After Madrid Fusión Manila (MFM), everything seemed anticlimactic—even as we groaned about bulging waistlines and enough degustation meals to last a lifetime. Surely we’re not the only one who craved the simplicity of corned beef and rice.
But we doubt if we’re the only person with the same ambivalent attitude toward “challenging” food that is said to be important, exhilarating and, if done right, can make eating a rapturous experience.
But how comforting it can sometimes be to come home to simple food that isn’t deconstructed, infused, dessicated, smoked or turned into a sphere floating in liquid nitrogen.
Yet, a deluge of good food, like the kind we had during MFM, can make perfectly adequate home cooking or office canteen food seem dull and mediocre. So, we were looking for something that wasn’t too complex to eat, but also not lethargic and uninspired as most of the food that one finds in the daily routine.
Though Chinese food has many complexities, it’s both reader- and writer-friendly; as a style of cooking it’s naturally reader-friendly, especially “ethnic” Chinese food cooked for foreigners: It has oil, salt, fat, in a sweet sauce, either coated onto or served on starch, laced with umami in the form of monosodium glutamate (MSG).
Unusual
A friend recommended to check out Crystal Dragon restaurant at the Crown Hotel in City of Dreams (COD) Manila.
Going out to dinner with the family has become an adventure these days; we leave the house anxious that the evening either will be great fun or end in tears. (There isn’t really any middle ground when children are in the picture.)
The friend who texted the recommendation has a child the same age as our kid, so we were confident about the child-friendliness of Crystal Dragon. We also received food recommendations, which were complimented by the waiter as being excellent choices.
Our first dish was an unusual assemblage of pig’s scalp in strips, crisp potato strings and julienne leeks. It turned out as a winning flavor-and-texture combination.
Next up was Peking Duck, which was somewhere in the median as far as the price range of prices go in most restaurants; the difference was that this was a plump, full-sized duck with properly lacquered skin, and not the scrawny creatures scraped off a windshield that too many dining places are passing off as Peking Duck these days, charred rather than burnished.
Other notable dishes include the homemade tofu with truffle sauce, which is more sparing in quantity than we would have liked, but was silken and well-flavored. (Choi Garden in Greenhills became famous for a similar dish, with abalone sauce, absurdly expensive if you regard it as “mere” tofu but absolutely scrumptious.)
The fried chicken with walnuts lived up to its reputation, but we didn’t get to try the oven-baked cod and the dim sum, said to be Crystal Dragon signature dishes.
The desserts went a bit off the deep end in more ways than one. A twice-boiled pear with a weary red date in the center, it tasted like a masticated champoy. We’ve been eating it for over 40 years and still haven’t acquired its taste.
Alcohol kick
On the other hand, Crystal Dragon has “pancakes,” actually a kind of puff-pastry-based bun with filling and Hennessy XO ice-cream. It had an over-strong alcoholic kick and the cloying taste of mainland aspiration.
We suggest a stroll to other parts of the COD complex for dessert, perhaps the Nobu teahouse. And would recommend to the restaurant another shot at the dessert menu; these are usually the downfall of Chinese restaurants in Manila, but we’ve seen and tasted some convincing efforts in Shanghai and Hong Kong upscale fusion restaurants.
Like most COD outlets, Crystal Dragon is a restaurant we can recommend but with a few reservations, most of which are objections necessitated by its high standards and higher than average prices.
On the other hand, the presence of DreamPlay (the Dreamworks-themed children’s area) on the upper ground floor points at COD’s canny decision not to rely on gamblers alone for revenue, and market itself as a family destination as well.
Fellow parents of toddlers and school-age children can rejoice, as can those who crave delicious, familiar tastes after the sophistication of cutting-edge cuisine.
Crystal Dragon is at Crown Hotel in City of Dreams Manila, Aseana Avenue corner Roxas Boulevard, Parañaque; tel 8008080
