Friday, November 1, 2013

A Daily Dose of Asian Culinary Spectacle at Restaurant 5

Never miss a day without fixing up a Singaporean or Thai lunch with friends or colleagues even when you are caught in the middle of the busy Ortigas area.  For people who deserve miscellany in their everyday meals, Discovery Suites' Restaurant 5 probably is the next big deal.

Located at the fifth level of the posh and top rated hotel- Discovery Suites, Restaurant 5 have started dishing up our fave Asian dishes.  Gone are the days when you need to plan a good Korean lunch while in the middle of a business meeting and you only have a few minutes to spare.  Meetings can now be extended while chowing down with an array of the day's specialty.
With the culinary and management direction at the helm of their new corporate chef, Chef Anthony Raymond, they scoured the cities for the finest Pan-Asian dishes and heartily serve it.  You can expect nothing less but the best from a chef who came from Le Cordon Bleu, in Paris, with a Le Grande Diplome in Cuisine and Pastry, to add to it, he also hold a certificate course in Restaurant Revenue Management  at the Cornell University in New York.  Not to mention his Bachelors degree in Arts and Sciences which he took at University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.

As a well-traveled chef, his unquestionable palate for exceptional Asian cuisines, and French as well, underlines the standard of The Discovery Leisure Company, Inc. (TDLCI) specially in food service.
To taste this passion, I was blessed enough to be able to partake their Singaporean line which is served during Fridays.

As a first-timer at Restaurant 5, I just had to have my camera's lense take a scrutiny.
 For your salad, you can fill your plate with these premixed assorted salad.  Or you may run on the other end of this side of the buffet for a make-your-own salad.
All the fresh veggies, herbs and other trimmings to make up your own version of Asian Salad.


Next to the salad station is the Curry Sauces line, where you can also get some freshly-made Roti Prata.  Roti Pratas are Indian fried pancake which apparently are eaten dipped or smothered with a certain curry sauce.  In this case, you can choose from red, green and yellow curry.  Confused on what to get, let me give you a 101 on curries.

Red curry paste is the basis for many other dishes besides curries. You can find it in fish cakes, peanut sauce, sausages, etc. It is the most versatile in terms of proteins it pairs with, though it is especially good with duck, shrimp and pork. Its color comes from dried red chilies and the paste itself has more onions and garlic giving it a more savory flavor that contrasts well with sweet additions like lychee, pineapples and basil.

Green curry gets its color from the fresh green chilies used in the paste, giving it a fresher vegetal flavor. It pairs well with white meat and seafood and firm vegetables that compliment its sweet flavor.

Yellow curry is an interpretation of Indian curry with turmeric, coriander and cumin. The flavor is not quite as pronounced as in an Indian curry and is balanced out by the fragrance of lemongrass. Goes well with chicken or beef and mild vegetables like potatoes, baby corn and the like.

We love curries in the house, and I have played around with most of them in our dishes, it's safe to choose yellow since we Filipinos are most used to it, But red curry is far most flavorful and robust but not too fiery to the taste.

Next, the satays.  Satays are skewed meat or seafood marinated with peanut sauce. The most revered hawker food should I say.
Choose from chicken, pork and shrimp.

Like any other Asian cuisines featured in Restaurant 5, Singaporean is also rich in variety, vibrant, aromatic and exotic, which signifies their culture infused with  the flavors of surrounding countries- Malaysia, Chinese, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Vietnam.


Another showcase of the Pan-Asian buffet is the carving station.  See those juicy roast chicken and roast beef...
 Sharing with you my first plate.

 Beef Stir-Fry is a must-try.

 The subtle sweetness of this Pandan covered chicken is sure to pair well with Nasi Goreng.  Nasi by the way is the Indonesian word for rice.
However, this Pinoy super-dish, Pinakbet topped with chicharon, didn't win us, perhaps we were all stocked with the day's offering.  Also, I didn't quit like the idea of putting chicharon over the stir-fried veggies, but Bagnet would be a lot better instead.

Would also love it if they would deconstruct it a bit, by not adding "bagoong" (shrimp paste) to the whole dish instead serving it separate, so the diners would have the saltiness according to their liking.
The sweet ending to an afternoon of epicurean food travel without the expense of flying to Singapore.

All these and so much more for only Php 895 + per person.  Let Discovery Suite and Executive Chef Luis J. Chikiamco satiate your palate for more Asian culinary fare with a lunch buffet of Korean on Mondays, Vietnamese on Tuesdays, our Filipino food during Wednesdays, Thai on Thursdays, then Singaporean on Fridays, Chinese on Saturdays and again the Filipino cuisine takes lead again on Sundays.

For inquiries and reservations, you may contact Discovery Suites at (+63 2) 719 8888, or through their email at fbds@discovery.com.ph or visit www.discoveryhotels-resorts.com/.



No comments:

Post a Comment

I would love to hear your thoughts on my post, care for a comment?