Food tripping in Tagaytay
MILLIE: I promised Karla a weekend somewhere for her birthday — our usual mother-daughter bonding. Although we really wanted to go to Baguio or Hong Kong, we decided to enjoy the cold weather and went to Tagaytay for the day.
On the way, Karla and I stopped by Ming’s garden to buy some plants. Alas, there were no orchids, but I found some nice bromeliads for our lanai. We made a quick stop at Rowena’s and were surprised to see how this place has grown, with a fantastic selection of delightful snacks available for sale. I could not resist buying a box of her bestseller, the yummy buko tarts, which I popped into my mouth as soon as I got into the car. I first tasted Rowena’s buko tart when I went on retreat once and it was served as our snack. Naturally, I bribed the retreat house staff to tell me where I could order some.
Our next stop was LZM in Silang, Cavite, to enjoy our favorite B&B or bulalo and bangus. It was simple, casual, comforting and, I must say, consistently delicious through all the times we’ve eaten there since many years ago. We even bought five pieces whole uncooked bangus to take home, stored in a cooler in the car, which is so typical of us. The cool air was making me sleepy after lunch, so we stopped by Santi’s Delicatessen for coffee. We spent the afternoon just chatting and watching season five of Castle and towards sunset, we went for a paseo at the Cliffhouse to enjoy the view of Taal Lake. There’s something about the stillness of the lake that calms me down and gives me inner peace.
We chanced upon chef Paul Huang, owner of the Fire Lake Grill, and decided to interview him. I had dinner at his restaurant the week before with my best friend Verne Reyes and her friends Emmy Mendoza, Lisa Dalton and Ellen Sayo from LA, and we all had a wonderful time wining and dining after an afternoon at Nurture Spa. I noted, too, that the prices are not very expensive compared to other fine dining places in the vicinity.
KARLA: Chef Paul says that prior to starting the business, he was actually in corporate for 20 years. He worked in marketing for San Miguel Beer and Pepsi, to name a few. By 2001, he decided to retire at a very early age. Chef Paul recalls that even at a young age, he already enjoyed cooking and so when his wife Odette found a newspaper clipping of Heny Sison’s Essentials of Cooking course, he signed up to formalize the knowledge he had already accumulated through the years. Not only did chef Paul graduate, he graduated at the top of the class as the Most Promising Chef in the first batch of this course. After that, he did an internship with chef Ariel Manuel of Lolo Dads. He was then advised by chef Ariel that if he really wanted to learn more about owning a restaurant and the ins and outs of operations, he should try working for a hotel, and he did. He worked at the Mandarin Oriental for two years and by 2005, he had formally launched Fire Lake Grill.
Chef Paul is actually the uncle of my good friend Sam Huang. Chef Paul and Sam’s dad, Peter, are twins. Sam and I grew up together as we were teammates for gymnastics in Poveda. Tita Susie, Sam’s mom, is actually one of my suppliers for event giveaways. She has a business making personalized cards, calendars, notebooks, stickers, etc., and therefore chef Paul is no stranger to us. His wife Odette lives in Singapore and in spite of their busy schedules and the long-distance relationship, they always find time to meet at least every six weeks. When asked, Paul mentioned that he gets his inspiration from other restaurants he eats in and also when he travels. He talked about his recent trip to Spain where he took a gastronomic tour, which is something mom and I have been dying to do. One of the best treats he got during his recent birthday, which he spent in Singapore, was meeting celebrity chef Joel Robuchon.
Fire Lake Grill’s bestsellers are Paul’s steaks, particularly the US Angus Rib Eye. But because of the whole-day food trip, we decided to forgo the steak and come back for it another time. For starters, we had the house-cured salmon strips tossed with Tagaytay greens, sugar beets and dill sauce topped with lumpfish caviar, onion rings and crispy potato chips. I couldn’t pick which pasta to get, so we ordered two kinds. The first one was the penne pasta baked with broccoli, cream cheese sauce and topped with cheddar and Parmesan cheeses with slices of US Angus top blade. I have a feeling kids will love this dish because of its simplicity and cheesiness, plus, it would be an excuse for kids to eat vegetables. The other pasta was the linguini in black truffle cream sauce with smoked garlic sausage and shiitake mushrooms. Unlike most truffle dishes that break out nowadays, this one did not have a hint of truffle oil, which I was very thankful for. It was actually one of the deciding factors why I chose the black truffle pasta. Mom, on the other hand, ordered the citrus-lemongrass marinated Australian lamb chops.
MILLIE: The previous week, Verne and I shared the salad with slivers of smoked salmon, tiny chunks of red beet and a dollop of red caviar and I didn’t realize I had ordered exactly the same thing. Because we had decided to order a bottle of French Colombelle that night, I settled for the grilled prawns with angel hair pasta and arugula. It was simple, light and perfectly paired with the white wine.
Other selections we did not get to try but will definitely go back for are the French duck breast, which I actually wanted but was not available that evening. Fire Lake also has Australian lamb shank with saffron-herb risotto. Fish entrée choices are Norwegian salmon in dalandan butter sauce and Chilean sea bass with arugula pesto, which both sound very interesting.
As I was reading through the dessert menu, I knew exactly what Karla would go for and ordered flourless chocolate cake with peanut butter and white chocolate filling. But a few minutes later, chef Paul came to our table and suggested we try a better dessert, which was the vanilla and salted caramel cheesecake. By this time, the place was bustling, so Karla and I requested our waiter to transfer us outdoors to the veranda so we could enjoy the full moon and chilly night as we savored our sweet ending.
The drive back home was smooth and we both managed to take a snooze in the car. We stopped by Seaside market to buy some live crabs for our Sunday family dinner since the full moon was out and the crabs big and fat!
It was one of the best, unplanned days we spent together and we realized we didn’t even talk about work!
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Fire Lake Grill is located at Unit 3, Cliffhouse, Tagaytay, General Emilio Aguinaldo Highway. For inquiries and reservations, call (36) 483-2069 or mobile 0917-529-8421.
For personalized event giveaways and gifts, log on to http://slhcreations.multiply.com.
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Send e-mail to milliereyes.foodforthought@gmail.com and karla@swizzlemobilebar.com. Find us on Facebook and read articles you might have missed: Food for Thought by Millie & Karla Reyes.
