King of the Park in North Park

April 4, 2008

 

North of Manila lies an oft unnoticed stretch of paved road leading towards the hills of Antipolo. Out on this road the Medical City, once an old decrepit hospital straddling a short stretch of road between the Shangri La Plaza and the SM Megamall re engineered itself to a grand facility and along its sides a slew of restaurants, and coffee shops established themselves into the strip. Inevitably, in the search for comfort from the pressures of a hospital, doctors, nurses, visitors and yes even patients, found respite from the dreaded hospital food, that North Park opened a branch overlooking Ortigas Avenue.

 

North Park began discreetly as a small linoleum topped teahouse in the tradition of the noisy, Smokey and fast paced Makati Avenue, serving up dimsum, congee and noodles. It began by serving single serve items and slowly as its popularity increased, expanded their menu to include short orders from the braised to the fried noodles, steamed and fried wontons, traditional items like pinsec frito (deep fried dumplings) sweet and sour pork, and a whole host of other items. When the Soon brothers opened in 1996, right on Makati corner. Kalayaan, the plan was to provide food that everyone loves and recognizes. Naturally, people would flock to the familiar and before you know it, that main branch wasn’t big enough. 15 branches later, North Park is still dishing out the familiar favorites like their Fried Noodles, Nan king Beef and Double Pork Rib entrees; as well as the classic Beef Wanton, precursor to the surge in “Pares” (Anise braised Beef) and soon you can expect it to open at the Ocean Park. This franchise also gave birth to some other variants such as Tiananmen right across the street in Makati Avenue, which is more like a bar hangout but still filled with tasty treats of which my favorite is the Steamed Snow fish and Oriental Salad; as well as Next Door which is a little pricier but includes different favorites like curries and desserts particularly their panacota. A more recent addition is Kopi Tiam which is coffee shop in a combination word of Malaysian (Kopi) and Hokkienese  (Tiam), and is one to watch out for.

 

On this visit, we meet with Cherry Lim So, their petite Marketing Manager, who tells us this branch we visited, “ . . It’s for the Green Meadows and other Pasig residents.” Like most other North Park branches it is designed unlike the others which are normally laid out as one big room. Its bright red walls outside give away its Chinese heritage. This time there are two entrances, first into the main dining hall, where the familiar stainless steel table tops are laid out in the center while along the walls are cubicles. Naturally the menu serves as the place settings and they still use the familiar cutlery that feels good to the touch with just the right weight, although, we still did ask for chopsticks. There is no master chef at the North Park but the history of the Soon family in the restaurant business goes back to the days of the Golden Peking restaurant in Cubao, renown for its eel dishes. The brothers still keep a foot in the restaurant business with North Park and despite an Ecole Le Roche pedigree to spur their capacity for more complex dishes, it is the old favorites and reliable entrees that truly make the difference; anyway, as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Anyway it brings mainstream cooking to the masses, so to speak. A connecting hallway lined on either side with cubicled tables on a cobblestones path leads into another vestibule where the bar is located; and if you go further, an alcove is framed by a sliding door with a typically Chinese design, a circle with in the center split by the doors that slide into and additional room with walls cushioned by a straw colored wallpaper and Chinese painting with calligraphy and typical brush stroked images of Koi cavorting in pools in simple wooden frames. This could be a very private dining area for special parties. 

 

Today’s tasting revolves around the less frequently ordered items but are nonetheless winners in their own right. The cold appetizers are various cold cuts comprising Chinese chorizos, spread like a deck of cards on one side framing the soy chicken and steamed white chicken sandwiching the roasted and barbecued pork loin “asado” style. It is so typically a restaurant mainstay that just looking at it, you can already tell how it will taste so we dig in with gusto! The chorizos are smooth textured with no outer skin to have to do battle with, while the roast pork dipped in a bit of hoi sin sauce are exactly the way you’d expect them to be, sweet with a tart finish highlighted by the hoi sin. Chicken whether white or soy would tend to taste the same except for some subtle differences particularly in the skin, but paired with the ginger, garlic and oil dipping sauce for the steamed chicken will give Hainanese chicken rice a run for  its money while the soy chicken simply lends the saltiness of soy sauce at just the right blend with the more commonly bland characteristic of white meat.  On our insistence, we are served shark fin siomai which are clad in the classic yellow wonton skins and pinched on the top to form a ridge. I doubt if there are really shark fins in there, as this would surely skyrocket the prices beyond reach but as heart warming food, unbeatable as they lift the bamboo steamer cover and the puff of steam escapes, the aroma of freshly steamed dimsum is unmistakable. We get a real taste of what we’re missing with the prawns in sweet chili sauce as whole prawns are coated in a crisp batter and fried. I can almost imagine how the sweet chili sauce would have to be made from scratch with the cook reducing the combination of vinegar, sugar and tomato sauce with chopped chilies to produce a thick sticky sauce to which you add the fried prawns and serve. As each prawn hits our mouths, the effect is the same. . . you recognize this flavor, its uncompromisingly familiar, as the crisp batter crunches and the marriage of the sweet spiciness comes alive. The play with texture produces feeling of satisfaction. You wonder, why you have never ordered this before. . Is it actually on the menu? Are there things which aren’t on the menu that you  can order? “. . . The broccoli flowers in garlic . . The kangkong and kalian in garlic . . .” Cherry tells us is a regular item ordered but still isn’t on the menu. We check and we find, nothing. . . it isn’t on the menu indeed. We finish with a personal favorite, which I didn’t realize is not a regularly ordered item, the Fookien style Fried Rice which is essentially a generous portion of Yang Chow Fried Rice smothered in what could be classified as the same sauce used in the Fried Noodles but more vegan with a profusion of mushrooms and vegetable. The braised noodles would have a similar type of presentation in a very LAARGE deep, and full plate. It is simply a comfort dish that goes well with our without a main entrée accompaniment. This would be a tour de force of a dish that begs tasting.

 

Part of what they encourage at North Park is to try out the desserts. You won’t find any Fruit compote pavlovas or canonigos with rum, but you will find their version of halo halo that could run rings around what the others may serve by sheer content of condiment alone. They offer it in a tall glass with very fine shaved ice and two little demitasse cups each of syrup and fresh milk. This changes the character of a traditionally Filipino dish with its heaps of sweet preserves. And the one final item in the dessert is  black and white gulaman (gelatin) with tropical fruit. This marries the tart freshness of diced fruit in syrup with the grassy herbal undertones of black gulaman, an indubitable Chinese staple,  while the white gulaman combines structure  to this dessert and brings the flavor full circle.

 

As North Park looks forward to an ever expanding network of branches to bring this mainstream dishes to the public, we ponder what the future might bring to this franchise.  You can see from the heady mix of all types of clientele that the food here brings all people together to eat the familiar and that which is intended to satisfy and bring them together and share a meal. A chance to catch up on stories, a chance to catch up on what’s going on, while sharing food that will not divert attention away from the company but will certainly push the conversation along. No pretenses, just good food.