Fu Restaurant and then some

Haha. "And then some" is a lazy convention I seem to have resorted to in an effort to spare myself of having to think of another title or write blogs separately. Anyway...

Last night, we went to Serendra for dinner. Months back, we received a faxed message on Fu cuisine. There were questions and answers in that faxed info whom someone must have asked for, but which was mistakenly sent to me. Since then I have been curious, plus the fact that it's owned by batchmates whom I know but who don't necessarily know me. Plus the fact too that I have read favorable reviews on it. Anyway...

Prior to entering the restaurant, we looked at the menu to check if it had reasonably priced entrees. Yes, the prices weren't bad. Would the food be good, we wondered. Then a quick look through the glass walls revealed former Solicitor General Estelito Mendoza and family. That it had a VIP for a customer meant, or so I thought, it must serve good food.

We asked the lady who waited on us for recommendations. Finally we ordered the following: roast suckling pig, 3 ways; one bowl of Fu fried rice, one bowl of yang chow fried rice; pan-fried radish cake, fish in barbecue sauce and ha kao. Now let me explain.

Roast suckling pig three ways means an appetizer plate with 3 different kinds of cold cuts. One of course was the roast suckling pig, the second was pork asado and the third was a choice between white or soy chicken. We chose the former. The plate was served with ginger sauce and hoisin. Having both roast suckling pig and asado seems redundant as both are pork dishes, but as they're cooked differently, having them both was fine. Dipping them in hoisin improved their taste even more. I tried the ginger sauce on the chicken and it was all right. But I chose to dip even the chicken in hoisin after trying it on ginger.

The rice: I had the Fu fried rice. This came with Peking duck meat. Hardly noticeable but as all good Chinese fried rice go, Fu's had that distinct Chinese fried rice flavor and aroma. Very good.

Ha Kao was great. It wasn't too floury. I've tasted some versions that leave me disappointed. This one didn't.

The pan fried radish cake I liked a lot. When I asked for sauce to go with it, they gave me sweet chili sauce. When I tried them together, they just didn't jibe. So I used hoisin on the radish cake as well.

The fish seemed to lack flavor. It was served with young corn and slivers of carrots and, maybe, turnips. Nothing special, not at all exciting.

And as our bill reached the minimum P1000 and we paid using a Citibank credit card,
we were entitled to free dessert. Two free desserts, in fact. One was a set of 3 snow balls, the other a refreshing mix of mango juice and melon shavings with crushed ice. Re the snowballs, they're made of sticky rice. They were in orange (carrot-flavored), green (pandan) and violet (ube) and were rolled in dessicated coconut and something powdery -- like the thing espasol is rolled in as well. Ground toasted rice, maybe? The snowballs tasted like palitaw or in Ilonggo, inday-inday. They had a cube of mango inside in varying degrees of sourness/sweetness (half full-half empty thing). Ingenious. On a lazy day, I might yet try making a clone.

Overall, Fu was a happy experience except for the noisy children and the clatter of porcelain made by the waiters/waitresses. That's to be expected in Chinese restaurants, a relative once told me.

As for Estelito Mendoza, his family members (wife and 3 or four children, all young adults) were well-behaved, not at all obnoxious. I was impressed with all of them, Estelito included. But not for long where he was concerned.

They left Fu before we did, but when we went to A Different Bookstore, they were there too. The branch of ADB in Serendra is a bit cramped so that I couldn't move to the back because he was on his way to the cashier. One way traffic situation? Not exactly, but more of a one car at a time thing. He refused to budge so we could move forward, making it necessary for us to move so he could pass. Not very gentlemanly of him. Maybe because he is who he is? Sad.