IF you love Southeast Asian food and you want to savor Malaysian Roti Prata, Singaporean Laksa, Indonesian Satay and Chinese Steamed Lapu-Lapu with Soya Sauce in one meal, there is a place that you can go to for a truly satisfying Southeast Asian meal. It’s called Makan Makan Asian Food Village at Hotel H2O, which is located inside the Manila Ocean Park Complex, Luneta, Manila.
The main F&B outlet of Hotel H2O, Makan Makan was started by the Singaporean who founded the Lion city’s very popular Makansutra, a street food concept that made hawker food huge in Singapore. Eventually, it became part of the hotel, and the chefs handling Makan Makan really trained in the different Asian cuisines that the restaurant specializes in. These cuisines include Singaporean, Malaysian, Indonesian, Thai, Chinese and Filipino. And, boy, have they become such experts in the Asian kitchen!
My husband Raff and I recently got a chance to dine at Makan Makan with Hotel H2O general manager Lily Santos-Adrid and director for sales and marketing Antonette Mitschiener, as well as friend from way back Celia Clarete-Soliman, my college professor in Writing for Print Nestor Cuartero, and a new acquaintance, Mary Carolyn Pellicer Magnaye from Business Mirror. I expected the food to be good, especially since I love Asian food, but I didn’t expect it to be awesome.
The degustation started with Malaysian Roti Prata (flat bread with tasty curry dip). I’ve tasted this Indian-inspired bread from my past travels to Singapore and Malaysia, and I’ve always liked its neutral taste with flaky texture. It goes really well with curry dip. I’ve tried Roti stuffed with sweet and savory fillings in the past, but I’ve always liked it best as plain Roti Prata with curry dip. The Roti of Makan Makan brings back memories of Singapore and Malaysia.
Next, the servers placed platters of Indonesian-style Pork, Chicken and Beef Satays on the table, with each type of satay laid out on banana leaf cones and peanut sauce for dipping, as they served Singaporean Laksa (spiced rice noodle soup topped with prawns and fish cake) and Thai Seafood Tom Yum Goong (sour and spicy lemongrass broth with seafood). The Laksa and the Seafood Tom Yum were actually presented in bowls, family style, but the servers dished them out in small individual bowls for everyone to enjoy. The Laksa was awesome. It had just the right spice level for my taste and it was flavorful without being overpowering. You could tell with every bite that the ingredients used were very fresh. The Tom Yum was equally enticing, and I kinda longed for Thailand, a country which I visited several times in the past but haven’t seen since the time of Typhoon Ondoy (September of 2009). At the height of Typhoon Ondoy on that fateful day in 2009, I arrived back in Manila from Thailand with Chef Heny Sison, Dr. Efren ‘Boy’ Vazquez of Café Juanita, and media colleagues Norma Chikiamco and Eunice Rochelle Fernando from our coverage of the Amazing Tastes of Thailand culinary event in Bangkok. But that is an entirely different story.
Going back to Makan Makan, for the main course, the servers laid out a spread of Singaporean Sambal Squid (squid rings cooked with chili paste), Chinese-style Makan Fried Chicken (marinated, deep-fried chicken), Steamed Lapu-Lapu with Soya Sauce (steamed grouper fish with soy sauce) that’s famous in Chinese cuisine, and Makan Makan Lechon de Leche (charcoal-roasted piglet, Filipino style, served with spicy soy vinegar). We had Pineapple Fried Rice (Thai-style fried rice with juicy pineapple bits, shrimps, chicken chunks and raisins), literally served in a pineapple bowl and Cha Hae Mee (Malaysian-style stir-fried bihon noodles with shrimps) to go with the main dishes.
My favorite among the main dishes was the Steamed Lapu-Lapu with Soya Sauce, of course, since I am a seafood lover, and I simply fell in love with the Cha Hae Mee, which is very similar to the Singaporean Hokkien Mee in look and taste. The Cha Hae Mee is best eaten with calamansi juice and sambal sauce mixed into it, I was told. I tried the noodles with and without the calamansi-sambal mixture, and it indeed made a big difference.
For dessert, we had two – Taku (which is coconut cream with a pandan layer at the bottom) and Mango Pudding (with sago pearls and coconut cream), with a gula melaka type syrup in between. We also sampled two drinks – Bandung (the pink-colored Malaysian drink with rose syrup and evaporated milk and shredded grass jelly on top) and Michael Jackson (iced white soya milk with bits of black grass jelly on top, which was concocted as an ode to the King of Pop’s hit song Black or White).
At the end of the meal, I was very full, but of the satisfied kind, as I got to savor dishes that I truly enjoyed. This may seem like a full course, but Makan Makan offers a lot more. There are more than 150 culinary delights from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines to enjoy, as well as Chinese, Japanese and Indian influences. You’d keep coming back for more.
I know I will be back.
(Makan Makan Asian Food Village is located at Hotel H2O, Manila Ocean Park Complex, Luneta, Manila 1000; with contact numbers (+63 2) 238-6100 and (+63 2) 238-6188.)
