Modern Shanghai - Glorietta 2, p3

Last part of my post about Modern Shanghai.


Steamed Shrimp Dumplings
If my mom loves siomai, the Hakaw has got to be my favorite dimsum. This one looks like tortellini, no? Anyway, I loved that the wrapper was strong enough to hold the filling, and I appreciated that the base wasn't soggy - something I usually encounter whenever I order this dimsum. It tasted like how Hakaw taste like. It was good, but just fine.


Fried Shanghai Noodles with Seafood
I am not sure if this was served like this or one of my companions mixed it already before I had a chance to photograph it, but I just want to say that this tasted way much better than it looked.


Wok Fried Sliced Beef with Broccoli
Beef and broccoli is a common food combination in almost all Chinese restaurants... but the difference is that this wasn't saucy. The beef slices were seasoned well and very tender, and obviously, the broccoli were cooked just right - giving the right crunch.


Eight Treasures in Hot Bean Sauce
This tasted a little like Mapo Doufu / Mapo Tofu, without the very fiery spice. I loved the combinations of all the ingredients... but my favorite was whenever I added the cashew nut.


Deep Fried Squid with Spicy Salt and Pepper
Oh I love fried squid! It would have to be my favorite way of cooking squid... and I also love salt and pepper spareribs. Combining both, I was very excited to try this one, but I was a little sad that the squid pieces were tough. Although it was difficult to bite, it was packed with flavor, and chewing more and more of it allowed me to savor more of its taste. This was served as is, but if ever you order this, do ask for a saucer of vinegar. It would an oomph into the dish. The taste made up for the texture, that my brother considered this his favorite dish among the eleven dishes.

If you wanna know my favorites that day... it would have to be the very first one - the Shandong Style Shredded Chicken and the Crispy Noodles.

Modern Shanghai is located at the third floor of Glorietta 2.

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Modern Shanghai - Glorietta 2, p2

I wasn't able to blog yesterday because I was out, but as promised, here's the second of the three-part post about my dining experience at Modern Shanghai located at Glorietta 2. For this post, I will share five of the new dishes you can try at Modern Shanghai.


Steamed Shrimp and Pork Siumai
My mom's favorite food is the Siomai, and because she always choose this whenever we eat at any Chinese Restaurant, she somehow influenced me to love the dish, too. I won't say this is the best I have tasted, but it was really good... and tasted delicious even without the dipping sauce, but of course, dipping siumai in chili toyomansi made it more delicious.


Deep Fried Fish with Spicy Fish Sauce
I love breaded cream dory fish, and this was no exception. The breading is unlike the typical "fish" in Fish and Chips - it was light and airy-fluffy, which reminded me of my favorite fish dish in King Bee. The sauce is indeed spicy, but just right. Personally though, I prefer to have the sauce on the side and not poured over the fish because I just loved the crispiness of the fish and the sauce softened the breading. It's just my personal preference, though.


Crispy Yellow Noodle with Seafood
On my last post about Modern Shanghai, I showed a picture of the staff making hand pulled noodles. I learned that this is one of the dishes that uses freshly made noodles. At first I was a little apprehensive with this one because the first time I ate crispy noodles (at a Chinese Fast Food), it was so difficult to eat. This one had smaller noodles, and even without the sauce, the noodles were a joy to eat. The sauce was great. It was thick, flavorful... and the seafood were cooked just right.


Sliced Marinated Pork Knuckle
I love pork pata! When I saw this on the menu, it was the dish I most looked forward to tasting, and when I did, I was a little disappointed. The pork was cooked good - it was firm but tender, and it was a good thing that the fat wasn't that much (at least one could still eat a good serving of meat if one isn't into fatty part of the pork), but it just lacked taste. I actually dipped my pork into the dipping sauce provided when the Shandong Style Shredded Chicken was served.


Native Hong Kong Crispy Chicken
The word "native" is the same when we used it for native Pinoy chicken, so I expected this to be a bit on the tough side. People from Modern Shanghai told us these free-range chickens were imported from Hong Kong, and can be a little tougher from the local kind, but to my surprise it was cooked really good! True to what we all know about native chickens, the flavors just seeped through and through, and the toasted garlic bits provided more goodness to the dish. It was different from the usual Chinese fried chicken I've tasted, and this was one of my top 3 dishes from that food trip.

Next five dishes will be shared tomorrow.

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Modern Shanghai - Glorietta 2, p1

Chinese food may have been part of our rich culinary heritage, but even if we eat Chinese food every now and then, there are still many flavors to discover.


Last week, I was privileged to dine at one of the newest Chinese restaurant in the Metro - Modern Shanghai in Glorietta 2. This restaurant opened just last May, but this isn't the first branch here in the Philippines, the first one is located in SM Mall of Asia.



I guess part of being "modern" is not having the traditional red and gold motif, but even if it's modern, they still have a few round tables with lazy susan for big groups. The restaurant is spacious and the minimal decoration is simply beautiful. The seats are also comfortable.

For a new restaurant, their menu is quite extensive, and I liked that the menu has a picture of every dish they offer, but of course, the restaurant staff is there to answer every queries about the dishes. Even with the extensive menu, they recently added ten new dishes, which I will share next time, just to cut a very long post. For today, let me just share a little "appetizer."


Shandong Style Shredded Chicken
This reminds me of the Hainanese Chicken, but it tasted different, of course. The meat was very tender and the skin had a very light crisp to it. It came with a dipping sauce - slightly sweet soy sauce - but the meat was already tasty enough that it didn't need the dipping sauce just much.



Modern Shanghai offers different kinds of drinks, too. One of our companions had the Mango Tea Sangria (lower left picture)- a very fruity chunky drink, while my brother and i opted for the hot tea. He went for the Oolong Tea (lower right picture), while I went for the Lotus Bloom. It was such an interesting tea, with a very interesting taste, too. It had a mild sweetness to it and it smelled good.

One of our companions had the Apple Shake, which tasted just fine... but what I loved about their drinks is that it just didn't come with one serving. Meaning, my tea is pretty much bottomless - they would offer to refill my cup with hot water as soon as they see that my cup only had 1/4 of tea left;  my brother was served with one pitcher of Oolong Tea, while our friend who ordered the Apple Shake was also served one pitcher of the shake.


Outside the restaurant is a window where you can watch how they do the hand pulled noodles - very interesting to watch!

Tomorrow I will share the first five new dishes being offered at Modern Shanghai.

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Modern Shanghai
3rd Floor, Glorietta 2
Palm Drive - Ayala Avenue, Makati City

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Chinese Influence On South-East Asian Cuisine

South East Asia measures nearly two million square miles across, holds a population of over 600 million people and includes 10 different countries. Yet if you look at the noodle soups of Vietnam or the fried rice found in Singapore, there's one thing that these cuisines all share - influences from Chinese culture, something that chefs at School of Wok make it their job to know a lot about.

This influence of Chinese culture in no way means that each country and region does not possess it's own unique traditions and flavors with their own cuisine, but it's undeniable that you can see elements of Chinese flavors and techniques wherever you look.

Woks, which originated from the Canton region of China, are the most common and versatile of the cooking utensils used across SE Asia, in which foods can be stir-fried, steamed, deep-fried, braised or even smoked. In fact, the Chinese are said that have brought their stir-frying methods to the rest of the continent as merchants traveled across the region for thousands of years.

As for the food of SE Asia, rice and noodles, now fundamental ingredients across the region, were originally Chinese foods that later found their way into kitchens further south. These ingredients are now considered to be staples across the whole region, and take their place among national dishes of many SE Asian countries - such as Vietnam (Pho), Thailand (Pad Thai) and Malaysia (Nasi Lemak).

Furthermore, the cuisines of the South East would be completely different without soy sauce, which was invented in China sometime between the third and fifth centuries. The influence of Chinese culture on the rest of SE Asia can be plainly seen through the use of this indispensable condiment with the majority of meals using it in one way or another.

More recently as example of Chinese influence, dim sum, unarguably a Chinese invention, has spread across the continent with steamed buns and boiled dumplings being served across the region, updated with each country's individual twist.

Living in a multicultural city like London more and more the food industry has an obligation to represent cultures from a variety of different influences. School of Wok, a recreational cookery school in Covent Garden, has made it's mission to represent a variety of Asian cuisines and heritage. As well as a number of Chinese cookery courses and Dim Sum courses, School of Wok teaches a host of different cuisines from across South East Asia, highlighting each countries key ingredients and unique flavors. Whether it's Thai cooking classes, tips about Thai food or think Malaysian cooking lessons, School of Wok specializes in a variety of Asian cuisines, cooking techniques and cultures.

Schoolofwok, a leading cookery school in London, offers a variety of Chinese Cookery Courses. We also provide chef Courses and Cookery Classes London. If you want to join cooking classes you can directly visit our site: http://www.schoolofwok.co.uk/

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Hap Chan Tea House (SM City Fairview)

It was daddy's birth anniversary, and although he was already long gone, we still do celebrate it. Mom suggested we eat at Hap Chan Tea House because she and her friends just recently went there and she liked their dimsum (she loves Siomai, by the way).


It did have the Chinese-inspired decorations, minus the lazy susan tables - something I appreciated (I personally don't like lazy susan tables that much). It was spacious, but people in super big groups might have a difficult time finding an area to fit all of them. We were just four for this food trip, so we can certainly sit anywhere.


Hakaw
Mom may love Siomai so much, but she loves shrimps more. This one was good, it had about three whole shrimps inside, and if we didn't come here to eat lunch, I would definitely go for one serving of this, all for myself. But of course, we just had one Hakaw each for this food trip.


Mixed Meat Canton
No need to wish daddy "long life," but I guess any celebrations would always call for a good serving of noodles, and that was just we had. Vegetables were cooked just right - not really half cooked, but still not soggy (it still had its crunch), and it had enough meat in it (some meat cuts were under the noodles). What I loved the most was the noodles - it was a little chewy and not the types that just melts in the mouth.


Steamed Fish Fillet
This was my suggested dish, and I was a teeny bit disappointed because of the toppings. It was actually okay, but I guess the ginger flavor was a little too strong for me.


Fried Fish in Salt and Pepper
My sister and I loved ordering Spareribs in Salt and Pepper in Chinese Restaurants, but because I was convincing them to go for fish instead of pork, we went for this. This was a very good alternative.


Sauteed Beef with Broccoli Flowers
Nothing really exceptional... I think we all know how this dish would taste like, this was no different.


Strawberry Sundae
Sister's dessert. I loved it because it's Magnolia Strawberry Ice Cream - my favorite. Although, I only had a taste of this, as I didn't want to deprive my sister of her ice cream... besides, my tummy can't tolerate that much dairy products.



Drinks.
Brother had lemonade, I had Watermelon Shake, sister decided to go for water (as she already had her dessert), and mom just content herself with the complimentary tea.

The celebration was great... and I would definitely go back here to eat more of their Hakaw.

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Hap Chan Tea House
2/F SM City Fairview,
Quirino Highway cor Regalado Highway Greater Lagro, Quezon City
+63 (02) 352-7903

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