Northern delights at Jingting
There’s something about Jing Ting, the new resto at the upper ground retail/dining area of City of Dreams serving authentic Northern Chinese cuisine. It brings back heartwarming memories of our maiden visit to Beijing, where our extrasolicitous hosts treated us to an array of northern delights (there was a time we had an all-Peking duck dinner, except for the dessert) and even had their Chinese chefs try duplicating our Pancit Canton or Lumpiang Shanghai, which really puzzled the chefs because they hadn’t heard of such dishes ever existing in Canton and Shanghai. We then learned that our favorite pancit and lumpia are not authentic Cantonese and Shanghainese dishes but simply authentic Filipino inventions. Truly, travel broadens one’s food horizons, if not one’s waistline.
So, today, we let our taste buds travel back to Northern China. Our destination: Jing Ting, City of Dreams Manila. Our estimated time of arrival: lunchtime (give or take two hours’ delay due to traffic). Once seated, we’re handed a five-page menu. Super wow! Jing Ting, in Chinese, means “little house” — little but big in offerings and, as we’ll find out later, big in satisfaction!
Presiding over the Jing Ting kitchen is the young and dynamic chef de cuisine Yang Chen Fei, aka chef Allan, who specializes in both traditional and modern Northern Chinese cuisine. A true-blue northerner, chef Allan hails from the Shaanxi, China, and started his career as an apprentice chef for noodles and dim sum. This chef is known for being able to prepare a delightful bowlful of hand-pulled noodles in just two minutes (which he does before our very eyes — who’d think anyone could pull off something like that?) and 600 dumplings in an hour (we can probably eat the same amount in less than an hour).
So, shall we begin our food trip? For starters, you can choose from the pickled cabbage and mixed vegetables, cold shredded rice roll with spicy sesame sauce, fresh beans with chopped minced meat, and crispy five spices eggplant.
We learn that, with its long harsh cold and dry winters, Northern China has less fresh veggies and more pickled ones.
Next on our Chinese eat-inerary is the list of Chef’s Recommendations. For instance, there’s “Genghis Khan” Roasted Prime Beef Short Ribs — named after the Mongolian emperor who conquered Eurasia, this dish is bound to conquer your taste buds. Or try the “Xinjiang Style” Spicy Lamb Skewer with Cumin Spices or the doubly meaty braised pork with homemade toasted burger.
Vis-a-vis southern food, northern cuisine is known for its strong flavors, using a lot of salt, chilies, soy sauce, vinegar, leeks, ginger, and garlic, to add richness to the dishes without overpowering the natural flavor of the ingredients. And yes, northern cuisine is oilier and richer in meat.
But of course, what’s Northern Chinese cuisine without noodles? Make that fresh, hand-pulled noodles! There are oodles of noodle choices at Jing Ting. Try the hand-pulled noodles with stewed pork ribs soup or the poached hand-pulled noodles with mushroom and pork, the northern fried noodles with pork, egg, and vegetables, or the fried rice “Beijing style” with cabbage and pork belly (belly good!). If you want it sweetish, go for the sweet soy noodles with pork and assorted vegetables. Of course, there are the spicy noodles, too. Not spicy enough for you? Ask the chef to make it really hot — hot enough to burn your tongue without having to call a fireman to put out the fire.
As Northerners keep themselves warm during