Wee Nam Kee and the Spa - Fed and Pampered...

To say that it was a stressful week for me was an understated description on the week that was!

The Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society of the Philippines Convention held at the Crowne Plaza last February 15 was a huge success. After two lectures and one Breakfast symposium, my week wasn't over. There was the lecture for the residents at Cardinal Santos on Thursday and then rushed to One Esplanade to give my final talk for the week at the Convention of the Philippine Academy for Family Physicians.

I think my partner pitied my so hectic schedule that he decided on treating me to dinner and pampering at the Spa.

First off was dinner at the newly opened Wee Nam Kee at the Alabang Town Center.

Wee Nam Kee is a Singaporean restaurant that serves their famous Hainanese Chicken Rice. I've tried the Wee Nam Kee in Singapore and the natural reaction when it opened in Manila was - at last!!

The interior design of Wee Nam Kee at the ATC mall was sparse and similar to the Singaporean restaurant was designed in enough simplicity and yet an inviting ambience. The tables are really small, so even if you're two, sharing a table for your dinner, make sure you don't order too much as there wouldn't be enough space to put the orders! The queue to the restaurant is relatively long. Obviously, looking at the prices of the food on the menu, you'd probably say that it's relatively cheap for family dining...

Until you see the portions of the order.

We had its famous Hainanese Chicken (which chicken rice and chicken soup). I told my partner not to order the personal size as it is really a small serving (unless the "small lady" in the Senate probe was going to eat that plate). If you are two people sharing, make sure you get the half chicken order (and while it says that it's good for 3-4, believe me - it's really good for two. Again, unless you're part of the construction worker team building the other stalls around the mall who have one bucket of rice with two slices of chicken, then that small order would probably fly.)

To get a taste of both ways of cooking the Hainanese Chicken - order it as roasted or plain white chicken.

Don't forget to mix the sauces - garlic, soya and hot sauce - together to make the flavors stand out.

On my insistence, we ordered the Cereal Prawn (only because I tasted this already in Singapore). Unlike the Singapore version where the Cereal was mixed with Floss, this came out really wanting in taste for the Prawns. (They indicated in the menu that one order would have 4 prawns, but I counted only 3.) There was too much "cereal" covering the whole prawn serving that I thought they did that to cover up what was lacking.

Total bill: P1058.40 ($25)
Recommendation: The hainanese chicken is one of the best but the servings are really small. Get the bigger servings. So that you really feast on a great Singaporean dish - order two sizes up!!! It will be worth the upgrade. Their orders are in reality, single servings. Next time you order, think Singaporean price so that you'd get your moneys worth.
Would I go back? Why not! The food is contemporary and good.

After the dinner we headed off to the Spa to get a relaxing massage. Obviously, this wasn't a first choice. We actually prefer the Mandarin Spa (either at the Casa Vicente of the ATC or Bellevue), but both spas were full (there must have been a lot of stressed people that week). So we settled for the Spa.

While the Spa may have great amenities and a nicer ambience (including jacuzzi, showers, steam room, private lockers and well appointed rooms), at the end of the day - it's the massage that counted! We got the 90 minutes complete rub down and it was pure bliss.

Never mind the mega bucks. And don't forget to get a private room (it will spare you with the noise of the hands slapping against so much flab and fat and the snoring of the other customers.)

As the advertisement would say, everything else there's Mastercard...pampered, relaxed and destressed - priceless!

Total bill: P3300 ($80)
Recommendation: A bit on the steep side but that's because you're paying for both the ambience and the wet floor (jacuzzi, shower, steam). But if you're not really going to use the wet area and want a better rub down, the Mandarin Spa is still the best massage in terms of value for money!
Would I go back? I've been back and forth here - but only when the Mandarin Spa is fully occupied.

It was a great way to cap a stressful week. Being fed and pampered...now I know what a pig feels like before being slaughtered!

Xoi - A taste of Vietnam

I've been to Vietnam several times to give lectures. Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) in particular.

Aside from the gazillion motorcycles in the country, the once war torn country has amazingly recovered from the devastation of the Vietnam War. Today it is an industrial hub and the economic growth in this country has amazingly surpassed many neighboring Asian countries, including the Philippines.

Besides the modernity amidst the backdrop of once old Saigon, the shopping in Vietnam is one of the best in the Asian region. And then of course, there's the food that you shouldn't miss.

When Xoi (Vietnamese Kitchen) opened at the Alabang Town Center, I wanted to see how authentically Vietnamese the food would be. Of course, there's already Pho Hoa. But the latter has not lived up to the expectation I had of a Vietnamese cuisine - lacking in flavors and originality.

Located right beside PF Chang at the ATC Mall, Xoi's interior is simple and the servers are dressed in well, trying hard Vietnamese outfits. Our server Mai was very helpful and while she may have lacked the Vietnamese look, she compensated with her Filipino hospitality what the place was highly lacking in ambience. The kitchen was open to the dining area and it's interiors looked like it was on a really tight budget - minimal in decor and had a crowded and noisy feel.

Now off to the food.

For appetizers, we had the Fresh Spring Rolls

whose peanut sauce had a dash of Tabasco, which made the flavors of the rolls really stand out well.

The main course consisted of Five Spice Chicken in Herbs

Fried rice with Chinese Sausage

And the piece de resistance of their original Garlic Fried Crabs (with the shell all removed) and a side dish of pasta in parmesan cheese (that came free with the Crabs. Incidentally, you'd get one really large pitcher of Lemon Iced Tea for ordering the Crabs).

The chicken was nicely cooked and had a sweet and salty taste to it. The sauce that accompanied the chicken was nothing spectacular and reminded me of the dipping sauce of Inasal. The rice was a small serving and truly lacking in other ingredients of a Fried Rice meal. It had very sparse amount of chinese sausage and that was about it. It was a bit soggy but tasty. The crowning glory of the meal, however, was the crab! This crab was divinely cooked and meaty and you could taste the freshness of the crab as it was sweet amidst the garlic that peppered it. If you're someone who doesn't like getting his hands tainted with having to peel off the crab shell, this is something you'll appreciate as it comes as a "Naked Crab" - where they peel off the shell completely and serve it all crab meat!

After the main course, we asked if there was a dessert menu. Unfortunately, Mai informed us that they weren't serving dessert as yet.

Total Bill: P2100 ($48)
Recommendation: I would recommend this to friends who would want to try a taste of Vietnamese dish. However, it's not really a far cry from Pho Hoa aside from some of the more authentic seafood that Xoi offered. I wanted to try to mussels in garlic white wine sauce but unfortunately, it must have been a popular choice because they ran out of mussels by the time we had dinner. Incidentally, make sure you have enough cash because the crabs (we had the medium size good for 2 people) are quite expensive - it was 60% of the total bill and they charge an extra P100 ($2.50) for removing the shell for you! Nevertheless, it was worth the bucks!
Would I go back? Definitely. I'd like to try out the other food on the menu. They're really not that pricey but the servings aren't that large either.

Pinoy history on a Plate - Crisostomo Restaurant (Alabang Town Center)

Alright so I'm having a food trip.

There are several restaurants that have opened on the newly expanded Alabang Town Center and my family and I had Sunday dinner at Crisostomo, a quaint Filipino restaurant that seriously had some of the most imaginable names to favorite Filipino dishes.

First of all, I'd like to thank them for accommodating my request for reservations. While the head waiter did not initially want to take in a reservation because it was a Sunday, at my behest and begging, he finally agreed. I think that every good restaurant MUST take in the request for formal reservations. It sets the bar of the restaurant a bit higher and defuses the greed in the owners having to contend with walk-in customers. While I understand that profit is the bottom line here, I also believe that pleasing the more discerning customers are the hallmark of what a good restaurant is. Besides, it's about time that the Filipinos learn to make reservations if they want to eat good food. It's useless queuing for forever on an empty stomach only to end up disappointed.

A party of five (5), our family started off our appetizers with Tiago's Triump (Oysters baked in Bacon and Spinach on a bed of rock salt).

Drinks were ordered with the classic gulaman and sago and traditional calamansi juices

Soup followed. The traditional Tinolang Manok was called Tinolang Matanglawin. Unlike other Tinolang Manok, theirs had a twist of sweetness in the soup because of the buco (young coconut) meat which added a flare of gusto to the broth!

What was lacking, however, was that the vegetables as main ingredients were sparse. But the young coconut was a surprising revelation at how good the soup ended in the end.

Main course were the traditional Spanish Paella (Pinoy Paella) that was divinely filled with pork, shrimps, chicken and chinese sausage;

Pampano Tausi where the fish is sauteed in black tausi and tofu;

And Don Rafael (Crispy Pata), where the pork meat literally melted in your mouth and the pork skin was cooked so crispily divine that the crunch meant a bite of heaven with every munch;

And what would dinner at a Filipino restaurant be without enjoying dessert? So we had the suman (rice cake) in chocolate fondue

and turon (bananas with langka wrapped and fried) in coconut jam!!!

Both desserts were utterly divine and never mind the added calories. Today we ate, tomorrow we burn the calories gained at work or at the gym!

Pinoy food never tasted this good.

Total bill: P3022.00 ($70)
Recommendation: Highly recommended with two thumbs up for value for money and for service. It's homey ambience is a definite plus considering the fact that it's located in the lower basement of the new mall expansion wing. The staff were very attentive and nice and had that Filipino charm in them.
Would I go back? Definitely! For my foreigner friends, this place is a definite try. After all, it's really more delicious eating Pinoy food and having more fun in the Philippines over dinner!

P.F. Chang's Alabang - Authenticity is lacking

The opening of PF Chang in the Philippines, in particular at the Alabang Town Center, was a much awaited event the past week. With over 200 of this chain restaurant, PF Chang is widely popular in the United States. The first time I tasted the dishes of PF Chang was in the US, where some of my Filipino friends would invite me to dine out in this "Chinese" bistro whichever state I would be in.

While I'm not a fan (and I hope my friends don't get offended because I think some of them think that PF Chang is their definition of "Chinese" cooking), I took the time out to have dinner at the first Philippine branch located in Alabang, Muntinlupa.

Like all newbies, this restaurant was overflowing - either out of curiosity or because some were already fans. The Alabang area is the enclave of the rich and famous in Metro Manila. And while you have the A and B crowd in this part of the Metropolis, you also need to consider that the A and B crowd can get picky and tired of the same food over and over again on weekends. Which makes me wonder why for the first franchise PF Chang, Alabang was chosen as the venue to be. I doubt if the people in the Quezon City area would flock to Alabang just to have a taste of PF Chang!

The ambience at PF Chang in Alabang is a sight to behold. And unlike most the PF Changs in the US, this one stands out uniquely as one hip, chic and bold looking restaurant akin with all the modernities and yet ancient history of Chinese heritage.

The service was impeccable. For a newly opened restaurant, the servers were polite, cheery and delightfully professional. Food came on time and the waiting time was not unduly long despite the packed crowd. It was good that we had reservations and that the restaurant accepted reservations. It is always a fair suggestion to guests that when you dine out, please make sure you have a reservation so that you all don't end up starving and irritable like the other "walk-in" guests. There were foreign (American) servers who are actually here for a month or two to train the local people.

If you're into bottomless iced tea - you need to try to Tamarind Iced Tea. It's something the US market doesn't carry and it's very Filipino. It actually tasted great and refreshing.

Obviously, I cannot blog about all the food on the menu because we simply had the Spicy Shrimp for appetizers

which was hot and crunchy.

And then we had the famous Kung Pao Chicken, Salt and Pepper Prawns and DanDan Noodles for our main course.

The presentation was neat and clean and the servings were good enough for 2-3 people to eat (a bit smaller than the US servings).

Now for the verdict. While the place has potential, the food was not "Chinese" authentic enough. While it is supposed to be a more "fusion" type of Chinese dining, there is something lacking in the gustatory sense of PF Chang meals. The freshness of live seafood was utterly absent and the food tasted very western in origin lacking the Asian flavors and spices and "everything nice" to stimulate the senses of taste and smell. The food wasn't bad tasting, but it wasn't the kind that I'd really recommend friends to go to. It was, after all, just another chain restaurant from the US that lacked the authenticity and audacity of true Asian cooking. The food tasted like "fast food" meals that had staple preparations and no master chef required.

Total bill - P2150.00 ($50).
Recommendation - uhmmm....not really and I'd still recommend King Bee over PF Chang. I would still prefer to dine where the food is good and worth it rather than just dine with the bourgeois just to say that one was "sighted" dining where the stars dine. I've always told my readers that movie personalities will say anything for free meals or get paid to endorse things that are only good for their personal gains.
Will be back - uhmmm...not if I'm paying.

Of friends, retirement and Sweet Bella

It was a lunch out I will never forget.

I have made many friends in the pharmaceutical industry. Some are still with the companies I speak and advice for. Some...well, they've retired, moved on or sadly, passed away.

There were musings from Veron on having lunch with her. When she told me that after 19 years with Glaxo Smith Kline she finally hanged her heels of having to work them, I was initially shocked! We've been through a lot and she's practically been not only a colleague, but a wonderful friend whom I've shared many quiet moments of my life and the stories of our cats.

Over lunch, I could tell that she was really happy over the decision to retire from corporate life. This was the part I could relate well with. After 23 years of teaching at the University of Santo Tomas, my retirement from the academe was a decision that only I could appreciate. Like me, Veron had her "moments" with GSK. And retiring from what you routinely do daily does not come easy. But some things just need closure - so we let go and life goes on.

But the blog isn't just about Veron and I.

It's about this quaint restaurant on Burgos Circle at the Fort where we had lunch called Sweet Bella.

First, I'm not a food critic. I just love to eat, and I have a passion for good food. I just hate spending money on fast food chains not because they're cheap, but because they're unhealthy and believe me when I say that it's the road to obesity and heart disease.

The other thing about blogging about restaurants is that while first impressions may be good, sometimes some of the restaurants are unable to sustain their great food and service they initially have. And the review becomes moot and academic. But great raves are due to those that have made good impressions so here's my review on Sweet Bella.

The restaurant has that homey feeling when you enter it. The patisserie is located on the ground floor and what hits you right at the sugar rush level are the macarons on the display cabinets. Alright, so I have a soft spot for macarons and cakes. My experience points to the fact that restaurants that serve great pastries are just pastry restaurants. It's rare that you get to have a cafe or restaurant that serve both great food and excellent pastries.

The menu is not extensive but the choices are quite healthy. Since I was on a diet, I simply had onion soup and seafood pasta. Veron had her all time fave - beef salpicao done medium rare. Beef salpicao medium rare? Now this I gotta see!

The onion soup was just the way onion soups should be prepared. With a lot of onions underneath and not pungent to both the olfactory and gustatory senses. It wasn't salty and neither was it laden with MSG. The onions were crunchy enough without being too soggy. The seafood pasta was perfectly cooked in olive oil. Not too much seafood splashed all over the pasta, otherwise it would have tasted like stench. The pasta noodles wasn't sticking together (pasta shouldn't stick together otherwise it's overcooked) and the texture was perfect. The texture of a well cooked pasta should be slightly firm in the middle when you bite and this was the way my seafood pasta was. I was watching with curiosity how in the world could you make a tenderloin beef salpicao medium rare? I mean, I've ordered beef salpicao in various restaurants and I've never liked them because they end up hard as a rock. In short - the Filipino beef salpicao is just plain "pulutan" (appetizer). To serve it as a whole meal and medium rare - this I gotta see and see it I did! As you sliced into the tender meat, you could see the middle part cooked rare! Their beef salpicao had a warm and moistly pink center - firm on the outside, soft and juicy on the inside - so much like you were eating chunks of tenderloin steak!

The piece d'resistance was the desert. It was, after all, a patisserie!

Veron insisted and I took the challenge to gain an extra pound or so. So I picked the macarons. After all, any pastry shop that makes macarons should live up to the challenge of making the best macarons.

They laid out the 8 flavors on a long plate.

As you can see from the picture - white chocolate, chocolate, strawberry, lemon, passion fruit, rose, coffee (and not in the pic is salted caramel). I picked rose, and had it with TWG tea. To make a great macaron, you had to have the best rose macaron. And a rose macaron is not easy to make nor easy to appreciate. A perfect rose macaron needed to satisfy the olfactory and gustatory senses - you needed to taste it and smell it altogether. And even after the meal, the smell of the rose macaron lingered in my mouth and nose, two hours after the tete-a-tete we had. Seriously, I think they had the best macarons in town - freshly made! It reminded me of Laduree (in Paris) and the macarons were so divine that after a few days I asked Veron to order several boxes for me to give away to some of my friends this holiday season.

It turned out to be a great afternoon.

People come and go in our lives and many of us who go into retirement or exile miss out on the road less traveled - the great bond of friendship we establish along the way. It was a few hours of saying goodbye, telling stories, catching up with life, enjoying a great meal together, laughing our hearts out, making new friends and yes, it was a way of saying - here's to a great friendship.

See you around my friend!

My Singapore Fling

I was invited to speak at the Early Phase Clinical Trials Conference in Singapore.

Singapore is not new to me. Been there, done that. I guess it's one of the most frequently traveled countries on my list. In spite of the fact that I've been to the tiny country of 5 Million people that's bustling in prosperity and bursting out of it's economy gazillion times, Singapore has never ceased to amaze me.

I left Manila on SQ 917 at 210PM on a Tuesday. With a very tight schedule ahead, I was wondering how I would juggle my time there and get to work and play in my 24 hours stay in Singapore.

I arrived at 545PM at Terminal 3 (this was spanking new and they're building Terminal 4 now - geez where did the Philippines disappear to?), cleared immigration and got to the hotel at 630PM. Checked in, dropped my bags in the room and texted Marie that I arrived and would meet my former residents and students for dinner. I just needed to run to Orchard Road to get something. It was rush hour and I got to Ion Orchard at 715PM. Marie, Edmund, Miriam and Flei were already at Uniqlo waiting for me. After 30 minutes of quick shopping, we were off to Boon Tong Kee. Miriam had promised me the best Hainanese Chicken Rice in the world and I was hungry enough to eat.

This was one area of Singapore I have never been to. It's not a touristy area. The restaurant was located in an area of the city that tourists would not access readily. But the queue was long enough and Marie had made reservations so we didn't have to wait. Eventually, Braggy and Vince popped up to join us for dinner.

To say that dinner was great was an understatement. The food was fantastic and I loved everything that was served - from the Hainanese Chicken, Fried Chicken, Spareribs, Fried Tofu, Prawns (that were the size of my hand) cooked in cereal pork (I eventually named it Breadtalk Prawns because it's like the whole Prawn was cooked in Pork Floss just the like famous pork floss bread from Breadtalk) and of course, the rice! While gobbling on the food, my mind was thinking - where was I in all my trips to Singapore? How could I, a frequent traveler, have missed this place? But, yes, it takes a local Singaporean to find the best restaurants in the country. Forget about the Singapore Tatler's 100 best restaurant guides or the concierge at your hotel who makes a buck recommending a swanky place. Hands down, Boon Tong Kee was 5 stars and quadrillion miles away from the chic eateries on Marina Bay Sands! [Thank you Miriam for the dinner].

To say that dinner was fun was another understatement. It was time to catch up on each other. They were my students for God's sake. Which means that they kept calling me Dr. Co. Something that I was uneasy with. I guess it's the heirarchical tradition during medical school that leads us to address the oldies this way (sigh!). But the conversations had started with news about the UST Hospital and their training days there and how they compared the National University of Singapore's training (which had a wide disparity in both training, camaraderie and professionalism). Then it turned to a more relaxed atmosphere with gossiping about the shenanegans of even those wearing a cloak. This elicited so much laughter that we broke out in tears laughing out loud (I think the waitresses were looking at a bunch of crazy Filipinos who were on a day off from work). We talked and laughed for several hours, not minding the fact that they'd just kicked off from work and I just arrived from Manila and had to prepare for my talk the following day. We talked about life in Singapore, life in Manila, plans for the future and the reality that YES THERE IS A WORLD OUTSIDE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS!

How time flew and after 4 hours of food, conversations and laughter, we decided to call it a night. They got me a cab and I got back to the hotel at 1045PM, reviewed my slide presentation and asked the operator to get me a wake up call for 6AM. I hit the sack past midnight.

After breakfast, I had a short meeting with JP from Proclin, a Contract Research Organization for clinical trials based in Singapore and Thailand. I headed straight to the 9AM conference and participated in the round table conference up to 10AM. I then gave a lecture at 11AM on the scenario of Early Phase Clinical Trials in the Philippines as why the country is ripe for the picking (or not!) as an Asia destination for Phase 1-3 clinical trials. After my talk at 1145AM, I was on the next cab back to the airport.

After checking in at 1220PM, I had lunch at a quaint Chinese Restaurant on Terminal 2. Roasted Duck and rice with a large cold lemon ice tea. I was facing the glass enclosure of the terminal building which overlooked the planes on the tarmac. I couldn't help but muse the conversations with my former students (and now colleagues). How time flew and how successful they were in their own rights.

It brought a smile to my face that knowing that as a mentor, they have come to the crossroad in life where they have grown to be mature, responsible doctors. I also realized that while I may be at the twilight of my professional career, I have been part of their lives. Somehow, that makes it worth the effort of having mentored them.

As the doors of SQ 916 at 210PM had closed for my flight back to Manila, I will always remember this 24 hours Singapore fling - where friends will always be the reason why anywhere we are, we will always find a home.

[Photo from Carmelo Braganza - and that's the waitress taking the pic at the mirror's reflection! If I had not thanked you guys enough, here's the blog dedicated to all of you.]