlic-and-herb assault of succulent prawns that is the Portuguese gambas to the Picado, a salpicao rendering made more enticing with a hint of red wine and a crispy overlay of potato strings. Other flavorful feats are found in the prato principal (main course) selection: a quick-cook spice-fest of dry seafood paella; a belly buzz from coffee-marinated roast pork mounted on a bed of rosemary-and-tarragon-whipped potatoes; and the peri-peri chicken on fragrant chicken rice, which uses its signature peri-peri sauce to deliver a piquant punch to a pair of butterfly-cut chicken thighs. But whether you opt for the spiced chicken on a mound of sun-dried tomato-and-basil-tossed tagliatelle or roasted whole to serve your famished group of four to five, the house’s peri-peri sauce provides an appetizing attack of sweet, friendly fire rather than a red-hot chili raid.

Prices are just as friendly what with uniquely tangy appetizers — mozzarella-coated veggie fritters, maybe, or a platter of Portuguese chorizo — costing less than P300 (not to mention all dishes are cooked with the purest olive oil) and a towering fresh-fruit milk smoothie like peaches and cream or strawberry banana marked at P130 and below.

“With the pricing, our consultants say we’re the worst business people,” says Cris, when adding up the cost-effectiveness — exquisite eats for less — of O’Sonho’s Angus ribeye or her favorite, Chilean sea bass with a playful lemon-butter sauce. “It’s a passion, more than anything else. We just want people to be able to try Portuguese food and fall in love with it like we have. And I think we represent everybody in terms of wanting to eat well but not having to pay gourmet prices. That’s the dream, really.”

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For more information, call, 896-3298 or 0922-870-7844 or visit O’Sonho at 20 Jupiter Street, Bel Air, Makati.