Celebrating #Friendshipgoals at Alab Restaurant, UP Town Center

So much has been written about #squadgoals or #friendshipgoals, I thought I'd write about the long standing friendship shared between college buddies over the past 40 years.

2016 marks the 40th year of our graduation from the Ateneo de Manila.  It was a good excuse as 

any to try and get as many of the "old" (literally and figuratively) gang together for merienda cena.   Our former department chair and beloved mentor  Fr. Alberto Ampil SJ,  had also just celebrated his 82nd birthday so it was both a reunion and a belated celebration at the same time.

While some of us have kept in touch through the years, most of us had not seen each other since
we left the Ateneo.  I am happy to report that our friendship has survived the onslaught of years -- 

and while I did notice a few small changes, I think time has treated my friends quite well.

Friends from the Quezon City area suggested that we meet and eat at Alab, a Pinoy restaurant by
Chef Myke Sarthou popularly known as Chef Tatung. Well known in the local food scene,
Chef Tatung hosts cooking segments on t.v., is a frequent resource person on Filipino cuisine and
has a number of popular  restaurants.

I first met Chef Tatung at a food forum a few years ago and again when he was celebrity judge at
a culinary competition we held for a client.  He is extremely passionate about Filipino food and
Alab is the perfect name for a restaurant that showcases this passion.

I was happy to see that his list of must try dishes was like a mini food tour around the various regions of the Philippines.

The early birds had ordered from the menu by the time I got to the restaurant.  First up was a
clear and clean tasting molo soup -- a bit salty for my rather bland palate.

For appetizers, we ordered the waiter's recommendation -- okoy or vegetable  fritters.
They were so huge we had them sent back to the kitchen to be snipped into smaller pieces ...
not just once but twice!
Alab's okoy had large pieces of shrimp and instead of using the traditional green papaya and
kalabasa -- it had kamote sticks and togue shoots instead. Crisp crunchy and quite a delicious mouthful.

As you can see, we probably carried over some of our uncouth undergrad manners by starting to
eat even before our guest of honour had arrived.  Fr. Bert, as we all fondly call him, had been held
up by a meeting and came in as most of the food was already on the table (and some of it, in our mouths).

Because it was a belated birthday merienda cena, we had to have noodles for Fr. Bert's continued long, happy and healthy life.  Bam-i is a Visayan pancit that uses both bihon (rice noodles) and sotanghon (vermicelli) and cooks them together with meat and seafood and vegetables.  

Alab's Palabok Negra is Chef Tatung's spin on the usual orange coloured noodle dish.  Definitely squid ink is involved plus a garnish of plump shrimp, garlic chips, calamari rings and quail eggs.
It even came with  the requisite calamansi.  Did it taste like palabok -- I closed my eyes and chewed thoughtfully .... hmmm not quite but it was good nonetheless.

There's always one or two in a group -- but in our case, it seemed that all of us  had the tendency to over order!  It must also be proof of the appetising pull of Chef Tatung's dishes ... there was just so much we wanted to try.

One of the dishes was so intriguing, we just had to order it. This is Pianggang,  a Tausug dish.
Chicken is cooked in coconut cream and native spices until tender.  It may not look very appetising but it was a creamy and tasty dish.  A few strips of green mangoes and boiled vegetables helped
cut the richness of the gata or coconut cream.

I'm glad that not everyone was watching their cholesterol that afternoon.  Or if they were, they
made an exception for this Lechon na Crispy Pata.  As they would say, "lechon na, crispy pata pa!".  The pork leg is first roasted then fried to a sinful crackling state.  I assure you, a bite is worth a statin or two.

A typical ensalada of boiled vegetables -- kangkong, talbos, talong, okra, ampalaya with a dipping sauce of fish bagoong --  was our concession to healthy eating.

I am a fan of blood sausage so I just had to try Chef Tatung's Penuneng -- an Ilocano dish made of pork meat, innards and pork blood.   It was excellent and probably one dish I will travel all the way
back to Alab for.

Perhaps you are all familiar with adobong puti and even adobong dilaw.   Alab has a dish called Adobong Pula which uses vinegar but no toyo or soy sauce.  It came with generous chunks of chicken, chicken liver and pork and a reddish sauce ... due perhaps to achuete?  Or maybe some paprika?

Somebody suddenly remembered that perhaps all the pork dishes were not quite the right stuff to
feed our  82 year old guest -- so we ordered Pinaputok na Bangus Belly, purportedly for Fr. Bert's dietary concerns, not that he had any.  Wrapped in foil and steamed, the belly was cooked with tomatoes, onions and something different -- strips of dried kamias fruit.

Our friend Ditas had thoughtfully brought a birthday cake for the celebrant so after demolishing much of what was on the table, it was time for Fr. Bert to blow out the candles and make a wish.

We didn't have 82 candles on the cake or we might have set off the sprinkler system.

While some friends could not make it to the gathering and some of the barkada are also based abroad,  Fr. Bert was very happy seeing his former students -- most of whom he had not seen 

since graduation in 1976!

I think it was apt to have this reunion at a restaurant fortuitously called "Alab".  The word after 

all means passion, it also means embers, and it means blaze.  Getting together, we found ourselves rekindling the flames of friendship,  which first ignited more than 40 years ago.

P.S.

Alab had these witty reminders on the wall -- in today's digital age, it's so easy to be connected virtually but personal communication is still the best way to make one's presence felt. And to paraphrase the second sign ... 

"Ang friendship ay parang teleserye, kailangan 

sinusubaybayan"

40 years of friendship ... #squadgoalsachieved!

Ramadan Buffet at Restoran Rebung in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur -- and a heartwarming encounter with Celebrity Chef Ismail Ahmad

Ramadan was on when I was in Kuala Lumpur a week ago.  I had read about the Ramadan bazaars located all over the city where cooked food could be bought to eat at the breaking of the fast and had put these on top of my to-see list. 

But my friend and colleague Omar told me that no one really ate at the Ramadan bazaars, they just bought food from there to take home.  

Omar promised he would bring me to a better option ... we would break the fast (not me, but he would as he was fasting) at a Ramadan Buffet.

Apparently during Ramadan, restaurants offer buffets where people  get together to enjoy and feast and break the fast -- starting exactly at 7:30 each night during Ramadan.

Omar and his lovely wife Sitti picked me up from the hotel and brought me clear across town to Bangsar, an upscale suburb a few kilometres out of Kuala Lumpur's city center. 

 After driving through rush hour traffic, we finally came to a stop in front of a sprawling bungalow -- with a lighted sign that said Restoran Rebung.  If I wanted a taste of local, authentic cuisine as I had assured Omar and Sitti that I did, they both felt this was the best place to go.

The entrance to the restaurant was festively lit and tables and chairs were set up right as you walked in.  The buzz of hungry, expectant diners all happy and eager to break the fast with family and friends literally hummed throughout the place.  

Because it is set up in a converted bungalow,  Rebung is designed to look and feel like a warm and comfortable home.  This is just one small section of the restaurant --  the air conditioned portion where our table was.  

The eating and feasting continues outside, in wide open halls and porches where more tables are set and where there was even a stage for live band music.  Dining at Rebung  felt just like being a guest in one huge, casual, friendly dinner party.

There are various stations set all around the restaurant.  This lady was making fresh roti on her iron skillet.  She could hardly keep up with the demand as diners would get a piece or two  as fast as she could make them.

Since my head was reeling from all the food that was laid out, I decided to start slow and get a small sampling of rojak, the traditional salad found all over Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.  

Restoran Rebung's rojak had cut fruits like pineapples, singkamas (jicama), macopa (rose apples), cucumbers plus fried tofu and even fishcakes. Topped with  crushed peanuts and a spicy sweet sauce,  it was such an appetite inducing first taste of what the buffet had to offer.  I had to control myself from getting a bigger second serving.  You can also see that I had one piece of the roti with an accompanying bowl of fiery curry.

Done with my appetiser, it was time to forage through the buffet once again.  This very popular station featured yet another version of roti, also freshly made while you waited ... and waited and waited.

Right beside the roti maker was this huge vat of a very enticing and aromatic stew called daging kulai kawah.  There are a lot of similar words between Malaysia and the Philippines and in this case, kawah in Malay translates exactly to  kawa in Tagalog which is a  large cooking vat.   This dish is rather soupy and is made with beef  with lots of onions, ginger, spices like cardamom, anise, cinnamon, coconut cream and a bit of tamarind and palm sugar .

It was full speed ahead at the buffet stations!  While dishes were quick to run out, there was always someone ready to run to the kitchen to replenish the supply.

I tried a lot of food I had never even seen or tasted.  These are salads that Omar assured me were very local and very delicious.

Like us, Malaysians like a lot of side dishes and sauces to add more zing to their food.  

Char kway teow!  Two kinds of this popular noodle dish were on hand.  

There were so many types of dishes on offer that I couldn't quite decide what I would spend my precious calories on -- I decided I'd go for a mix of new flavours and tried and tested favourites.

The dish on the far left is what the restaurant is named after. Rebung is actually Malay for bamboo shoots (labong in Tagalog).  This dish is made with turmeric, ginger, lemongrass and lots of chili.  The bamboo shoots or rebung were cut in big round pieces and had a slightly bitter but not unpleasant taste.

The beverage station at the buffet had different types of cold drinks -- fruit flavoured or made with sweet palm sugar with gelatine bits and sago balls.  There was also a couple of thermos containers of hot drinks like teh tarik or milky tea.

After my initial reconnaissance of the buffet stations, this is what my dinner plate looked like.  Fluffy nasi lemak or rice cooked in coconut milk and pandan, a couple of pieces of the rebung masak lemak,  small snails cooked in coconut cream that I happily slurped the tasty little bits from,  kari ayam or chicken curry,  battered vegetables and some krupuk or fish crackers.  Everything was distinctively delicious -- I couldn't choose a favourite dish if you asked me.

The beef rendang station was constantly running out of this quintessentially Malay beef stew.
I had to lie in wait by the rendang table so that I could make sure to get a portion.  The lady in charge of refilling the tray  said that they cooked their rendang for more than 8 hours so that all the meat turns fork tender,  literally falling apart in each flavourful meltingly good mouthful.
And so, my second  plate had quite a bit of beef rendang spooned over cubes of nasi impit or compressed steamed rice.  I had it with homemade peanut sauce on the side, more of the crazy good krupuk and a freshly made roti canai, liberally drenched with the daging gulai kawah.  A lone piece of shrimp also made it to my plate.
I cannot tell a lie -- I finished each and every morsel on this plate too.
I have always liked Malay food but this was the first time that every thing I had was all so divinely deliciously good.

I barely had room for dessert but Omar made me try this type of kuih.  Kuih are small, bite sized portions of dessert and this one was made of glutinous rice, rolled in grated coconut.  It looked like our pichi pichi and tasted like it too except that this kuih had a hidden nugget of palm sugar right in the centre -- which melted in your mouth as you bit into it.  It was delectable and I'm glad I made room for it in my betsubara (nihongo for second stomach).

At the cashier, they had copies of the owner, Chef Ismail's cookbook for sale.  I had met Chef Ismail earlier, when he so warmly welcomed us to our table and after trying his delightful, honest tasting food -- I knew he was more than just a celebrity chef, he was a true proponent and advocate of Malaysia's food culture and heritage.

I made sure I had an opportunity to have a photo taken with Chef Ismail.  True to his hospitable and generous nature, we found him seated at one of the tables in front, engaged in conversation with diners -- we were after all,  guests in his kitchen, his domain, his home.
I got my cookbook personally signed and he posed for this photo with me.
When I mentioned that I was flying back home the next day, he leaned over and whispered to me "I will say a prayer for your safe journey home".  What a kind and thoughtful soul.

I saw this cheeky sign just as we were about to leave Rebung.  I don't know how good a kisser Chef Ismail is but from the dinner that I just had, I know he is one amazing cook!

My Brush with a Celebrity (Buffet) ... 1 Market by Chef Wan in Plaza Singapura, Singapore

Late November last year,  I found myself back in Singapore for the year end budget meeting.  These  annual events are bouts with high levels of stress and anxiety and the only antidote is a good meal right after.

A colleague from Singapore suggested that we recuperate from the rigours of budgeting with a buffet meal at 1 Market at Plaza Singapura. This is  the latest venture by TV personality and celebrity chef Redzuawan Ismail, more popularly known as Chef Wan.
I enjoy Chef Wan's shows on the Asian Food Channel so this was a good chance to try out his cooking (although I knew that as a celebrity chef, he was certainly not going to be in the kitchen, slaving over the hot stoves).

1 Market labels itself as the BIG Buffet but once inside, I realised it is definitely smaller vis a vis our local buffet standards.

This cut out of Chef Wan would be the closest I would get to him today!  

Prices are slightly higher for dinner and on week-ends.  These are not hawker centre prices but still seemed quite affordable, since it is a buffet after all.

The ambiance is very casual and despite the fact that it's a week night, the rather large restaurant is quite full.  Servers are a bit harried and not always up to speed in keeping up with diners' demands.
I see tables left uncleaned and  used dishes stacked up on top of each other.

Lest you forget that this is his restaurant, Chef Wan has his cookbooks, copies of newspaper reviews and photos spread out on the counters and shelves.  Talk about merchandising!

There are various stations for different kinds of dishes -- but mostly they seem to be heritage favourites from the main cuisines of Malaysia ...  Chinese, Indian and Malay. There is also a small station for a limited number of Japanese dishes but these are mostly shrimp and vegetable tempura.

I make a beeline for the appetiser section that has a lot of savouries like samosas, spring rolls, tofu, dumplings and fish balls.  How can you go wrong with anything that's deep fried?

The Indian station featured my favourite lentils and boneless chicken tandoori.  Sadly, the lentils had  been sitting out for too long and had turned cold and lumpy.

I glanced over at the hot dishes section where I saw rendang, satay and other meat dishes.  1 Market is a halal establishment so they do not serve nor do they cook with pork or pork by-products; there is just beef, lamb, chicken and seafood.

There are prawns, blue crabs (alimasag), clams and mussels on ice -- which you can have cooked, any way you want.

 This is what my plate looked like -- grilled prawns and squid on skewers,  roti chanai with cheese, fried noodles and vegetarian samosas.  While some of the dishes were quite good -- the grilled squid was perfectly cooked as were the samosas  -- most of the buffet items were not good examples of how these culinary classics are supposed to taste like.
Unfortunately, my celebrity buffet was a bust!
I dislike posting negative reviews on this blog but after experiencing 1 Market, I have 1 piece of advice for Chef Wan ... please spend more time in this kitchen!