10 days in Provence

MANILA, Philippines – Two months ago our family vacationed in Provence. We followed the artists’ trail (many great painters lived or hail from Provence, like Cezanne, Van Gogh and Matisse) and marveled at quaint villages perched on sheer cliffs of rock, but most of all, we did an obscene amount of eating.

We slathered countless meters of crusty baguettes with countless pats of butter. Flocks of geese were relieved of their livers to sate our appetite for foie gras. Towns were remembered and kept distinct in our minds not through this architectural wonder or that historical detail but through what dishes we ordered and how good the meal was.

So it didn’t come as much of a surprise that once we got back to Manila, after two weeks of eating Provencal cuisine, we went through major withdrawal. Our bodies hungered for fresh seafood, earthy vegetables, and that extra-virgin olive oil that is the lifeblood of most cooks in the south of France.

There are only so many French restaurants to turn to in Manila, so it was welcome news to hear that Red, the fine dining restaurant in the Makati Shangri-La Hotel, was featuring a menu they called “Provence in 10 Days” (which is ongoing until June 17). Admittedly, the eyebrows of my husband and I shot up a bit: we had just come from the region, and the two chefs involved in creating the menu were not French, but Australian and Austrian. Well, it was worth a shot to be reminded of our Provencal experiences.

The menu opens with a Salad Nicoise, Red-style, in which one of the traditional ingredients, tuna, has been given the starring role. Five slices of it are served pan-seared in the center of the plate, while the rest of the ingredients, like the greens, egg and tomatoes, are reduced to the role of side salad. The salad itself tasted authentic and good, though not as abundant as it was on our Provencal plates, having sampled it in several locations in the town of Nice.

Fortunately, the two following middle dishes lived up to our pampered palates. The Marseille Bouillabaisse was my favorite, especially gratifying in the cold, rainy weather. With three different kinds of fish — including salmon — plus prawn and scallop, the saffron-seasoned dish was enough to bring us back to seaside lunches in Cassis, or warm afternoons exploring Nice.

Our hosts mention the town of Eze in their write-up on the dishes (each was inspired by a location in the Provence region) and we well remember a lunch high above Monaco’s seaside port. We most remember paying an outrageous sum for our fresh seafood, the price of which the waiters scoffingly insisted “depended on the weight.” We ended up being hit for 75 euros each for that meal, but it was almost worth it (especially before you got the bill).

Red’s seafood entrée was meant to evoke Eze, “hanging 1,407 feet above the Mediterranean,” and their sea bass served with herb butter and a ratatouille was spot-on — fresh and flaky. The ratatouille and red pepper sauce added just the right acidity to offset the richness of the fish. As Makati Shangri-La’s Austrian executive chef, Karl Heinz Krautler, pointed out, the menu is meant to capture the “spirit” of Provencal cooking, which relies more on the best, freshest ingredients more than any complicated or dazzling kitchen techniques. Freshness — whether from the garden, the livestock farm or the sea — is the key to this earthy cooking.

“We picked Provence for the style there,” Krautler said, “and with the way the weather is, it’s comforting food.”

We finished up with a roasted rack of lamb (the chef noted that they are using Colorado lamb instead of French) complemented by hearty vegetables — carrot, potato, crushed zucchini and a tomato fondue — and topped with a fragrant sprig of rosemary. The entire menu, in fact, is generous in the herbes de Provence: basil, marjoram and thyme being foremost among them.

We weren’t drinking for lunch, but asked our chef to recommend some white and red wines that would pair well with this special menu. Fortunately, Red has a good selection of Cadet Rouge Bordeaux, Clos de Marquis and Chateauneuf-du-Pape to pair with steak and meat dishes. One of the great things about traveling in the South of France is you realize that most people — your guide, the waiter, even your driver — knows enough about food and wine to pair together the right bottle with the right dish (and without breaking your budget).

Here, our chef recommended going with something more New World for the seafood-y menu, such as an Australian sauvignon blanc (the chardonnays, he said, would be a bit too dry), instead of an Old World French white. Again, this was in keeping with the spirit of unpretentious Provencal cuisine.

The one item not strictly Provencal was a special dessert that capped off our lunch in grand style. “Surprisingly Red” appeared as a shimmering dark maroon ball served on a striking heavy white plate. It looks like art or Frank Gehry architecture until you find out it’s a dome of Valrhona chocolate brushed with edible gold leaf. Red’s wait staff pour hot vanilla sauce over it until the chocolate melts to reveal a frozen parfait — a nice mixture of warm and cold, sweet (the vanilla), tart (a layer of strawberry chocolate underneath) and bitter (the Valrhona). The whole mixture ends up marbling with streaks of red, hence the name. The work of executive pastry chef Yusuf Yaran, who recently left the Shang, Surprisingly Red is a conversation piece that perfectly captures the edgy spirit of the restaurant.

With “Provence in 10 Days,” Red offers a hint of the remarkable eating and living that can be found in the South of France.

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The “Provence in 10 days” promo is ongoing until June 17 at Red in the Makati Shangri-La Hotel. Call 813-8888 for reservations and information.