The order of the Phoenix

KARLA: The order of the Phoenix is not about Harry Potter, but about a different Phoenix that can be found down south. Last week, mom and I were invited to dine at Bellevue’s Phoenix Court in Alabang. Unfortunately, mom was in Tagaytay and could not join me, but I wouldn’t pass up a Chinese lauriat just because she couldn’t. Haha! So I went. I was first directed to a table for four, which gave me the impression that we would be having lunch with an intimate party of four. As more people arrived, we were asked to transfer tables and ushered into a private room with a huge and very impressive round dining table for 25 people with a lazy Susan. The center of the table was taking up so much space that Tito Johnny Litton joked about having girls dance around the center of the table. The downside to having a table this huge is that it was very difficult to actually get to talk to everyone in the group, plus the fact that it would take a while for the Lazy Susan to make a full rotation. We joked about how the table should have a stop light cause we could barely see if someone from the other side was getting something from the table. Good thing the servers were very attentive and accommodating, as they went around serving us as well so we wouldn’t have to wait so long.

Duck’s the spirit: Peking duck carvers cheerfully carry out their craft.

Typical me, as soon as I sat down, I grabbed the menu card and analyzed what we were having for lunch. I even took a picture of it and e-mailed it to my mom so she could salivate over what she was missing, and indeed she did. She e-mailed me with a reply that said, “Inggit! Quack quack!” And she was supposed to be on a retreat at that time. Haha! We started off the lunch with dim sum baskets of steamed scallop dumplings and steamed polonchay dumplings. I almost had a whole basket to myself if the table had not been going around, plus I had to pace after seeing the long list of what was coming. Next came the much-awaited Peking duck, but because the servers were still carving them, they served the hot prawn salad first. This was one of my favorite dishes, but I would never eat the fruits it came with. This time I had four tiger prawns, and they were huge, crunchy ones. Yum! The hot prawn salad with mango, apple, pineapple and lettuce is on the regular menu for only P540, which is quite affordable for a “hotel price.” By the time the Peking duck came, most of us were almost full, which meant that there was leftover duck. Oh, no! I hope it didn’t go to total waste. I would have had more, but we weren’t even halfway yet. For our soup, we had winter melon soup with fresh crab meat, dried scallops and mushrooms. Winter melon is more familiar to us as kundol, which normally requires warm weather. Therefore, this was originally served during the hot season because summer is the season for winter melon.

Dim sum delight: Steamed scallop dumplings served with asparagus and shrimp

Next up were the hot items. First we had steamed lapu-lapu with Tauso sauce and it was filleted on the spot. We also had homemade bean curd, which was very soft and freshly made with spring onions, polonchay and deep-fried enokitake mushrooms on top with garlic oyster sauce. This was actually the dish I went back for, and I hoarded the deep-fried mushrooms. Also prepared was the tenderloin beef with pepper sauce, deep-fried chicken marinated in Chinese bagoong, seafood hotpot with tiger prawns and huge scallops, braised crabmeat with homemade bean curd and vegetables in white sauce topped with fish roe, and chicken sausage rice in hotpot.

By this time, people were already either too full to move, moving because they were too full or had already stepped our for a cigarette break. Tito Johnny gathered all the ladies in the room to have a picture with him and said that he wanted the caption of the picture to be “Johnny’s Harem.” Our array of desserts was then brought in: seasonal fresh fruits in watermelon and melon carved baskets, hot taro sago with coconut milk and buchi. At this time, it was already 2:30 p.m. and I couldn’t believe that we had been eating for two hours! Haha!

Chef’s specialty: Phoenix Court chef Cheong Kwan Loong’s deep-fried homemade bean curd with shredded mushrooms

MILLIE: At a very young age, I experienced dining the authentic Chinese way — called a “lauriat” — every time there was an important occasion. It was always an endless grand feast, starting with cold or hot appetizers, soup, seafood, vegetables, chicken, pork, beef, fish, fried rice and dessert, in that order.

“Why is the fish and rice served at the end?” I remember asking my Mom once. I was told this was a Chinese tradition as the fish is an auspicious symbol wishing continuity of abundance. The rice served at meal’s end by tradition was to signify one’s satisfaction in case he had not had enough to eat. But Filipinos prefer to eat their viands with the rice and always insist that the rice be served first. Sometimes, diners even complain that service is bad at Chinese restos that serve the rice at the end of the Chinese banquet, not realizing it is a Chinese custom. Thanks to my parents’ friend Mina Yu Khe Tai, she painstakingly explained and taught us these Chinese traditions, making us understand the rationale behind the unique manner of service. I also learned from a Chinese chef, Kavino Lau, that it is only in the Philippines that if a birthday is being celebrated, the noodles will be served at the start of the meal to signify long life. My Chinese schoolmate from Lausanne, Switzerland, Coleen Tung, confirms that in today’s banquet food sequencing, the real Chinese tradition is followed and the noodles, which stand for longevity, come toward the end of the meal before the fried rice.

The tables at these Chinese banquets would always be round with a lazy Susan that would run clockwise or counter-clockwise. The lazy Susan is so convenient, we even use it at home. There is no set place where it begins and ends but, by protocol at home, we allow guests and elders to partake of the food first before the younger ones are allowed to serve themselves. Normally, if I am hosting, the correct protocol is to serve the persons to my right and left before I serve myself. Personally, I like using round tables versus rectangular ones, as it is easier to converse with the other diners around the table. I recall one state dinner hosted at the PICC by then President Ferdinand E. Marcos for then Vice Premier Li Hsien-nien: we were required to set up a gigantic round table for 30 persons and First Lady Imelda liked it so much that she requested this huge round table as her permanent presidential table for all official banquets from that time on.

I did miss lunch at The Bellevue but will definitely come by soon. I’m glad Karla had a ball with my dear friend Johnny Litton; what a pleasurable double treat!

Sauce of pride: XO to go!

The Bellevue Manila is at the North Bridgeway, Filinvest Corporate City, Alabang, Muntilupa City, Philippines. For inquiries or reservations, you may call 771-8181.

Send e-mail to milliereyes.foodforthought@gmail.com and karla @swizzemobilebar.com. Find us on Facebook and read articles you might have missed: Food for Thought by Millie & Karla Reyes.