Asian Culinary Exchange continues with amazing four-hands
dinners by Nae:Um x Metiz and Peach Blossoms x Café Aurora
There are certain things that just work together. Like caramel and sea salt. The two are different in many ways—one is solid and saline, the other is sweet and liquid. Yet their pairing just makes delicious sense, as they not only complement each other but also help highlight and intensify their respective distinctive qualities.
Last week, this notion was demonstrated when I teamed up chefs who serve varying styles and flavors for a continuing series of four-hands dinners. The result was nothing short of amazing, as they impressed not just with their one-off menus, but also with the way they worked the floor and the kitchen together, considering it’s their very first time to collaborate.
Nae:Um x Metiz
During the recent Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards held in Singapore, I asked Stephan Duhesme of Metiz (his restaurant placed 48) who he wanted to collaborate with, and he specifically mentioned a Korean chef.
“Their cuisine has been on an upward streak of popularity for a while now, not just barbecue but also more upscale dining,” he says. “Knowing very little about their culture or food, I wanted to delve into it a little more.”When I learned of this, only one person came to mind—Louis Han, whose food at Nae:Um I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying twice.
To prepare for the event, Duhesme ate in Masil to familiarize himself with the notes of the cuisine. Han, on the other hand, flew over a handful of his signature dishes from his Michelin-starred restaurant, including my favorites: his version of a galbi, duck meatball with a tteokbokki center that is grilled over charcoal then served with perilla leaf and puffed rice; and the somyeon, a buckwheat noodle dish inspired by his mom’s Sunday staple. In his restaurant, the alterations differ with every seasonal menu. For the four-hands in Manila, he served it with a cured tobiko sauce, white kimchi and perilla oil.
Nae:Um also produced a milssam, Korean-style crepe stuffed with Wagyu beef bulgogi and pickled bell peppers that sat next to a line of puffed quinoa and a pool of pine nut sauce and chive oil; a chilled aged kampachi sashimi roll topped with local herbs and flowers then served with a gochujang-seasoned soup; and a dessert inspired by Han’s grandmother, composed of charcoal tuile, jujube ice cream and puffed multigrain tossed in bean paste oil.
For his turn, Stephan came up with a pretty impressive and complementary lineup: steamed shrimp and caramelized upo tossed in a Korean apple vinegar dressing, then cradled in a crispy tart and crowned with a tempura shrimp head; lightly stir-fried zucchini, three stages of caramelized Asian mushrooms and steamed cabbage on an egg yolk and dried oyster sauce with smoked bangus oil; caramelized ensaymada with kimchi cream mousse; squid glazed with a fermented pear reduction and served with buro with cherry tomato sofrito; Iberico pluma brined with spice, cooked with gochujang sauce and served with celeriac puree and homemade kimchi; and a banana leaf cake with preserved kamias, pandan oil and moscato grapes compressed in reduced natural white wine.
Peach Blossoms x Café AuroraIn my last trip to the Lion City, there was one restaurant my foodie friends raved about and urged me to try. It was Peach Blossoms, conveniently located in the hotel we were staying in. Our experience left quite an impression on me, that inviting the very talented chef over was a no-brainer.
Chef Edward Chong does progressive Chinese at his restaurant, while Quenee Vilar and Nicco Santos do Asian, leaning more on Peranakan, Indonesian and Malaysian. The 10-course menu was dotted with the bestsellers from Peach Blossom, and for their part, Café Aurora came up with a slew of new light-flavored dishes, a departure from the rich and bold hints they’re used to, to match Chong’s potent numbers.The customers who were fast to book (seats got sold out in a day) got rewarded with dishes that elicited sighs of contentment and nods of gustatory satisfaction and approval. The tandem behind Café Aurora kicked things off with imposing snacks in the form of lamb tartare and caviar on a sesame taquito and a crunchy black dashi pie tee that hid ketjap gel underneath. From there, the hits from Vilar and Santos kept on coming: shirodai fish on betel leaf tempura, liberally topped with shiro miso; seared scallop with tomato-cucumber salsa in dashi cream; warm shokupan with a hard-to-resist coconut curry butter; beef short rib with shiitake mushroom puree and two-week old achar; and chicken rice with steeped chicken and chicken collagen.Chong whetted appetites with his signatures: super addicting deep-fried cigar rolls with snow crab meat and prawns; black cod fillet with kaffir lime and pineapple sauce; tender lobster tail accompanied by a light in body, bold in flavor Assam curry sauce and a piece of otak-otak that lent flavors reminiscent of the Chinese cong you bing; a meaty drumstick in the form of local crab claw wrapped in caul fat; and a bowl of mung bean noodles and crab meat submerged in a deliriously delicious crab roe sauce.
Before ending the repertoire with a pandan custard hugged by almond cream and shaved salted egg yolk, I took pleasure in melon-laced yogurt flavored with curry leaf. It was simply amazing.
Without a shadow of a doubt, I definitely ate well last week.
The two events are part of the ongoing Asian Culinary Exchange, organized by this author. Watch out for bar takeovers this August, a sustainable conference in September and a string of four-hands dinners in October and November. Special thanks to the Singapore Tourism Board. INQFollow the author at @fooddudeph on Instagram.
Angelo Comsti writes the Inquirer Lifestyle column Tall Order. He was editor of F&B Report magazine.
