CHOI GARDEN's Salted Fish Fried Rice- I always order the salted fish fried rice in Chinese restos. Yes, Yang Chow fried rice is good too (especially in Hongkong) but I like the contrast of the saltiness of the Salted Fish Fried rice with the other chinese dishes that go with it. Choi Garden's version has the best mix of the salted fish flakes. Others have bigger flakes, others don't have enough salted fish taste in the rice except when you bite into a whole chunk of the salted fish. And this version, usually mixed with bits of chicken, has the right size of the chicken bits. Others have the chicken bits way too big that one wonders whether it's a rice dish or a rice with toppings.
ABE's Bamboo Rice- There is something about having your rice cooked in the bamboo and as they serve it, they crack it open in front of you and serve it on your plate. Abe's bamboo rice has a sticky texture but without the heaviness of a sticky rice when you eat it. The flavors are simple. Maybe some stock and soy sauce, dried shitake mushroom slices. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a bit of vetsin there. Bamboo rice, if not for the novelty of the way they're serving it, may seem like a simple dish to most but its simplicity is what makes it a classic. This rice reminds me of the Hainanese rice of the Sings.
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| *this is not the dish itself. This is for representation only. |
BELLINI's Mushroom and Prosciutto Risotto with Truffle Oil- I don't know if it was Gordon Ramsay or Mario Batali who said that the way to tell the right consistency of a risotto is to slide your spoon across the cooking pan slicing through the risotto. When the risotto mix slides back into the center when the spoon passes, it's perfect. If it does not come back to the center, then it's too dry. If the spoon merely slides by and does not part it like the Red Sea, it's too wet. I've tasted a lot of risotto here in Manila and, except for Belinni's and my defunct F Word Resto, the others are either too al dente or too dry.
NAN BAN TEI's Shake Onigiri- There are two ways to have this: Steamed rice with stuffed salmon wrapped in Nori or Grilled rice with the same stuffing and wrap. I particularly like the steamed rice variant. The salmon stuffing to me does not add anything to it. It's actually the combination of the nori and the rice that I go after. Like the temaki, we all know how that combination works.
