It was my birthday and one of my bestfriends, Mona Lisa, was in town and buying me dinner. She invited me to go to her niece’s restaurant, Degustation. I thought I heard her say something that sounded like The Goose Station but I thought of the French word degustation and imagined she was simply saying it the English way. It was a rainy night at The Fort and we couldn’t find 38th Street. While I was there before seven it took me 35 minutes to locate it and by then I was almost insane with irritation. This is a restaurant in the middle of nowhere, I said.
If you’ve never been past Market Market or the places on the left of that, you could get lost. The name of this restaurant is The Goose Station, a pun on degustation. To get there go to Market, Market then keep going straight past STI and the International School until you see a sign that says 38th Street. Don’t turn there! Turn right at the next street called Triangle Road and left towards the only building on your left. That’s 39th Street. The Goose Station is next to Budji’s furniture something. It is easy to find if the person giving directions knows how to give them.
When I got there a glass of red wine was waiting for me and I drank from it to calm myself. Then I proceeded to order dinner. You ask for a main course and with it you get three other smaller dishes. These smaller dishes are the chef’s signature dishes that you try in a degustation, which, loosely translated is like a sampling of various things — dishes, cheese, wine — but done carefully and with appreciation. That night I sampled foie gras served in something like a cone, and an egg benedict served in a martini glass, the poached egg yolk at the bottom then topped with a delicious white froth that was to die for. Immediately it erased my irritation at being lost. This was a restaurant worth going to.
The Goose Station is owned by Rob Pengson and his wife Sunshine Puey. At that dinner Rob came to our table and brought us a taho dish, which he was going to serve at a pop-up restaurant he was being asked to open in Singapore. He decided to take off from Rizal and this was going to be one of the dishes. Taho is soybean curd you buy as street food. It is mixed with sago, local tapioca, plus sweet syrup. Rob’s version was served with a savory syrup made with foie gras and once again it was truly to die for.
That dinner ended and since then I had been thinking of whom I might invite to The Goose Station so I can eat all that delicious food again. Then they invited me to try their Rizal menu. Of course, I said yes.
Rob said that when he received the Singapore invitation, he wanted a menu that took off from being Filipino. He researched and finally stumbled on Rizal and some of his quotes. Those moved him to make certain dishes. Then he presented us with the courses, one by one. I print the menu here to give you an idea. There is only one thing I have to say: the meal was superb. I particularly liked the way he mixed culinary art with the quotes of Rizal. It filled out the meal, really involved you. It was like feeding you beyond your stomach to your soul.
This came out most clearly at dessert where we were served a Tres Leches cake on thin white sheets that resembled broken hosts. Then Rob asked us to read the quote, “I die without seeing the dawn brighten over my native land, you who have it to see; welcome it, and forget not those who have fallen during the night.” Then he asks us to press one of the white sheets and raspberry juice oozes out like blood. It was poetry.
I left the restaurant with my spirits high and yet we did not have wine with our meal. This young couple, Rob and Sunshine, are filled with a spirit for their country, which they mix with what they do well. Rob is a chef and Sunshine is a pâtissière, a female pastry chef. Together they collaborate on the menus for The Goose Station but Sunshine also has a pastry shop at Serendra (right next to Le Petit Artisan) called Gourmandise Patisserie, a French style shop that sells eclairs and cakes. My favorite is the Salted Caramel éclair, another thing to die for.
The pastry shop is beautiful with French paintings on the wall done by my young talented friend Robert Alejandro. And they have such lovely boxes!
This young couple is extremely talented. I have high hopes for both of them. I think they also have a good chance of putting Filipino food on the world map. But I must warn you – The Goose Station is expensive and requires around a minimum of almost P3,000/head. Gourmandise Patisserie is much less expensive but it’s a pastry shop.
I would recommend bringing your special someone to The Goose Station when there is an occasion you don’t want him or her to ever forget. For reservations to The Goose Station call 556-9068 or e-mail llivetoeat@thegoosestation.ph or visit their web page at www.thegoosestation.ph.
Because I am tired of people calling me to make reservations even if I’ve put the restaurant’s numbers in my article, I am withholding my cell phone now.