‘East meets West’ in a Chinese Restaurant — that has no name yet — at Seda QC

There’s noting like hot soup on cold nights and dreary, rainy days.

And this particular braised seafood soup with pastry puff I had in the Presidential Suite of Seda Vertis North in Quezon City has been on my rainy-day craving list for weeks now.

The aromatic broth, made extra flavorful by plump prawns, scallops, sea cucumber and fish maw, soothes the soul with its delightful balance of flavors. You’ll definitely savor the umami in every spoonful.

The sad part is that I have to wait for two more months to be able to tick this off my craving list.

I was part of the media group invited by Seda Vertis North to give us a preview of its delectable Sino-inspired dishes for its soon-to-open Chinese restaurant “that has no name yet.”

Mango-licious: Mango sago served in a bowl of dry ice

“We can’t say it (the name) yet because we want to make sure that no one has claim to the name we have,” explained Seda Vertis North group general manager Brett Patrick Hickey, as he showed us to our seats.

The Chinese restaurant is already in its finishing stages and will be open to the public in two months’ time.

Most, if not all hotels in the country have their own in-house Chinese restaurant. And it only makes sense for Seda Vertis North to open one because Chinese is a global cuisine and most travelers are familiar with its flavors.

“Seventy to 80-percent of our guests, particularly on weekends, are Filipino-Chinese,” noted Hickey. “So there’s really a market for good Chinese food at a really good value. And that’s what we’re trying to go in with.”

The restaurant will be on the second floor of the hotel where the ballroom and meeting rooms are located. It will be a 200-seater corner space that will have floor-to-ceiling windows.

Meet the chefs

To give us a preview of what’s in store in the Chinese resto, Hickey and his team hosted an “East Meets West” dinner at the Presidential Suite of Seda Vertish North.

And before service started, the amiable GM introduced us to the hotel’s two executive chefs: Kerpatrik Boiser and Han Furn Chen.

Both chefs dreamt of becoming pilots when they were younger. But that took a backseat when they both tried their hands at cooking.

“I discovered that working for the kitchen is what I love more,” related chef Ker. “In college, I apprenticed at Edsa Shangri-La Hotel and enjoyed it tremendously. So when I graduated, I took up a culinary diploma course.  After culinary school, my professors introduced me to chef Wolfgang Fischer for a job interview in a prestigious hotel in Macau. And everything took off from there.”

Soup’s up: The braised seafood soup with pastry puff

Chef Chen, on the other hand, was exposed to the restaurant scene at a very young age. “My father had a Chinese restaurant in Malaysia,” he shared. “So I’ve been dabbling in the kitchen since I was 13. My dad and the chefs from Singapore taught me the basics of Chinese cooking.”

Chef Chen worked for nine years at Mandarin Oriental’s Tin Hau restaurant. Chen has extensive culinary experience in various countries, including Singapore, Indonesia and Dubai.

“Even if we have fine-dining chefs here at Seda Vertis North, our new restaurant isn’t fine dining. It’s going to be a little bit more open, more modern,” explained Hickey. “What we promise our diners, though, is that they will be dining in a comfortable, friendly, family-dining restaurant that serves good, value-for-money food.”

For the “East Meets West” preview dinner, the two chefs collaborated to create dishes that harmoniously complement each other.

Chef Chen whipped up classic Chinese dishes with a little twist from Chef Ker.

Inspired by the classic Singaporean dish, chili crab, chef Chen prepared a wok-fried lobster doused in chili sauce and served it with a golden Chinese bun to mellow down the heat.

Lobster love: Wok-fried lobster with chili sauce and golden Chinese bun

Remember the seafood soup I told you about? It was one of chef Chen’s standout dishes that night. He added a flaky puff pastry to tie it into the Western dishes of chef Ker, which included his signature US beef short plate with red wine sauce that everyone was talking about even after dinner was over.

Chef Ker also tickled our palate with his creamy prawn ravioli and Caesar salad with crispy himeji mushrooms.

The dinner ended with a modern take on mango sago, which is served in a bowl of dry ice.

“It took us about a month and a half of trying out ideas, recipes, food combinations and ingredients,” shared chef Ker. “It is fun and exciting working with chef Chan. He is very passionate with his craft and never runs out of ideas. It also nice that I get to try first his recipes in preparation to the opening.”

According to chef Ker, it also helps that Seda Vertis North general manager Brett Hickey is very open to new and exciting ideas.

Prawn stars: The creamy prawn ravioli

“He has been very supportive of me since day one. He has also tasted every menu that we offer at Misto (Seda Vertis North’s all-day buffet restaurant) to Straight Up Bar. He even handpicked the wine offerings in our wine list,” enthused chef Ker.

Hickey, on the other hand, is optimistic about the upcoming Chinese restaurant.

“Filipinos love dim sum and this restaurant specializes in that. We even hired a dim sum chef,” Hickey enthused. “And another one who specializes in hand-pulled noodles.”

He went on: “My idea is that for less than P300, you’ll get to enjoy a delicious and filling dim sum treat and a really nice bowl of hand-pulled noodles.”

Well, I just can’t wait for the Chinese restaurant “with no name yet” to finally open its doors so I can have that elusive hot bowl of comfort while it’s still drizzling outside.

Beef, beef: Briased beef hort plate with mashed potato and veggies.