Updates on traditional Chinese dishes

CEBU, Philippines – You must have heard of the saying: “There is Chinese cuisine wherever Chinese people are found.” This is especially true in countries where a significant number of the population has Chinese ancestry like in Singapore, Malaysia, America, Thailand and the Philippines. Over a period of time, techniques and ingredients from the native cuisine of these countries are integrated into Chinese cuisine and vice versa.

The process is very much similar to the concept of the German philosopher Georg Hegel that starts with a “thesis” and then its conflict with the “antithesis,” and ultimately a “synthesis” solving the conflict and forming a new “thesis,” which starts the process all over again. In short, it is a continual evolution.

Such is the principle that Choi City Seafood Restaurant knows very well about, being a premier destination for a taste of authentic Chinese cuisine in the city.  The restaurant is on a mission of sort to constantly update as well as upgrade its traditional Cantonese dishes.

When our friends from Las Vegas, Eduard and Gilda Villarreal, came to visit Cebu, I talked with Choi City GM Gerard Catedrilla to schedule an eight-course dinner to welcome our guests. I asked for some of their recent innovations on the Chinese dishes. Your favorite food writer, however, could not resist the urge to request for a traditional dish with sea mantis or mantis shrimp, which I had not eaten for some time.

Opening drink was a Moët  et  Chandon champagne. The first course was the Duck Fruit Salad. This was one of the upgrades, and the presentation was beautiful like the sun with its rays. Fruits (mango and watermelon) and cucumber were the colourful rays radiating from the center made with julienne strips of roast duck. Then the service crew tossed the salad and served each guest with a bowl of it.  The taste was just refreshingly wonderful!

The second dish was a Taro Scallops Pie, which is an update from the traditional Fried Taro with Duck. Aside from the different filling, this dish used a variety of taro available only in Camiguin Island. The Live Sea Shrimps or Suaje Soup followed, its contents so enriched by the delicious flavors coming from the shrimps’ head. In the olden days, there was no vetsin and Cebuano cooks used an extract from the mashed shrimp heads which is rich in glutamic acids to flavor their dishes. Heat transforms the acid into monosodium glutamate and this is the main ingredient of vetsin. Very wise, those old folks!

The fourth course was a signature dish from Choi City Restaurant, Roast Layered Porkand. The fifth dish was my special request – Steamed Sea Mantis with Ginger. I wanted to taste the “sweetness” or the “umani” of the shrimp meat and I did not want to hide it with butter, which is often used to cook it. I got a piece that had eggs in it and it was utterly delicious.

We had a vegetable dish, Three Kinds of Mushroom with Broccoli, and followed by the Choi City’s Sizzling Live Lapu-lapu, an update on the Steamed Live Lapu-lapu. Cantonese chefs had perfected the cooking technique on live lapu-lapu. Tastes and styles may be changing, but serving it sizzling, excuse me, remains true to the spirit and traditions of Chinese food culture.

The last dish, Live Crabs in White Sauce, was another delicious innovation to cooking live crabs. While the Chinese in Singapore have perfected cooking crabs with chilli sauce, my beloved readers could now taste an upcoming signature crab dish of Cebu – Crabs in White Sauce, only at Choi City Seafood Restaurant.