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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 5^th 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

Wooshi opens in Manila

ON THE HEELS of its first restaurants Hey Bo and SaladStop, the SaladStop! Group has opened a third brand, Wooshi.

The first branch opened at Central Square in BGC, sharing space with the SaladStop! Branch there. Rooted in maki rolls and rice bowls, Wooshi presents a modern approach to Japanese-inspired comfort food.

“The tagline is ‘Sushi set free’,” said Adrien Desbaillets, SaladStop! Group chief executive officer. “Hopefully nobody thinks of it as traditional sushi. It’s not, at all. If we were to present this to a Japanese chef, it would probably be quite insulting,” he said with self-deprecation during a group interview at the April 7 opening.

Not bring traditional doesn’t automatically mean a decrease in taste: he’s particularly proud of their Philippine-exclusive Pork N’ Rolls which presents the classic adobo with a twist of flavors of mango strips, white radish pickles, and cilantro mayo topped with chicharon (pork crackling).

We tried other rolls: the Tuna Turner with yuzu shoyu chili crab sauce, and nuts; the vegan Big Bang Tofu with tempura enoki, and toasted almonds; and the Cali Crush, modeled after the California Maki, with crab sticks, avocado, roe and wasabi mayo.

Some of the options use heirloom rice (Mr. Desbaillets says that they work with Filipino farmers).

We will say that the dishes have that clean flavor characteristic of health food options (the very backbone of SaladStop!). We will also say that we dislike the sachet format in which they serve their condiments of soy sauce and wasabi (but then, that might have been a first day thing) due to the potential mess.

“It’s the last piece of the puzzle,” he said about opening Wooshi in the Philippines after their other two concepts. He says that it can be built next to one of the existing concepts: “It’s a little bit more versatile.

“It’s a little bit more of a to-go brand,” he said about this place offering rice rolls and bowls. “I think with Hey Bo and SaladStop!, sometimes you need to sit down.

“I think being rice-based as well, I think, can go a bit further in terms of local adaptation,” he added.

MIDDLE EAST EXPANSION ON HOLD
He did go into the current conflict in the Middle East and how it is affecting their plans as a Singapore-based group. “We were actually going to expand heavily into the Middle East. So that’s on pause,” saying that they were supposed to open a SaladStop! in Dubai this month.

“Unfortunately, we’re seeing it impact our food cost. That’s now going to be (affected by) transportation within each market. What is it going to do to consumer confidence as well?,” he said.

“We are still in a price point that most people will still be okay with” — prices for the rolls start at about P250 and up — “but still.”

But in the Philippines, they’re planning to fully launch their catering arm. “Once you have the three brands, it’s naturally quite easy for us to host an event.”

On another note, Joan Aquino, GoodEats by SSI General Manager (who brought the brand here) says that they’re expanding their SaladStop! Group franchises within Luzon, particularly in Pampanga and Santa Rosa, Laguna, especially with the opening of the SM mall in Nuvali by the end of the year. They also plan to open the Philippine franchise of UK-based bakery Bread Ahead (with an adjoining baking school) by the year’s third quarter. — Joseph L. Garcia