Zenses - A taste of molecular gastronomy

Anton started the idea of having a Wednesday foodie group. It is technically eating out with the other foodies here in Manila. It was pretty interesting and I signed up for last Wednesday's food adventure. The venue was held in Zenses and I didn't know that I was in for a big surprise.

From what I have read before, Zenses is famous for its usage of liquid nitrogen with their ice cream. This way, the freezing of the cream is so fast that it will stop the formation of ice crystals. During the meal though, there were more ways of using liquid nitrogen than just instantly freezing an ice cream. It was actually a good eye opener in the world of molecular gastronomy.

We started with a cocktail like food. It was popcorn that has been cooled with liquid nitrogen. It was actually cool eating a cold popcorn with the proper texture of the popcorn. The cold popcorn was actually appropriate to start an evening of knowing other foodies in Manila.



It was also served with gingered beer. I don't drink that much and I do not have an innate appreciation or affinity to alcohol so I cannot comment about it.



The real meal started with an asian like amuse-bouche . It was oyster tempura with ginger gelee, bear foam and ebiko. I think it is more of an appetizer than an amuse-bouche since it had two of those.



I liked the sweetness of the ginger gelee but I thought that the tempura was soggy. I think they could have made it crisper. I like the color and flavor profile but the texture was a little off because of the soggy tempura.

Next, we had curried lychee crab tempura with a choice of mango cream aioli or vinegar.



Again, their tempura was really soggy for my bite and with the lychee and crab meat inside, it was like eating a soft fishball but, then again, flavor profile was good.

Next, we had a dinosaur egg gazpacho. Gazpacho is technically a cold tomato soup. I was amazed with the presentation of it. He made the gazpacho looked like a real tomato.



Nice sense of humor eh? He technically placed the soup inside a balloon bag and dipped the balloon bag in liquid nitrogen thus freezing it and taking its shape. Then, you can crack it and start eating it.



Flavor had too much garlic that time. I liked the toasted japanese breadcrumbs though. It gave a good texture to the dish. But the texture of the outer layer of soup itself wasn't properly executed for my palate. It was like eating some sort of a tomato sorbet when you take a bite to it. If possible, I think the protective outer layer of the soup be thin though I think that is hard to execute.

They then served us an inverted wine glass. The glass had some smoked vanilla in it so when we turned it up, there was a strong vanilla smell that crawled throughout the room. It smelled really great! Good execution of the idea.



I just didn't appreciate it that much since I don't know how to appreciate wine. Oh well, maybe I can drink it again next time. Men... and it was a French wine :(



Now, one of the most interesting dish has arrived! It's shrimp cotton candy! The flavor reminded those of shrimp crackers only sweeter and in the form of cotton candy! Interesting eh?



The chef explained this dish. He said that he used real shrimp and added isomalt with it and let it cure. It will pulverized it self through time and thus crystalizing itself like sugar!

Now, onto the main course! It was pork ribs in coriander strawberry sauce. Good combination. I liked the flavor of coriander here. It made me feel I was eating at Pho Hoa. Nice colors too!



We had fish next. It's pan-roasted grouper with blue cheese and grilled pineapple. I liked the way they cooked the the fish. It wasn't overdone. It was actually a good dish especially with the addition of the sweetness of the pineapple. The other guys were just unfortunate to have bones in their fish.



We now go to dessert! By this time, we were all full already but no worries, it was still interesting. The first that came was a blue cheese chocolate cake. It was really nothing special to me. The only thing I liked about this dish was that the flavor wasn't too rich or too strong.



This is the most interesting part, ice cream on the spot! Table side presentation of making ice cream with liquid nitrogen!



They first put liquid nitrogen in the blow. You will see that the liquid nitrogen evaporated fast giving a lot of 'smoke' when it was poured.



They added the ice cream mixture next.



Whisk it and add some more liquid nitrogen until everything is smooth and frozen!



They scooped out the ice cream on the martini glasses and added more liquid nitrogen to it. They also added some rice crispies for added texture. Talk about generosity! It made me feel that liquid nitrogen wasn't that expensive lolz!



There were two flavors of ice cream that were presented. First was gorgonzola ice cream. It was delicously! I liked the strong creamy cheese taste of the ice cream! The other one was bacon and egg! It was both astounding and delicious! The taste was really clean which I wasn't expecting. It had a strong bacon flavor in there but there were no bacon bits present nor bacon color present. Everything was clean. This is fine food, strong flavors but clean to the palate. Lastly, I liked the creamy texture they had in their. The mouth feel was pretty different than that of normal ice cream.



Lastly, we had coffee, not just any coffee, it was a coffee meringue! He froze the espresso with some liquid nitrogen again and placed it into small cups.



The way to eat this was to crack it and eat it. Texture was really that of a meringue. It was a pretty interesting way to have coffee here.

All in all, the experience here was great. Thanks to Chef Johann Santos, I get to have a glimpse of molecular gastronomy. My bad comment about the place is that some flavor profiles were a little off and the serving of plates were not in unison, meaning, some of us were already done with a particular course, some were not even served yet.

Zenses needs better execution and better ambience and am pretty sure it will be part of Miele Guide. It just needs better execution. It needs polishing in its internal operation and am pretty sure, it was be a big hit in Manila.

Maru - Korean Restaurant

After attending the Philippine Fashion Week a few weeks back, my sister and I thought of eating out afterwards. We also invited her friend to join us with our meal. My sister’s friend, Sebie, suggested we try this Korean restaurant near SM Mall of Asia. Since she was persuasive, we went there and had our dinner there.

This is actually a new experience for me and my sister since we don’t do a lot of Korean food and are not familiar with Korean dining experience.



Before ordering though, Sebie asked the waiter to bring in the appetizers. Wow, free appetizers! Am now really liking the place lolz.



The appetizers consisted flavors of spicy and sour. They also had good texture in them. For something free, it was really good. I liked their pickled aubergine and their spicy clam. The appetizers were cold which I think paired really well with the spicy flavor profile.

First, Sebie ordered samgyupsal.



It is technically grilled pork belly. It also had some grilled potatoes and onions. It wasn’t anything special at first when I ate, then, Sebie taught me how to eat it. You get some lettuce, then dip the pork with some sesame oil with salt and pepper, and add some yellow bean paste. I also added some potatoes with it.



Fold and eat!



It was astounding! I liked the saltiness of the bean paste with the sesame oil! Also, the lettuce gave a great bite to it.
My sister ordered two things. One is grilled mackerel and the other one is dumpling soup. The mackerel came first.



It’s mackerel. You cannot go wrong with it as long as the quality is good. The flavor was great and the texture was great. I liked the flakiness of the fish. The whole fish was also light, yum!

My order then came next, it’s galbi. It is technically beef short ribs. It is pretty similar with the Japanese’s yakiniku which I also blogged about it here.



It was great. Strong beef flavor with some sweet soy. You cannot also go wrong with grilled beef short ribs.

Lastly, which I thought was weird as being last, was the dumpling soup.



It was HUGE! The size was like half of my fist lolz! Anyhow, there was nothing special really with the dumpling. It actually tasted liked gyoza because of the strong garlic taste.

Anyhow, all in all, it was great. I liked the food, the service and the experience. I think am gonna go back again someday or at least try the other authentic Korean places too. I didn’t have some front shot of the place so I will just end it here.

Eating at the Garden of Sonya

Remember my dilemma about not being able to smoke my tenderloin since we placed the outdoor griller in the cemetery in preparation for the all saint's day? well, we also went to Tagaytay that time. If you were to visit here in the Philippines, I suggest taking at least a day trip to Tagaytay. You will truly feel nature and the glory that is the greeneries of the mountain.

Also, It is a good idea if you try visiting this restaurant which we also visited: Sonya's Garden!



Sonya's Garden is a small restaurant in Tagaytay which is really hard to find. It is located deep inside a small road. It is a restaurant that is famous for being some sort of vegetarian since it wanted to show case it's own produce fresh from their garden. We arrived at 5pm and the weather was really fantastic.

Just follow the road



There's the destination place!



Oh no! looks like we are the only ones here! Maybe the food has gotten worse?



Just kidding :D



The style of their service is eat all you can self-service ala carte style. What do I mean about this? they just serve you on your table and you can always ask for a refill. First was their salad entree.



The salad entree had a bowl of fresh greens. A side selection of mangoes, melons, eggs, nuts and a honey mustard dressing. I made this!



Boy, the quality of their salad was really fantastic. Texture was great, greens were crisped and flavors were clean. Fruits were also sweet. It was actually a refreshing first course.

They also served dalandan juice. It was also drink all you can. It was really good even though it was powdered juice.



I drank so much I needed to go to the bathroom lolz



Next course was like a bread course. They sent some loaves of bread, eat all you can ofcourse, and some sides with it. They had pesto, tomatoes, shrimp paste, white cheese and some bean paste, it was some sort of hummus that you usually get from mediterranean cuisine.



I created different combinations from it and the best was a pesto and tomato base,white cheese on top and sprinkled some nuts for added texture from the salad course.



I ate like 2 loaves of this! lolz, I was really full at that time. The next was their main course. Pasta time!



It only had one type of pasta but had 2 different sauces. One was a cream base and the other was a tomato base. I like the tomato base better because it gave a strong tomato flavor. I think it was some sort of a tomato confit. It was accompanied with some fried salmon belly, capers, olives, ratatouillie and some aubergine. I liked their ratatouillie. It was pretty savory and flavors were also clean.

This was the pasta I made. It was technically a tomato confit, capers, olive and some salmon belly. Everything was great except the salmon belly,it was a bit overcooked.



Lastly, we had dessert, loved the chocolate cake, it was really light!



We also had some banana fritters and some yam cooked in condensed milk. The yam gave me a new perspective on the sweetness of the condensed milk, it was sharper when it is cooked and I really liked it


At the end of the day, it was a good meal. What I didn't like was it was carbo load! it made me feel uncomfortable at the end of the meal. Oh, we also had some tarragon tea, didn't get a shot though.

And it was night time. It was really pitched black. There's my mom and her mom looking a bit lost because of the darkness.



We shall be back, maybe for another 7 years lolz.

Toki: A Japanese Experience?

I used to be in the Japanese food industry in the Philippines and eating at authentic Japanese restaurants was a past time of mine before. I even went to Japan alone just to taste and savor their authentic cuisine. Japanese cuisine is technically very simple. The only important aspect of the cuisine is the quality of ingredients which separates real Japanese restaurants to the Filipinized Japanese restaurants.

I often go to Aubergine if I get the chance, so often than not, I am always curious about the Japanese restaurant beside it. The exterior made the restaurant looked authentic and the feel that it gave was like that of Seryna in Little Tokyo. Anyhow, so one day, I called my neighbor *my neighbor loves Japanese food so asking her to try it gives a better value with the meal* and told her to eat here.

As we entered the restaurant, a breeze of Japanese ambience came in. I was happy especially that they had something like this in their hallway.



Moreover, the manager was a Japanese and there were Japanese customers so the place made me really comfortable already for an authentic Japanese restaurant.
We then started ordering. The key of knowing if a Japanese restaurant is really authentic here in Manila if they have the toro. And yes, they do have toro in the menu. However, I was then really disappointed when I asked the server if they ohtoro. The server then asked the chef or the cooks if they have one available, sadly, there was none. Then, I saw a toro steak in the menu. I then asked the server about it. The server said they have it. Then, I asked how come he said that there was no ohtoro awhile ago. I then asked it that was chutoro or ohtoro. Then he asked the chef or cooks again and returned saying that they are just the same! Oh Lord! Chutoro and ohtoro is never the same! Chutoro is the mid section of the belly and the ohtoro is the upper section of the belly. There is a clear distinction between their marbling and price! Because of that experience, I told to my neighbor that I think we are in a wrong restaurant now.  So, in the end, we just ordered a five kind sashimi and ordered some normal hot entries.



The sashimi was just ok. Other authentic Japanese restaurants have better deals like Seryna. It has better sashimi and presentation for the same price. Tsukiji, ofcourse, is still the best, but its price is also the highest.



Then, our pork sukiyaki came. It was just ok too. Nothing special. It was actually a little sweet. Moreover, if they were really an authentic restaurant, they would place a small burner on the table and let the pot cook on the burner in front of us.



Tempura came next. This is the least disappointing dish. The shrimp was of good quality and it was light and crunchy but hey, that is what you expect in an authentic Japanese restaurant. It better have good quality shrimp that has a clean taste and a good bite.



Lastly, Chicken teriyaki came. As expected, it was just ok. Skin should have been crispier. I like the vegetables though.



At the end of the day, I won't be going back again. I'd rather go eat somewhere else. Moreover, it has low value for money in my opinion.