Out of Africa

THE FOOD scene continues to sizzle in Quezon City with the recent opening of a bar cum restaurant with Moroccan-inspired contemporary interiors and a fusion cuisine, including five ways to savor exotic ostrich meat.

Moomba, on Mother Ignacia and A. Roces Avenues, has been packing in a diverse mix of yuppies, GenXers and businessman-types since it formally opened several weeks ago. If such a place pulls in a sizable evening crowd on a weekday, we wonder how it manages on weekends.

The restaurant’s ambiance, without a doubt, has plenty to do with appeal. Perhaps nowhere in Metro Manila have old traviesas or railroad ties, jute sacks, exposed rafters, dried patalsik twigs and votive candles glowing in their respective niches been used to maximum effect than in Moomba.

Moomba is an Australian aborigine word for "let’s have fun." The interiors may be African-inspired, but the entire scene evokes Victorian chic. You half-expect a younger Merryl Streep from "Out of Africa" to stage an appearance any minute.

The best part is that architect Edward Tan and his team didn’t have to spend the owners’ entire fortune to achieve such a look. The UST-educated Tan refused to reveal their total budget; the word "cheap" kept cropping up almost every time he pointed to a style element. We soon understood why.

In the details

No fancy ceramic tiles or wood parquet, for example, make up any part of the floor. Instead, Tan opted for plain cemented surface lined with encrusted stones for added drama in high-traffic areas. The same device appears in the two elevated lounges, only this time smaller stones follow more complicated patterns.

The bar counter and sink areas are also made of cement slabs. Cold, gray surfaces contrast with carrot orange walls that dominate the entire restaurant. Sinks found in the restrooms were made of aluminum basins readily found in a wet market. This time, Tan chose muted green for the walls.

"We could have easily created a replica of an existing bar or grill, but we didn’t," Tan says. "The owners want to bring guests to a place they haven’t been before, a place not found anywhere else in Manila."

And that becomes evident the moment you enter Moomba’s double doors framed with distressed wood and lined with varnished patalsik twigs. Smaller varieties of the dried plant are found everywhere--in vases, shelves and ledges. No wonder, since a bundle of the lowly but versatile twig sourced from Bicol costs a mere P35.

A worn plank of traviesa doubles as the door handle. Clear sheets of story glass make up part of the high-ceilinged vestibule, while moss green display shelves filled with a variety of accent pieces allow arriving guests to see through the first of Moomba’s elevated lounges.

Creativity is written in the details. Printed drapes in rust and cream, for instance, alternate with natural jute sacks, the kind used to hold coffee beans.

The use of jute sacks extends to several Roman shades by the stairs as well as to made-to-order lamps wrapped in the earth-tone fabric. In place of curtain rings, Tan chose strings of abaca to hold the curtains together.

The same rough material is paired with katsa, which guests in two elevated lounges can readily pull to give them a semblance of privacy, never mind the roving eyes of other guests seated on the second floor.

Like a courtyard

The place is designed like a courtyard, so you get a view of the lounge areas below from the second level. A pair of catwalks made of checkered metal plates connect the left and right wings. Decorative wooden rafters taken from the Kadiwa outlet that used to occupy the place serve no structural purpose except to hang the lights from.

The use of various shades is also reflected in several padded chairs, sofas and throw pillows found in each lounge. Again, Tan succeeds in perking up each area through the use of different but complimentary colors. Sturdy wicker chairs framed in metal and wooden tables with wrought-iron legs make up the bar and several common areas. Slow-moving ceiling fans double as cooling devices and overhead accents.

Again, the stairs leading to the second floor, portions of which were done either in concrete or metal plates, are another classic example of a marriage between two totally different materials. Concrete steps are edged with stones.

"It would have been easier to come up with purely metal or purely concrete steps," says Tan. "But it would have been too boring."

If the elevated lounge near the entrance features multilevel display shelves, the one across it comes with a wall with dozens of niches reserved for lighted candles. Soot has begun to mar the wall covered in water-based paint. Tan doesn’t mind as it adds character to the place by making it look "lived in."

Africa continues to rear its rustic head, if literally, in the form of a stuffed head of a horned impala. Several framed prints and a faux clock again fashioned from pieces of traviesa complete the entire picture on the wall. Perhaps the only thing missing is an animal rug.

"The entire setup is designed like a stage with candle niches as backdrop," he says.

With such richly textured interiors, is there danger for the food to be an afterthought? Thankfully, it’s another good reason to come to Moomba.

Young executive chef Jose Tanseco III, who sharpened his chops working in the kitchens of Sydney and Marseilles, whips up the fusion cuisine, which includes various salads, pizza and pasta dishes. Why fusion?

"It allows me to come with dishes that look and taste good," he reasons.

The rave at Moomba are his ostrich slices cooked à la pobre, complete with steamed potatoes and sprinkled with generous amounts of roasted garlic. A bigger slab of ostrich served with a crust of herb caper and mint sauce has become a bestseller as well. The chili Mediterranean salad consists of a light medley of bell peppers, eggplant and salsa mixed with the restaurant’s special chili sauce.

Unless the wingless bird has also gone cuckoo, gourmands need not fear getting the dreaded mad-cow disease. Unlike beef, ostrich meat imported from Down Under is said to be low in cholesterol. Tanseco, by the way, has three other ways of preparing it: in brandy, in herbs and peppercorn sauce or, if you wish, Satay sauce with zucchini, carrots and eggplant.

At Moomba, there are as many ways to cook ostrich as there are uses for jute sack.