JUST when you think you’re already familiar with all the regional cuisines of China, somebody introduces a new and unfamiliar one that nonetheless tickles your fancy because the food is good. If you’ve never heard of, much less tasted, Huaiyang cuisine, it might be time to acquaint your palate with it. Ongoing at Shang Palace, Makati Shangri-La Hotel’s premier Cantonese restaurant, until July 30, 2014, is the Experience Huaiyang Cuisine with Guest Chef Anthony Dong food promotion.
Huaiyang cuisine is one of the four world-renowned Chinese cuisines, the other three being Cantonese, Shandong and Sichuan (or Szechuan). It represents the region surrounding the lower reaches of the Huai and Yangtze rivers – thus its name – and is centered upon the cities of Huai’an, Yangzhou and Zhenjiang in Jiangsu province, which is in the Southern part of China. The place of origin of the famous Yangchow (Yangzhou) Fried Rice, its cuisine combines the cooking styles of Yangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing and Zhenjiang dishes.
There is a sweet side to Huaiyang cuisine, and it likes to combine savory with sweet to bring out the natural flavors of ingredients used. Sour, spicy, salty and sweet… These are all combined in Huaiyang dishes, which are mostly stewed or braised.
For the ongoing Experience Huaiyang Cuisine promotion at Makati Shangri-La’s Shang Palace, guest chef Anthony Dong, who comes from Futian Shangri-La, Shenzhen, puts together a special menu from which diners can order their choices of Cold Appetizers, Soup, Main Courses and Starch. He also put together a Chinese Set Menu, consisting of Appetizer Combination in Jiangnan Style, Braised Bean Curd Ball in Superior Broth, Deep-fried Shrimp with Oatmeal, Braised Beef Cheek with Red Wine Pear, Braised Bamboo Asparagus in Superior Broth, and Fried Rice with Preserved Minced Meat and Shrimps, priced at Php2,388 per person. The price is per person and not per table because the food is served plated, with Western style presentation, per person and not the usual lauriat or family style.
Manila-based food media got to sample Chef Anthony’s Chinese Set Menu on the first day of the promotion, which was July 21, 2014.
The Appetizer Combination in Jiangnan Style was a platter of five appetizers: Marinated Cuttle Fish and Japanese Beancurd, Marinated Chicken and Sliced Abalone with Wasabi, Marinated Minced Spinach with Green Mustard, Deep-fried Fish with Five Spices, and Marinated Celery. The Marinated Cuttle Fish and Japanese Bean Curd sat on a white snail figure made from siomai dough used in making Hakao (shrimp dumpling). The Marinated Chicken and Sliced Abalone with Wasabi, served on a crisp edible cup, would remind you of kinilaw (ceviche). The Marinated Minced Spinach with Green Mustard was a green fireball of spicy goodness that you’d keep on biting until it’s all gone. I thought the Deep-fried Fish with Five Spices was meat because of the dark brown color of its five-spice sauce, but it’s a very flavorful piece of appetizer that would, yes, whet your appetite. And the Marinated Celery that sat on a squid ring was crowned with tobiko (fish roe).
As for the soup, Braised Bean Curd Ball in Superior Broth, I assumed that the white strings in the soup were misua, which is a kind of very fine noodle often used in making a comfort soup dish called Misua Patola, but I was told that those were bean curd finely sliced by the chef. This dish showcased the chef’s fine knife skills that made it possible to, with just the right amount of pressure and perfect speed, slice bean curd that finely without making the bean curd break apart in the process.
The Deep-fried Shrimp with Oatmeal, which sat atop a slice of cucumber by its lonesome self, was my favorite. Coated with wasabi and then oatmeal, the shrimp was fried to a perfect crisp. Unfortunately, it’s the course in the Chinese Set Menu that would make you wish the dishes were being served lauriat style – because you’d want another piece, maybe even a third one.
The biggest surprise of the meal was the Braised Beef Cheek with Red Wine Pear. The round-shaped pear, which would make you think it’s an apple at first, was soaked and cooked in red wine and filled with juicy, fork-tender beef cheek. It’s sweet and savory served together.
Then came another course that I truly loved, Braised Bamboo Asparagus in Superior Broth. It’s four spears of asparagus in a flavorful broth. The flavors are subtle and clean, and because it’s light and healthy, it’s guilt-free to consume in its entirety.
As with any other Chinese meal, particularly one that’s served lauriat style as we have become accustomed to, the final dish was rice. It was Fried Rice with Preserved Minced Meat and Shrimps, another variation of the famous Yangchow Fried Rice that we have come to love.
To end the meal on a sweet note, as with any Western or Oriental meal, everyone was served a platter of assorted fruits – watermelon, honeydew melon and red dragon fruit, all balled and accompanied by a red, heart-shaped piece of jello.
Guest chef Anthony Dong is able to present his contemporary Huaiyang dishes with Western style plating because, aside from the fact that he’s very creative, he brings with him more than 20 years of culinary experience. He works with the freshest of ingredients and highlights the freshness of each ingredient in his dishes. A well-accomplished chef, he holds the title of Honorary Deputy Professor of Food and Beverage Management from Far East University in Tainan and has won a gold medal in the National Innovative Cooking Competition in China for his outstanding culinary skills and creativity. He is in Manila for the very first time.
