Porchetta with red wine sauce (Photo by
John Rex Rebito)
I WAS extremely delighted when Quest Hotel & Conference Center Cebu Marketing Communications Officer Ian Baol extended an invitation to my family for dinner at the Chef’s Table.
A chef’s table is traditionally in the restaurant kitchen reserved for guests of the chef. These guests enjoy extra attention from the restaurant staff. The chef takes the time to interact with them and enjoy a special menu he himself prepared.
It was worth braving the traffic to get to Quest Hotel across the Ayala Center along Archbishop Reyes Avenue. Instead of the restaurant kitchen, Ian Baol prepared an exclusive room for us in Puso Bistro where my family was warmly welcomed by the new F & B Manager Ronald Yulo and the new Sri Lankan Executive Chef Dinesh Sampath. Chef D, as he is fondly called, brings to Puso Bistro a more competitive flair in the culinary scene.
He actually comes from a small fishing village of Negombo, south of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, where a head chef-friend encouraged him to nurture his natural talent for cooking by attending a culinary college. His culinary career started as Commis, the first rung of the ladder to becoming a great chef. His fired up ambitions brought him to Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Dubai in the Middle East, the Maldives, and China and eventually to Manila and Cebu.
Executive Chef Dinesh Sampath (Photo by John Rex Rebito)
Along the way, he met and married his Filipina wife Leah, who now works as Director of Sales, Marketing and Communications of Kandaya Resort.
The selections Chef Dinesh prepared for us are actually a part of Puso Bistro’s new culinary offerings “Culinary Calendar” featuring international dishes offered seven days of the week with special highlights from different countries each day and Sri Lankan cuisine getting a stellar part. He also shares heritage recipes from home.
Sri Lanka, the beautiful spice island known as Ceylon, is a rich melting pot of cuisines. Central features are rice, coconut, curry and sambols (fresh or cooked relishes that enliven meals).
Guinataang tilapia (Photo by John Rex Rebito)
For starters, we were introduced to Sri Lankan classics. Warm Naan bread was served with flavored butter. The familiar Samosa was paired with homemade mango and mint chutney dips. Our New York rascals Silvian and Sabrina who shy away from fish dishes had several helpings of Sri Lankan Buns and Colombo Rolls both filled with potatoes and tuna served with homemade sweet chili sauce.
The main dishes included a few selections from Puso’s buffet fare. There was Goat Biryani with raita (yogurt, cucumber and mint dip). Biryani is a mixed rice dish from India using long, slender-grained basmati rice. Ginataang Tilapia was a winner with my daughter Patricia, who enjoyed the fish fillets cooked in fresh coconut milk.
Goat biryani with raita (Photo by John Rex Rebito)
The Sri Lankan Pork Curry, Chicken Tandoori and Porchetta with red wine sauce were all scrumptious. But what captured our sweet fancy were the colorful sticky desserts created by Pastry Chef Neil Vaño using “malagkit” or glutinous rice.
The spread was tempting: Kuala Lapiz (Puso’s version of sapin-sapin), Xoi la dua (coconut pandan rice) Kanom bua loy (floating lotius or multi-colored glutinous rice balls in coconut milk), cassava, biko and mini puso, which turned out to be glutinous rice with a rich raw sugar stuffing. Chef Neil calls this “alupe” or acronym for asukal, lube and pilit.
