BY JOSEPH TANCHEE
When you step into Alabang’s’ Skyline Restaurant, chances are you’d gawk at the view. Located on Vivere Suites’ 31st floor, the restaurant affords a mind-numbing sight of the Manila landscape. Roads and highways are streaks of hazy lights; neon hues from the malls below seem to play with each other; and the rest of the cityscape just blurs into one giant lightshow.
Then on the other side, breathe in the refreshing scenery of Laguna bay. (Particularly at dusk or dawn when the sun covers everything with an unobtrusive swath of red and yellow.) The view, paired off with the restaurant’s infinity pool, which magically seems to fall away into the skyline, is simply magnificent.
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| Dajaj | | However, this striking atmosphere does little to overshadow the food, the Skyline is the hotel’s venue for an inventive and ambitious cuisine. They serve an engaging string of contemporary and traditional dishes, from Pork Adobo to Puttanesca. And the menu is also studded with fusion dishes such as sizzling Canton Guisado and Japanese Spaghetti—spaghetti pasta tossed with sautéed shiitake mushrooms, chicken, and shrimp, flavored with rice wine. A rather edgy lineup, but with Vivere’s Executive Chef Pablo "Boy" Logro at the helm you’re in particularly good hands.
For ten years, Chef Boy used to be the personal chef of the Sultan of Oman, but what’s remarkable is he did it from scratch. At the age of 12, a tidal wave destroyed his family’s livelihood, and forced him to venture out on his own. He ended up with a string of odd jobs, which always seemed headed towards the kitchen. First, he worked in a Cebu flour factory. Then he was hired as a "boy" in a Quiapo Chinese restaurant. But, it was when a Spanish chef hired him as a helper that he really honed his skills. Soon, Chef Boy was doing stints at resorts and hotels, where he picked up a tip and applied for a chef position in Oman.
The restaurant’s habitués prefer starting their meals with the Asian Seafood Platter. The dish is a mix of fish croquettes, deep-fried squid head tempura, and salmon belly in a sweetish teriyaki sauce. Another favorite is the Calamares Fritos, which are tender squid rings seasoned with spices and served with a garlicky mayonnaise dip.
Recommended dishes in the roster include the Dajaj, a chicken dish of Arab origins. The chicken is strenuously baked for several long hours, and the result is a texture so soft and tender the meat literally slides off the bone. The dish is served with steaming white rice topped with sautéed onions and raisins. It also comes sided with a crunchy pappadum, which is best dipped in the lightly spiced chutney, made from liquid marsala and peanut butter.
Another is the Baked Salmon in Clam Sauce, this lightly grilled salmon steak arrives on top of buttered mashed potatoes with specks of shiitake mushrooms, and on the edge is a thick white sauce of fresh clams and white wine. The salmon, marinated with French mustard, is hastily grilled to achieve perfect grill marks and a subtle smoky character before being baked.
To boot, is the Fisherman’s Soup, whose seafood flavors of fresh mussels, prawns, and lobsters imbibed with tomato fondue, is tastefully redolent of saffron. The soup is sided with crisp basil-rich pesto bread.
For dessert, look for their Turon de Vivere, slivers of banana, ube, and jackfruit sprinkled with cinnamon sugar in wanton wrapper, topped with strawberry sauce and vanilla ice cream, but that’s if you can keep your eyes off the view. kaw
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