Chinese Food Cravings

I crave Chinese food. I mean, more than most food. I wasn't always conscious of that fact till my be-Rei Kawakubo'ed foodie friend pointed it out. We had been going to several Chinese restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area by that point pretty much regularly. By the grace of our imaginative hairdresser, I was a blond, she a redhead. Over tender bits of pork belly with preserved vegetables and pan-fried noodles, she mentioned she found Chinese food more of a comfort food than traditional Filipino food. I flipped my blond shag and stared at her blankly.

It wasn't until much later when I went back to my regular dark hair (with anime blue highlights) that I realized the truth of what she had said. Chinese food can be more comforting and evocative than Filipino food, at least to this Filipino. The former has a sharpness of taste that the latter lacks. Though both could be arguably complex, depending on the dish, the variety of Chinese cuisine is indisputable. Dim sum alone would require a separate menu in a large Chinese restaurant. Of course, Chinese techniques have worked their way into what is considered traditional Filipino food--such as pancit and lumpia--so for many, the distinctions may be artificial or even moot.

"Authentic" Chinese in Manila, at least conceptually, is connected to the area called Binondo, the city's Chinatown. There are many, many restaurants here, but I'm new to the city, so I've only been to a couple. One of the more famous ones is President Restaurant, a huge banquet of a venue in the middle of Binondo. To tell you the truth, I have not seen the place's menu, since my brother and sister-in-law do all of the ordering and they seem to know the dishes by heart. But this is the place to get items like fried frog legs and tasty whole-fish dishes. Incidentally, there are also many fruit vendors in the neighborhood. If you make it to the area, they are always a bonus to be taken advantage of, by which I mean vendors whose prices are to be bargained down.

While we would all like to regularly patronize places like President and holes-in-the-wall with mythically delicious Chinese food, some of us just can't get to those places on a regular basis. I know they're not that far from where I live in Makati, but the traffic and the parking are nearly impossible to negotiate! So, for everyday Chinese food that's more easily accessible, yet consistent and true to Chinese flavors, I tend to go to Gloria Maris. It's a chain of restaurants that's been around since at least the 1970s.

My favorite at Gloria Maris is to be found in the roasts section of the menu: roast suckling pig. Chopped into half-inch thick slivers served with a side of jellyfish strings, the pork dish's skin is crispy like thick potato chips, while any salty fat and meat is tempered by the plum sauce served on the side. (There's also a vinegar dip, but I tend to ignore it.) The variety, not to mention the generosity of serving, of their fried rice dishes is mind-boggling. They also have a long list of congee and noodles, exemplars of common but, with their cooking, slightly elevated foods.

The other good thing about a Chinese restaurant like Gloria Maris is the relatively high number of vegetable dishes that don't contain meat, something Filipino restaurants, indeed Filipino food in general, often lack. I especially like their preparations of kangkong (in English, commonly known as water spinach), with loads of garlic or a dash of Chinese fish paste. The dim sum is a great place to look for small portions if you want a snack or merienda, or just want to supplement appetizer portions to your main entrees. I've eaten here dozens of times and the hallmark of their cooking, in addition to the spot-on tastes, is consistency. The roast pork, for example, is always crispy no matter what time of the day I order it. The bean curd roll and machang (rice in banana leaves stuffed with shredded meat) have the same complex tastes whether I eat at the restaurant or take them home.

I'm pretty sure many people feel strongly about what constitutes comfort food. Filipinos in particular like to defend traditional food, its tastes and the fond memories it dredges up. The well-respected artist/chef/writer Claude Tayag put up a spirited defense of it against the distant illusions of Filipino-American chefs and American foodies in a letter published by some food bloggers. Though I haven't been to Bale Dutung yet, I found the segment in his restaurant on Anthony Bourdain's show to be the best showcase of what food here should be about. But his restaurant is quite exceptional; other places here in Manila just can't hold my sustained interest or elicit the kind of craving I have for Chinese.

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Update: Gloria Mari's in Rockwell has since closed. How sad for my vegetable cravings! But as far as I know, the other branches are still open (Greenhills and Makati are two that I know of.)

Also, I did eventually go to Bale Dutung. Four times. Read about my impressions. It's a magnificent place.

And, a trip to Hong Kong opened my eyes to the amazing food there.