Mandarin’s feast to welcome the New Year

ENJOYMENT of food is a beautiful way of rekindling friendships. With the occasional visits of my children to Cebu, friends like Rose Gaisano make it a point to wine and dine the family when they visit. After all, Rose has seen the “kids” grow up. “Rose Gaisano is such a cool and funny character!” This is my children’s remark every time we get a chance to dine with Rose when they visit Cebu.

My son Jason recently visited so Rose, together with brother, Alex and his wife Janet and daughter Alexis, took time once again from their busy schedules to host dinner at The Taste of Mandarin located at the family-owned Gaisano Country Mall. It was also a good occasion, Rose beamed, to showcase the classic Chinese dishes Chef Gao Wei Quan fondly called Michael for the upcoming Chinese New Year to welcome the Year of the Water Snake.

Alex and Rose Gaisano is a brother- sister tandem whose simple and unassuming ways belie their success in the family business. Both are hands-on in their ventures—Rose concentrates more on the department stores while Alex oversees the mall and runs the family-owned restaurants. A discerning gourmet, Alex works closely with his chefs in Lighthouse, White Gold and Taste of Mandarin. His handpicked Chinese chef is from Guangdong and worked in Hong Kong for 25 years. Chef Michael has been creating exciting Chinese dishes in The Taste of Mandarin Restaurant since 2005. He doesn’t understand English but his culinary creations speak for his impressive cooking skills. An attractive Lobster Salad welcomed us. The head of the tiger lobster was huge so the flesh was firm and tasty. Slices of apple and mango garnished a mound of white lobster meat with light mayonnaise dressing and assorted diced fruits underneath. Buddha Soup popularly known also as Buddha Jumps Over the Wall Soup followed this. A very expensive Fujian dish (the Guinness World Records claim this to be the most expensive soup), Alex informed us that this must be ordered several days before due to its lengthy preparation (1-2 days). Legend has it that the vegetarian Buddha had to jump over the wall of the monastery to have a taste of this delicious soup. The rich soup, which is simmered for several hours had pork tendons, scallops, bamboo shoots, abalone, sea cucumber, chicken, Jin Hua ham, mushrooms, ginseng. Rose spooned the soup and showed me a ginseng root. The Assorted Seafood Hotpot had crystal prawns, squid, scallops, black mushrooms and silky taoho (soft tofu). Service was excellent with Operations Manager Gerry Sia anticipating everyone’s needs while enjoying the prized dishes Chef Michael prepared. They are quite out of the ordinary with most of the expensive ingredients carefully selected by Alex and Chef Michael. An exotic dish, the Stuffed Sea Cucumber with minced shrimp was served with broccoli. Sea cucumbers are revered by Chinese cooks since ancient times and are served on special occasions like the New Year. The finale— Steamed Live Garoupa (Lapu-Lapu) was a sight to behold! The fillets were rolled and stuffed with preserved vegetable with the meatless, bony fish gracefully propped up on the platter. Chef Michael could not translate the Chinese name of the pickled vegetable stuffing, which was similar to a thickly sliced radish. The fillets were so fresh that there was a bit of delightful resistance in every bite. Dessert was not the usual—Almond Soup with Lomaichi (glutinous ball similar to our bilo-bilo).

Almond milk is prepared like the soya bean milk using almonds instead.