COCONUTS HOT SPOT — More often than not, restaurants that claim to serve Asian cuisine are really just offering food from Japan, Thailand or China. The murkier foods of Southeast Asia—the rendangs, murtabaks and satays of Malaysia and Indonesia—are not as well represented. Restaurant owners argue that the Filipino palate is just not ready for spicy dishes.
THE LOOK
That’s why when we heard that Truly Asia has a Malaysian chef as consultant, we were excited to give it a try. Located on the third level of Fisher Mall, the split-level restaurant looks classy with its wooden interiors, mood lighting and fascinating wall accents—it’s thisclose to fine dining. To be honest, it wasn’t something we expected from a mall whose only claim to fame is a supermarket selling live fish from tanks.
THE GRUB
The meal started with an amuse bouche of pickles—cucumber, green chili and chayote, which the restaurant also sells in bottles. We followed that with smoked oysters (PHP280) that didn’t look very sexy at all. Served on a bed of lettuce, it was mixed with diced tomatoes, coriander, chili, garlic, sesame seeds and lime dressing.
We thought we were served chicken liver by mistake, but as we chewed on the meat, the taste of tinapa was evident and, mixed with the tartness of the dressing, our stomachs opened up with glee. The stir-fried crispy okra (PHP160) was a simple dish cooked in oyster sauce and garlic chips, and totally devoid of goo that the vegetable is eaten for.
Torn between the tender beef rendang (PHP290) and Brewed Coffeelicious Pork (PHP280) we ordered both and got double the disappointment. It’s not that the beef rendang was tender—the meat was already flossed so it was like putting mush in our mouths. We tasted more coconut milk than cumin and when we complained that it wasn’t spicy at all, the waitress offered a dipping bowl of sambal which was spicy alright, but it still couldn’t rescue the Malaysian dish.
The pork was covered in a sticky coffee glaze and sprinkled liberally with sesame seeds. The taste was cloying and it ended with a bitter finish. The only good thing about it was how the chef made the pork chunks so light, we tended to bite too hard several times only to discover that the meat was as airy as cotton.
For dessert, we ordered teh tarik—”pulled tea” in English. Not a lot of people make pulled tea anymore. It’s a tiring task: You repeatedly pour tea from one cup to the other, from a height, until you get a frothy top. That’s not how it’s done here. Instead we got milky tea with a top—and flavor—that was too flat for our liking.
The secret to teh tarik is the delicate mix of condensed and evaporated milk. The secret to beef rendang is cumin, turmeric and ginger. If you can’t do these things right, why bother?
NOTES
Cost: PHP1105 for six items.
Cleanliness: Excellent.
Service: Excellent.
Sound level: It was so quiet we could hear the conspiracy theory about VP Jejomar Binay that was being discussed three tables away.
Lighting: Warm and yellow.
Coconuts Manila dined anonymously and paid for this meal. Truly Asia, 3/F Fisher Mall, Quezon Ave cor Roosevelt Ave, Bgy Sta Cruz, Quezon City.
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