The well-trod path reveals itself on the naked smoothness of the road where hundreds of steps have carved out an imperfect but clearly visible track upon which others follow to find their way to happiness. As an administrative region of the Chinese National Government, Macau traces its recorded history in 200 BC as a haven for those escaping from the rampaging Mongols and through its development the Portuguese found it likewise, as a haven for their ships, building storage sheds and warehouses along its riverbanks. It really wasn’t until recently that it developed into a gambling Mecca, probably a haven for all types including the Triad whose activities have been kept to a minimum proving that it truly is a haven for both sides. Regardless of what side you’re on, Lutong Macau, on Jupiter st. just off the Bel Air gate in Makati city is the haven to a secure meal. We speak with Darwin Ngo General Manager whose penchant for customer service is impeccable. As we speak diners come in and through the regal red interiors, set underneath an overhead façade of round lanterns made of fabric. Lutong Macau in the vernacular literally means “cooked Macau style” but depending on the context of its use has many other meanings in the vernacular. “…we chose the name for recall…” as Darwin recalls, and recall it has because of the Filipino penchant for attaching recall to a famous and oft amusing, and always a private joke of a saying.

The interiors reflect on the tables, the cloths and the mirrors around the dining area. Off to one side, a private room for private meetings, while facing the entrance is the roast and cold preparations, a coterie of birds hanging, from the soy chicken, to the white steamed chicken and a much larger roast duck hanging on stainless steel hooks over a pan to catch the oily drippings. On the far side, two cauldrons of bubbling broth, no doubt to prepare the very large single serving noodle soups. There are two because the process of preparing the fresh noodles requires first, a bath in one to remove the excess flour coating the noodles and a second bath in the intense flavored broth to cook the noodles to their al dente done-ness and into a bowl of this stock, the condiments and noodles are nested. Lutong Macau found its beginnings in a similar type of cuisine lined up with the “other ones” who have gone on to explore the quick tea house concept while Lutong Macau pursued another path, the mainstream path towards the more meticulous dishes one might expect in more traditional types. It does, however, retain the erstwhile teahouse entrees from congee to noodles to dim sum even the Xialongbao more famous in Shanghai, but only Lutong Macau can boast in their Xialongbao that is prepared so meticulously that it retains the tasty broth within the little dumpling AFTER steaming.

Heading the kitchen is chef Ricky Ho, a veteran of Chinese culinary technique, specializing in Cantonese cuisine. From the Regal in Hong Kong to Manila in the 90’s, in various restaurants in the Metropolis, notably the Golden Unicorn in Greenhills, he has grown roots in the country with his own family now. Inevitably, he has had to make sure that the flavor and authenticity of his cooking isn’t compromised, so apart from using local produce, his spices come direct from the Mainland. This is what separates good cooking from great cooking, as Darwin reiterates ‘ . . . . how come I buy the same thing at the market, but it still tastes different?” and different it is as we kick off our sampling today with a coterie of dishes that go through the entire range of what one may expect from a banquet fit for royalty.

Traditional banquets would cover the all of the major food groups from that which grows from the ground to the animals that walk the earth to the fish that swim the sea. Superior cooking demands that aside from the food groups, all four flavors the human tongue can taste, are touched in varying degrees to complete the experience. Unlike European or American cooking, that requires some amount of cutting and pacing, the Chinese way is to cut into bite size pieces for the convenience of the diner. Although, a bite size may be relative, it may be safer to cut the pieces into sizes easily manageable with a chopstick, the weapon of choice in Chinese dining. After all, a fork and knife can truly be dangerous implements in the wrong hands.

The libations begin with heart warming dim sum, basic siomai, hand chopped, just like a Chinese mother would do at home, however, the twist is that if one looks closely, one sees a whole shrimp adorning the top of the siomai, elevating it to a delightful mixture of meat and seafood. Steamed, dipped in a bit of soy with just a hint of chili oil, is a pleasure in and of itself. We warm up to the next item, classic shrimp dumpling, and the classic test of ALL DIMSUM restaurant preparations as it is by nature a delicately flavored item mixing two sensitive flavors, the shrimp and bamboo shoots. The translucent, white dough made from wheat starch (not flour) is pleated, one, two . . . .seven times, for each of the four dumplings and the faintest outline of a shrimp can be seen on the surface. When properly assembled and cooked, it endures the chopstick grabbing it from the steamer and lifting it with a little twist of the wrist. It is at once tender, but the condiments inside provide a gentle resistance to the bite of the incisor. If we had to judge Lutong Macau at this point, I’d give it a five out of five stars. As if that were good enough along comes the Xialongbau, most popular in Shanghai but adapted in every dim sum list, this round dumpling Lutong Macau style has a spiral design on top but the beauty of it is how a measure of broth stays inside the dumpling as your first bite lets the juices flow out; juicy and tasty.

It really demands a certain touch and technique to get Chinese food just right. For thousands of years, that craft has been honed, refined and redefined, and rarely replicating another unless it’s truly superior. So it becomes quite a surprise when Darwin tells us the next item is a soup inspired by bouillabaisse, a classic French soup with literally hundreds of different versions. From a clear broth to a thick creamy and almost roux like consistency, it arrives in two tureens and it is the creamy kind. Chef Ricky ladles out from the milky orange soup, the ingredients onto a small plate; clams, scallop, fillets of white fish and shrimp, and separate bowls are filled. We sip this lip smacking concoction and realize it really is just inspired by the bouillabaisse but is nothing like it because of some special flavor barely noticeable, a hint of cinnamon perhaps, or anise, maybe the seed rather than the star, but uniquely Chinese. We have to find out for ourselves what it is that makes this difference.

We enter the domain of Chef Ricky Ho, his kitchen and within we see, what appears to be an immaculate stainless steel filing cabinet set above a stove with a steady yellow orange flame with puffs of steam escaping through the drawers of this cabinet and we learn these are the steamers that produced those tasty dim sum we had just helped ourselves to. Beside it a table set against a white tiled wall with two faucets, but set on almost above the faucets are two large manhole sized holes with a steady bright orange glow. We find that these are pressurized diesel fed furnaces that provide
the strong flame required for wok preparations. Beside this fiery hole are neatly arranged rows of ingredients; salt, pepper, sesame oil, light soy, dark soy, hoi sin, chili oil, black beans, a goopy soup of cornstarch and water and a stainless steel pail of vegetable oil. Chef Ricky positions himself , with wok in hand and long handled spatula on the other. Darwin tells us that the wok itself is a very thin iron cooking vessel and responds quickly to heat and as he speaks, we hear a rumbling as the furnace spews out a jet of flame almost the way the after burner of an F15 would and he lays the wok on that. The movements come in a quick flurry . . . first a ladle full of oil, then a bowl of egg whites which on contact with the smoking hot oil puff up and almost as quickly as he unloads them he is pouring them onto a strainer, oil and all. Then with a quick whisk the wok is clean and in goes the chopped onions and garlic, some shelled shrimp and in the flurry of activity we miss out on what goes on except that after a few moments the cooked egg whites are mixed in and the entire mash set on a bed of crisp bijon noodles and we have our Seafood White Foo Young, one of their most popular dishes because of the health benefits of excluding yolks in eggs. It tastes confusingly like whole eggs, and with the shrimp it is elevated beyond eggs.

Rejoining the staff in the main dining hall, the dishes arrive in a steady predictable pace starting off with the Tilapia fillets in lemon and butter sauce, prepared not in the traditional European style revealing the crystal clear butter but a milky concoction that tastes like . . . what can I say, a Chinese flavored lemon and butter sauce. The triumph of a fish is in maintaining a certain flakiness in the flesh but still retaining a little gummy texture that allows some bite. These fillets certainly are from the golden tilapia and with just a touch of chopped Szechwan chilies, it is elevated to regal status with the rich flavor of lemon and butter highlighting the light fresh neutral flavor of this fish. On the table sits what is obviously a deep fried treat, typically shrimp on toast but this one is a whole prawn sitting on a square taro cake which has been deep fried. The prospect of biting into it already sent shivers down my spine as I know taro as a root crop tends to absorb everything, water, broth, and oil! So with napkin at the ready, I bite into the fleshy part of the peeled prawn ready for the flow of the oil into my mouth, and I am pleasantly surprised by the sudden sensation of the fleshy and meaty prawn shining through the mashed and seasoned taro, neatly shaped into squares barely large enough to hold the whole peeled prawn. It simply takes skill and a sensitivity to ingredients to know the proper blend of spice, flavor and texture to achieve this kind of refinement. The next dish is in a small pot set over a burner, the reddish brown sauce simmering slowly, releasing a pungent sauce smelling distinctly of meat, with a hint of cinnamon and anise, faintly reminiscent of the scent of the joss sticks in a Chinese temple, reverent in its fragrance. The braised pork back ribs remind you of a traditional braised dish, more popularly known as Pata Tim (Pata referring to the Pig’s hind leg), and it certainly brings us back to those dishes of slowly braised meats with that “fall off the bone” consistency, blending together with the sauces.

So far, everything has been met with meticulously prepared sauces, reductions and portions. Is this what Chinese food is? In reality, any cuisine gives away its imperfections, in the way they handle fresh food and how they can keep it as fresh as possible with as little interference in how nature in-tended it except to heighten the flavors. It may not seem possible owing to the richness of the technique but the next dish seemed innocent enough, take fresh scallop, sauté quickly with garlic, ginger, and some greens, broccoli florets, shrimp roll and cashew, a little cooking wine and fish broth, with some corn starch to thicken the sauce. The ingredients are coated in a clear shiny sauce, coating each item evenly spreading the flavor. Soft succulent scallops, crisp cashew, and the tender al dente bite of the vegetables, and you know the technique is to cook quickly and just right preserving the freshness of each component but creating a marriage of flavors that can only come from a rich heritage of culinary mastery.

It’s this heritage that creates the mastery of a craft. For thousands of years, the Chinese cuisine has seen transformations from simple to complex and the artful marriage of the two techniques. Lutong Macau has gone through its own evolution in cuisine, resulting in this marriage of the simple and complex. Lutong Makoy, Lutong Mekong, Lutong Macau, whichever way you look at it, the food speaks for itself. Catch it on Jupiter st., just off the Bel Air village gate.