The Good Life: Editors’ Picks of the Week
In every edition of The Good Life: Editors’ Picks, we round up our editors’ favorite restaurants, drinks, experiences, exhibitions, and other discoveries. When the weather turns gray, a good meal offers an excellent reason to leave the house. Here are five tables worth heading out for this week.
Ohmi Wagyu Beef at Tsukiji
Tsukiji has been the setting for a number of celebratory meals for our clan, a surefire way for the family elders to make sure we cousins are in full attendance. And no matter how many times we’ve seen it, the sushi boat laden with otoro, chutoro, ama ebi, uni, and other good things always elicits gasps of delight when it arrives. The seafood is flown in fresh from Tokyo’s Toyosu Market practically every day and prepared at Tsukiji by sushi chef Takashi Harima.
The boat drew the same reaction when a bunch of food writers got together on a rainy afternoon.
Mind you, these are people who dine out twice a day for a living. It had been pouring rain for days, and classes had been called off for the nth time, but that didn’t deter anyone from heading to the Tsukiji lunch hosted by siblings J and Malu Gamboa.
We were there for a tasting of A5 Ohmi wagyu beef from Shiga Prefecture, with some 400 years of history and a past that includes being presented to the Tokugawa shogunate. Master butcher Takeshi Suzuki flew in with the beef himself, proudly showing off the beautifully marbled cuts before slicing them thinly for yakiniku.
Then there was the so-called “super special” Ohmi beef sirloin, karubi, and tongue, served with assorted vegetables, followed by hot stone bowls of bibimbap, chapche, and seafood and leek pancakes. A bowl of rich, hearty short rib soup rounded off the meal.
Time to revisit Tsukiji. – Yvette Fernandez, Chief of Editorial Content
Open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. at 3/F Milky Way Building, 900 Arnaiz Avenue, Makati. For reservations, call (02) 8843 4285 or 0995 617 9209.
Chefs Carlos Garcia and Rhea Rizzo at Dominion Cellar for a One-Night-Only Four-Hands Dinner
Lucky for us in Manila, chef collaborations have become more common, with truly interesting combinations that keep our local food scene electric. I’m looking forward to “Common Ground” at Dominion Cellar on September 2, which brings together two cooks with distinct culinary vocabularies. Spanish chef Carlos Garcia, who leads Dominion Cellar’s kitchen and is known for The Black Pig, brings a European sensibility, while Chef Rhea Rizzo, chef-owner of Mrs. Saldo’s in Silang, approaches Asian flavors with a personal, widely traveled point of view.
Both restaurants are so beloved that the additional appeal lies in seeing those perspectives placed side by side, with wine establishing the connection. Franck Bonville Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru 2016 accompanies Garcia’s blue crab with crustacean aioli and Rizzo’s miang kham with saba, oyster, and nahm jim. Darioush Chardonnay 2023 meets Garcia’s foie gras with cherry and port wine, as well as Rizzo’s gulai ayam interpreted through barramundi and sambal embe.
Later, Les Hauts de Smith 2018 is paired with beef ragout and bun cha, while Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 accompanies lamb ribs with Szechuan peppercorn jus and short-rib rendang with aged black garlic and grilled pako. Rum baba and cacao-mango rice provide two different sweet endings.
Dominion Cellar’s serious relationship with wine makes it a fitting setting: the bottles function as part of the conversation rather than an accessory to dinner. – Kimberly Delgado, Digital Editor
Common Ground is a one-night-only four-hands dinner at Dominion Cellar, 38 Jupiter Street, Makati City, Metro Manila. Php8,500+ per person. To reserve a seat, contact +63 9088939463.
The Los Chicucos Verano Menu at Cantabria
On the rooftop of The Westin Manila, among murals of sunny Spanish towns hang on the walls and sangria was being prepared at the bar, Chef Chele Gonzalez and Chef de Cuisine Álvaro Romero Abreu-Raya explained to us their Los Chicucos Verano Menu, Cantabria’s summer tasting menu and a culinary journey between the north and south of Spain.
Taking its name from los chicucos—young Cantabrian apprentices who traveled south to Cádiz in search of work and opportunity during the 19th and 20th centuries—the menu brings together that tradition, mixing recipes from both regions. It’s also mirrored in “the creative process between me and Chef Alvaro,” explains Gonzalez. “It is like a culinary dialogue centered on flavors, techniques, and traditions from northern and southern Spain, translated into a 5-course dining experience. This is our way of sharing our heritage to the community, similar to the story of Los Chicucos.”
The first course was Atún, Gazpacho, Piriñaca y Aliñ, with tuna sashimi, picked Spanish peppers, gazpacho, and a frozen salad. I’ve had my fair share of gazpacho, but the frozen salad caught me by surprise as it literally melted in my mouth.
Next came Pimientos de Piquillo, Cangrejo, Suero de Hinojo y Majao, a roasted piquillo pepper stuffed with crab, with fennel dressing and majao, easily one of my favorites. The crab was sweet and delicate against the smoky pepper.
The third course, Bacalao al Pil Pil, Cuajada de Apio y Meloso de Choco y Vieiras, is Cantabria’s take on the northern Spanish classic, with cod, celery, cuajada, and black rice cooked with cuttlefish and scallops, which is like a paella negra, only softer, creamier, and richer.
The fourth course, Solomillo de Vaca, Salsa Café de Paris, Pavé y Berenjena Asada introduced tenderloin with potato pavé and a smoky roasted eggplant purée. Cantabrian anchovies had been blended into the sauce for umami.
Dessert reminded me of a fresh-fruit ice pop. Melón, Cítricos y Macedonia paired melon gelée and lime-lemon granita with fruit skewers and Cantabrian sobao. For all the techniques that had come before, the idea was wonderfully simple.
By the end of dinner, the Los Chicucos Verano Menu had taken us from Cantabria to Cádiz and back again, tracing a journey through anchovies and bacalao, piquillo peppers, wine, and the techniques that traveled south with the people who carried them.
The Los Chicucos Menu Verano is available for lunch and dinner at Cantabria by Chele Gonzalez for P2,900+ per person until October 31, 2026. Wine pairings are available from P1,950+. Cantabria by Chele Gonzalez is located at The Westin Manila, San Miguel Avenue corner Lourdes Drive, Mandaluyong City.
A 12-Seat Omakase at Grand Hyatt Manila
For 10 weeks only, Tokyo-trained sushi chef Yuki Anzai is taking over the Round Bar at Grand Hyatt Manila’s The Lounge for an intimate Edomae omakase residency. The 12-seat counter will host two seatings nightly, Wednesdays through Saturdays, with menus shaped by seasonality and seafood sourced from Japan’s Toyosu Market. Anzai’s approach is exacting down to the smallest detail, most evident perhaps in the temperature of the shari, which he adjusts depending on the ingredient it accompanies.
Guests may choose a seven-course omakase at PHP 5,800 nett or the fuller 10-course experience at PHP 7,800 nett. The residency runs through November 14, with only 24 seats available each evening.
Grand Hyatt Manila is located at 8th Avenue, corner 35th Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. Reserve a seat at Chef Yuki Anzai’s limited omakase residency through the website.