Cornucopia of Chow in Choi City
Tease the season and "wok" up your appetite. Writer Jareliese Mauro doesn’t have to crack open a cookie just so she could experience good fortune.
This is the enthralling narrative of how love between two gourmands, communal adoration for Cantonese cooking, and the response for the tapering cuisine authenticity had reeled in Chinese luck in the form of dishes and majestic architecture. When the venue kicks up the heat with its essences, when you feel that affluence has hit the ceiling, and the interior design has set the celebratory mood, you know you’ve reached your destination: Choi City, the finest CHOIce in the city. Lo and behold, this restaurant, with its 6 function rooms that could accommodate 200 guests on the ground floor and 250 on the second, sits regally like a refined emperor in the corner of Banilad Town Center.
Do you recall recovering from an explosion on your palette due to an invigorating tang and the mere smell of the dish simply makes you restless? This memory then triggers a spot in your lobe in which all of your senses could attain only pure bliss. Well, 4 HK-based chefs (head, assistant, roasting, and dimsum chefs) in Choi City can relive that déjà vu over and over again…and this is no syntax error.
Jay Tan, whose businesses are in Manila, has been helping the sensation of Chinese cuisine accomplish new levels. It could be told that the opening of the Cebu branch was most probably written in the stars when Jay, along with his wife, Sheryl Tan, who happens to be from Cebu, wanted to transport something that Cebuanos can enjoyably sink their teeth into—the Choi way.
One whiff of the beef in oyster sauce with broccoli and you’re gone…off to some eminent space perhaps flying with mystical dragons. With the fried special shrimp roll’'s right mix of inventive flavors, it conjures a satisfying moment that could warrant a referral coming for you. “Oh, I’ve been there! My dining experience? Heaven!” you’d attest. Include the shark’s fin in your list for soul food together with the abalone as they make a harmonious mishmash in your mouth. Through the grapevine, an observer could describe Cantonese cooking in which patrons would “eat everything that swims except the boat, everything that flies except the airplane, and everything that runs except the car” as evident in some entries in the menu but perchance the Peking duck and pigeon dishes will be a welcomed novelty in you tongue, eh? Make 2011 a year for the lumad to experience an exotic culture dip every so often.
Apart from the many methods, steaming and frying top the charts due to the short cooking time it entails while maintaining the nutrition in the food. The unspoken guidelines with regard to the varied and delicate elements of food preparation are to draw out the flavor of the freshest components and that the “spiciness of an order is inversely proportional to the freshness of the ingredients.” Often times, Cantonese chefs or waiters would to fetch a moving lobster or show you the heartbeat of a cod if they have to just to prove that the animals they’ll cook is fresh. Providentially, Choi City lives up to that with its nationwide reputation of delivering the best dishes in an impressive ambiance—all in affordable rates.
And it’s not just the belly that’s satisfied. Even the eyes. Blanketed in red for prosperity, round tables, which signify wholeness, abound to fill the huge space. Lacquered, engraved, and sturdy, wooden art in gold accents cling on to cream-colored walls. If lanterns could spin stories of wealth, they’ve certainly spun a gold mine value in the restaurant with its artful designs. As if the spirits have descended to the earth to provide light, celestial crystal orbs hang from the ceiling and twinkle a little brighter at night. Urging a sense of mystery are walls with faux pas candles which from afar seem suspended in midair. Like “ruins” of past dynasties, Choi City’s furniture in stylized forms marks elegance.
Chinese cooking and interior design have evolved into something modern and more palatable to the contemporary man but Choi City has both retained the same taste that made the Cantonese chefs famous in the culinary field and experimented the fusion of the traditional and trendy art. Delicacy, superb service, and craftsmanship—your positive karma awaits in Choi City.
This is the enthralling narrative of how love between two gourmands, communal adoration for Cantonese cooking, and the response for the tapering cuisine authenticity had reeled in Chinese luck in the form of dishes and majestic architecture. When the venue kicks up the heat with its essences, when you feel that affluence has hit the ceiling, and the interior design has set the celebratory mood, you know you’ve reached your destination: Choi City, the finest CHOIce in the city. Lo and behold, this restaurant, with its 6 function rooms that could accommodate 200 guests on the ground floor and 250 on the second, sits regally like a refined emperor in the corner of Banilad Town Center.
Do you recall recovering from an explosion on your palette due to an invigorating tang and the mere smell of the dish simply makes you restless? This memory then triggers a spot in your lobe in which all of your senses could attain only pure bliss. Well, 4 HK-based chefs (head, assistant, roasting, and dimsum chefs) in Choi City can relive that déjà vu over and over again…and this is no syntax error.
Jay Tan, whose businesses are in Manila, has been helping the sensation of Chinese cuisine accomplish new levels. It could be told that the opening of the Cebu branch was most probably written in the stars when Jay, along with his wife, Sheryl Tan, who happens to be from Cebu, wanted to transport something that Cebuanos can enjoyably sink their teeth into—the Choi way.
One whiff of the beef in oyster sauce with broccoli and you’re gone…off to some eminent space perhaps flying with mystical dragons. With the fried special shrimp roll’'s right mix of inventive flavors, it conjures a satisfying moment that could warrant a referral coming for you. “Oh, I’ve been there! My dining experience? Heaven!” you’d attest. Include the shark’s fin in your list for soul food together with the abalone as they make a harmonious mishmash in your mouth. Through the grapevine, an observer could describe Cantonese cooking in which patrons would “eat everything that swims except the boat, everything that flies except the airplane, and everything that runs except the car” as evident in some entries in the menu but perchance the Peking duck and pigeon dishes will be a welcomed novelty in you tongue, eh? Make 2011 a year for the lumad to experience an exotic culture dip every so often.
Apart from the many methods, steaming and frying top the charts due to the short cooking time it entails while maintaining the nutrition in the food. The unspoken guidelines with regard to the varied and delicate elements of food preparation are to draw out the flavor of the freshest components and that the “spiciness of an order is inversely proportional to the freshness of the ingredients.” Often times, Cantonese chefs or waiters would to fetch a moving lobster or show you the heartbeat of a cod if they have to just to prove that the animals they’ll cook is fresh. Providentially, Choi City lives up to that with its nationwide reputation of delivering the best dishes in an impressive ambiance—all in affordable rates.
And it’s not just the belly that’s satisfied. Even the eyes. Blanketed in red for prosperity, round tables, which signify wholeness, abound to fill the huge space. Lacquered, engraved, and sturdy, wooden art in gold accents cling on to cream-colored walls. If lanterns could spin stories of wealth, they’ve certainly spun a gold mine value in the restaurant with its artful designs. As if the spirits have descended to the earth to provide light, celestial crystal orbs hang from the ceiling and twinkle a little brighter at night. Urging a sense of mystery are walls with faux pas candles which from afar seem suspended in midair. Like “ruins” of past dynasties, Choi City’s furniture in stylized forms marks elegance.
Chinese cooking and interior design have evolved into something modern and more palatable to the contemporary man but Choi City has both retained the same taste that made the Cantonese chefs famous in the culinary field and experimented the fusion of the traditional and trendy art. Delicacy, superb service, and craftsmanship—your positive karma awaits in Choi City.
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