Forget the wine, pair Chinese dishes with sparkling tea
DURING pairing dinners at restaurants, we’re usually given wine or some other alcohol. At a dinner on March 26 at No. 8 at Grand Hyatt Manila, we were given two novelties: one, the food was paired with tea, and two, the tea was sparkling. The evening was thus wholesome, and we were still wide awake at the end of it.
Mindful Sparks, a company from Hong Kong and the official tea partner of the Michelin Guide Hong Kong & Macau in 2024, recently partnered up with the hotel.
The dinner tea pairing was a little bit ad hoc, and our host just ordered off the menu — perhaps the better to enjoy the tea in a more natural setting. Three teas, packaged and poured like champagne, were offered to us: Yuzu Genmaicha, Osmanthus Golden Oolong, and White Peach Earl Grey. We noticed at first sniff that the Yuzu Genmaicha was very fragrant and had a rich, hay-like scent. The Oolong Osmanthus was richly fragrant with floral notes, and we thought it would be our favorite, but we noted that it had a flat taste that would benefit from some sugar (or maybe that was just us). The White Peach Earl Grey tea by itself was very elegant and had a well-balanced and complex taste.
Now on to the dinner: we started out with a West Lake Minced Beef Soup with coriander, tofu, and egg whites. We paired that with the Yuzu (we paired with intuition; the dinner had no rules), and we found the soup filling and warming, with a nice, gentle umami note. This umami note was tempered by the yuzu tea, preventing it from becoming too rich.
A dish of Spicy Poached Clams was next, which we were sure would benefit what we thought was the blank canvas of the oolong. We were wrong, and gladly so: the oolong gave a little sparkle to the otherwise flavor-packed clams. This was followed by Braised Chilean Sea Bass with ginger, garlic, and black bean. The dish, served sizzling in a rock bowl, combined light flesh with a rich sauce. Paired with the oolong, it brought out the more oceanic flavors of the dish, but playing around by pairing it with the yuzu, we noticed it brought out the fish’s sweetness and delicacy.
Next came a Barbeque Combination Platter with roast duck, air-dried beef, jellyfish, and char siu. With the oolong tea, it gave a canvas for the zing of the jellyfish to come out. The white peach tea, meanwhile, tempered the rather strong flavors of the air-dried beef. The yuzu added sweetness and juiciness to the pork char siu, while the oolong provided further complexity and fragrance to the duck.
We paired a dish of Scallops and Broccoli with the yuzu tea, and the pairing gave some zest to the sweet flesh of the scallops.
We ended the meal with a Peking Duck with all the works: we were surprised at the quality this restaurant could offer, jaded as we were with the multiple ducks to be found in the city. Theirs had a very thin, almost airy skin with a noisy crack: almost as if its fat was bubbling just under the surface, waiting for one’s bite. We didn’t have a hard time pairing this duck with anything: it was perfect by itself and went with everything.
Lucy Chen, restaurant manager at No. 8 China House, said that they started this promotion with sparkling teas because it reminded them of the trendy drink Kombucha (also a bubbly tea drink). “We sense that if we added different scents of tea, and different flavors, that can enhance the tea taste,” said Ms. Chen. “Chinese cuisine sometimes, we think that it’s a little bit greasy, and a little bit heavy,” she said. “With this refreshing and bubbly tea, it will enhance the whole dining experience.”
No. 8 China House doesn’t quite have the buzz we think it deserves (we suppose it’s because of its location, tucked away in the hotel; and the fierce competition from more established names). Ms. Chen, just starting her term last month, is making a few changes. They’re coming up with single, signature-dish set menus to cater to solo diners. “For Chinese cuisine, usually, the ordinary thinking is that it’s for family dinners, or it’s all family-style,” she said.
She’s also planning to push the restaurant to the Filipino Chinese and the Chinese community in the Philippines, and said they’d “Bring out the authentic Chinese cuisine to the Filipino.” She added, “Taste the authentic Chinese cuisine, without going to China. You can taste the real taste outside China.”
The tea collection is available at No. 8 China House (at the 5th floor, Grand Hyatt Manila) for lunch and dinner, served by the glass or bottle alongside free-flowing dim sum for lunch from Mondays to Saturdays, as well as curated tasting menus and à la carte selections offered for lunch and dinner daily. — Joseph L. Garcia
