The menu of newly opened restaurant Sup? Chow lists familiar and beloved Asian dishes. There’s char siu, mapo tofu and galbi jim.
While guests might expect a simple barbecue pork, its char siu comes as a succulent piece of boneless chicken served on a bed of sesame rice. The Korean beef stew is paired with a lovely pear sauce. And the Sichuanese mapo chili comes with macerated scallions and sits on crispy wontons.
Traditional Asian fare served with such refinement, both in taste and presentation, is rare in Manila.
Growing up, Lim avoided home-cooked Chinese fare.
“I’m half Chinese. My dad is pure Chinese. They have a cook who prepares really good pata tim and duck meatball soup with homemade glass noodles, among many others. But I wanted chicken nuggets and hotdogs,” he said.
“Now I wish I had taken note of everything and written them in a book.”
Lim has more than made up for those lost years by fervently studying Asian cuisine, traveling and trying food from their origins, and learning from mentors like Gene and Gino Gonzalez, Kerwin Go, Jun-jun de Guzman and Colin Mackay, who taught him that if a dish is good, then everything else follows.
Inspired cooking
Sup? Chow is a concept that has been simmering in Lim’s mind for a while now. And One World Seven Seas Culinary Inc., a fast-growing restaurant group, was willing to back him up.
The 150-seat restaurant serves polished versions of mostly Chinese, Thai and Korean food. “It’s not formal and still fun. Many items are made from scratch, including our sauces. Our specialties are fried rice, char siu and noodles,” he said.
“Sometimes, traditional food can be a bit one note so I layered them with more flavors and textures.”
Its scallion pancakes are topped with beef brisket, pea puree and pickled radish; their misua is drenched in a spicy peanut-sesame sauce; the chop suey, renamed chow suey, has perfectly-cooked vegetables with carrot and beetroot puree and pork liver shavings; and its house-made rice noodles are tossed in rich stewed pork similar to lechon paksiw.
Providing balance to the flavors is a range of pickled and fermented items that they don’t only serve as a condiment, but also include in their beverages.
Lim admits that this kind of food, compared to everything he has done, is most representative of his style. “It’s not stuck to one cuisine, the concept is very open and I feel like I can create dishes here that allow me to play. There are no restrictions, even in presentations.”
Apart from that, he gets to use a lot of local ingredients and pay particular attention to the underrated ones. —CONTRIBUTED
Sup? Chow is at Unit 203, Antel Corporate Center, 121 Valero St., Brgy. Bel-Air, Salcedo Village, Makati.