FILIPINOS can’t seem to get enough of Vietnam these days. After catching a glimpse of hell on earth in the musical "Miss Saigon," they can now savor a taste of heaven in Thien Duong, the first Vietnamese restaurant to open in a five-star hotel in Makati.
Thien Duong, the most recent addition to Dusit Hotel Nikko’s fine dining outlets, has opened where the Shark’s Fin restaurant used to be. Nikko belongs to the Bangkok-based Dusit Thani hotel chain, and houses other restaurants such as Benkay, Ciao and Benjarong.
By coincidence, Thien Duong means paradise in Vietnamese, while Dusit Thani means a town in heaven in Thai.
Thien Duong has been one of the top fine dining restaurants in Bangkok for 12 years now. "Many Filipino gourmands who travel often to Bangkok know Thien Duong," says Sandra Garcia, Dusit Hotel Nikko’s director for marketing. "They’re all excited about this recent development."
Healthy eating
The growing trend toward healthy eating has a lot to do with the food’s popularity, says Siri-orn Aramvit, Thien Duong’s manager in Bangkok. She and Chef Buarong Utaida, also a Thai, are here to train their Filipino colleagues in the art of Vietnamese cooking.
Unlike greasy Chinese cuisine, Vietnamese dishes are mostly boiled, grilled or eaten fresh. Aside from the abundant use of fresh vegetables and spices, the menu is rich in fish and seafood since Vietnam, like the Philippines, is blessed with a long coastline teeming with rich marine life.
Filipinos led by Chef Dave Laureano, restaurant manager Dina Ortega and assistant restaurant manager Arlyn Reyes have had to go to Bangkok and experience the various nuances of Vietnamese cooking. "It’s totally different from Thai food," says Ortega, "from the aroma to the taste to the manner of preparation."
For one, most Vietnamese dishes aren’t as spicy as Thai cuisine. Diners can control the amount of spices they want to add to their food because each flavoring is placed in a separate container.
The Vietnamese hardly use coconut milk the way Thais and Bicolanos do. Because they use less oil in their cooking, their dishes are decidedly less greasy, lighter on the head and easier on the stomach.
The food’s distinct flavors are brought out by a melange of fresh mint and basil leaves, coriander, lemon grass, lettuce, a slice or two of lemon and a dash of nuoc mam--nampla to Thais or plain patis to Filipinos.
Their version of the atchara combines shreds of radish and carrots pickled in rice vinegar and flavored by nuoc mam. Bits and pieces of red-hot labuyo are optional.
Like most Filipinos, the Vietnamese seem most happy dipping bits of food in a particular sawsawan. Dishes also come with several table seasonings, including separate square containers for chili powder and, believe it or not, refined sugar. They go well with pho, a clear soup of rice noodles and chunks of beef boiled with onions and sprinkled with cilantro and mint leaves for that added tang.
Each serving comes with a heaping plate of garnishing--lettuce, onion tops, lemon slices, more mint, cilantro and raw onions. Use them to your taste bud’s desire. The chef, we assure you, won’t mind. "We allow the food’s natural flavors to surface by putting a dash of herbs and spices," says Laureano. "It’s up to the diner--whatever suits his taste."
Leaves and grass
Vietnamese dining is also a totally different experience. Chopsticks are still the preferred table utensils, but for dishes such as the bi goi cua cuon, eating with one’s hands is a must.
The fresh spring rolls are stuffed with minced pork, shrimp and crab and rolled in translucent rice wrappers and garnished with strips of red cabbage and carrots. To further bring out the flavor, each spring roll is cut into smaller pieces and wrapped in lettuce and garnished with carrot and radish sticks, Vietnamese pickles, mint and basil leaves. Of course, this is best done by hand.
Haven’t had enough of that minty sensation? There’s a potfull of raw mint leaves on stand by, don’t worry, apart from limitless servings of Vietnamese pickles.
The sole fish, scraped, rolled into flour and deep-fried, is served on its own crisp skin. Again, it can be made more flavorful if dipped in lemon grass sauce--a dark brown concoction of tamarind, coriander, ginger and, of course, lemon grass.
Ga nep is a complete meal in itself. Several pieces of reddish-brown chicken are marinated, charcoal-grilled and served with rounded pieces of glutinous rice, carioca-style. The chicken meat is best dipped in light vinegar sprinkled with sesame seeds.
Like a Chinese restaurant, Thien Duong serves its dishes lauriat-style. Com sen, Vietnam’s idea of fried rice topped with pieces of prawns and mixed with diced chicken and asparagus, is wrapped in lotus leaf. "I never imagined using lotus leaves for cooking," says Ortega. "We will be sourcing most of our ingredients locally and from Thailand."
Com sen is such a feast for the gastronomic senses we barely had room for the rice meal and longan pudding.
But unlike a seven-course Chinese dinner, we were able to go beyond the soup and appetizer without feeling stuffed. And nobody grabbed an ice-cold glass of water in the midst of dinner to soothe a burning tongue, which usually happens when dining the Thai way.
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