Dimsums galore

I used to frequent a restaurant that once stood in this place in Banawe St., Quezon City in front of the National Orthopedic Hospital for the longest time called Wah Yuen.

It seemed as though the new young owners put in a very bright and fresh touch and renamed the place as Mandarin Sky.

This resto just opened last November and has been full ever since and thus, truly tickled a curious palate like mine. Aside from the classics in dimsum, new introductions such as HongKong-Style Dimsum mornings with milk tea were in the works.

These young restaurateurs were a little more conscientious about the heavy use of msg after a few visits where I didn’t get the classic “highs” and relentless “after thirst” especially after the shabu shabu or a pre-set meal.

During my first visit, since I was alone, I tried out the dimsum which I felt would come up to HongKong standards. The pork siomai had the moist, chewy textures while the Hargaw had minimal fat and crunchy shrimp interiors. The steamed ribs were tender but not mushy while the bean curd roll waded in a tasteful broth freshly smoldering from a steamer.

The steamed Beef Ball was to standard expectations while the steamed crab and kuchay dumplings had sweet flaked crab meat that was a really good find having had to put up with overly frozen crabmeat versions of many other restaurants. The Shaolongbao or soup dumplings came bursting with their essential hot interior liquid that one can slurp on the soup spoon. I did prefer of course a firmer interior of their version but nine good baskets and one fair were a great average. (Thank God for Orlistat…)

It was time to do a second major visit, this time to try the regular menu items. I had requested the three male owners, Samson Ching, Mike Kiong, and Chris Chua to design a lauriat. (They had two other lady partners, which I heard were rather pretty and I thought they seemed to be hiding from my dining group…) Well, these three guys were hands on in this place seeing them all the time tending to the customers. So, I left dinner all in their good tastes and there were no regrets that I did.

Our appetizer started with an assorted meat plate. What this platter had was the roast duck that had very deep flavors and was redolent of roasting smoke. The frog legs were coated and tossed in a garlicky and spicy condiment which started us nibbling between bone and the pristine morsels of spicy white flesh with a light crunchy exterior.

Next was a sharksfin and crabmeat soup of which the basic broth was flavorful yet vibrantly clear, pristine but thick floated with crabmeat bits and sharksfin strips.

The following course had a rather funny title called Laway chicken because it would literally make your mouth water. You really have to give it to their chef because this was one of the most memorable dishes in this well enjoyed meal. The chicken was steeped in a flavorful braising liquid much like how the Hainanese do it but was lightly smothered with a paste of peanut, toasted garlic, sesame and spices on a cucumber bed. It was a most enjoyable experience as a cold dish with the juicy burst on the silky chicken meat.

In contrast, a freshly stir fried sea cucumber platter with mushrooms and very green broccoli arrived. The briny essences given off by the sea cucumber were a rounder, creamy and meaty dimension with the mushrooms and a final crunch of broccoli. 

We had next a simple dish of Angel winged clams (diwal) in toasted garlic this time on a bed of crystal noodles. The precious liquor of these angel clams were wonderfully trapped by these noodles as no flavor was made to flee from these bivalves.

The presentation for prawns in Thailand sauce which is a sweet chili glaze was quite enticing to see with a cut of prawn that made it look plump and fat. The glaze gave it clean flavors and did not deviate from the texture as they use wild prawns (bulik) instead of pond raised ones.

For fish, we had a Red Lapu lapu which now is very much in vogue since it is still wild and not cultured and has firmer and briny tasting flesh. The crisp taoso (fermented bean skin topping) had added texture to a rather satin like and velvety textured fish.

The final main course was Typhoon Shelter Crab. Fried crabs were buried in a mixed brunoise of sautéed chilies, scallions, garlic and scenting the surrounding tables with a splash of Shaosing wine. We picked into the interiors for the moist, steamy flesh, and sucked at the tasty fried crisp legs.

For fillers, which very little of us could handle was a lotus fried rice. This was more of a braised rice that had the aromas of dried shrimp, tea, and mushrooms wrapped in lotus leaf.

Dinner ended with bean filled buchi which I decided to pass since the Chinese dinner was about to turn me Roman. On a future day, I think I’d come back and before trying anything new on the menu, take a repeat of this dinner. (Thank God for Orlistat…) You can email me at chefgenegonzalez@yahoo.com.