By CJ Juntereal
On my last trip to Cebu I ate at two restaurants that couldn’t be more different from each other. Enye is Crimson Resort and Spa Mactan’s Spanish restaurant, born from a collaboration between the hotel and Spanish chef Chele Gonzalez of Gallery Vask fame. Fudge is a homegrown Cebu restaurant with several branches, and serves comfort food style dishes in a casual setting. It is run by former hotelier Augie Lontok and his wife Cathlene (A little bit of disclosure here, and you’ll see why later on: I’ve known Augie since high school, because he is one of my brother’s best friends).
Crimson’s collaboration with Chef Gonzalez is a restaurant that serves the chef’s favorite tapas and comfort food. The interiors—modern furniture, dark wood, splashes of teal, a charcuterie room, and a show kitchen—are eclectic enough that diners will feel comfortable showing up in resort wear or dressed elegantly. The menu contains dishes beloved by Filipinos, but also has a section for a modern style of Spanish cooking. Gonzalez explained that it took him a long time to understand how Filipinos understood Spanish food. “The roots of Spanish-Filipino cuisine are homey, and very straightforward,” he said. With that in mind, and knowing that Cebu already had established Spanish restaurants, he set out to walk the tightrope—to bring Spanish food in Cebu to the next level, while still connecting to the market.
Among the classics on the menu is gambas al ajillo, perhaps the best version I have had in a long time. It arrives in a terra cotta cazuela with an audible sizzle. The olive oil still bubbles, and is only very faintly laced with Spanish pimenton and thin slivers of garlic. The shrimps, as they should be, are the star—fresh, plump, and sweet. Make sure to soak up that garlic, pimenton, and shrimp-flavored olive oil with crusty bread (or rice). Another dish is not often seen at restaurants here, arroz con bogavante, a soupy rice that walloped my taste buds with seafood flavor. I could have eaten the rice alone, it’s that flavorful and homey, but it was topped with slipper lobster and all of a sudden it felt luxurious.
The classics are rounded out by tortillas, various pintxos including an excellent crab and salmon concoction, velvety croquets, two kinds of paella, chuleton, rabo al vino tinto, txipirrones a la plancha, all sorts of charcuterie and chorizos, and txangurro, crab mousse piled onto a crab shell and baked with crisp breadcrumbs. All the flavors are familiar. There are no surprises, except for the meticulous thought and preparation that go into each dish, on a level that I see at all the best restaurants. Instead of tired, old Spanish food standards, everything tastes new and fresh.
Gonzalez’ execution of modern Spanish cuisine is approachable and easy to understand. In a clear understanding of his market, the dishes take people out of their comfort zones but remain somewhat familiar. The touch of avant-garde is there, but not so complex that diners must ask—what is this? The lechon Cebu tacos are his tip of the hat to Cebu. They contain crisp bits of lechon, and cubes of fresh mango, both of which Cebu is famous for, along with a slightly spicy jalapeño and bean mouse. Classic beef carpaccio is updated to use wagyu, parmesan ice cream instead of shavings of cheese, and pine nuts. He also explores his love for calamansi (something a lot of Spanish chefs who have visited the Philippines profess to) in a dessert that incorporates the flavors into a cake, a mousse, an ice cream, and crisp biscuits.
In contrast to Enye’s casual sophistication, Fudge restaurant is downright homey. Its first branch in Banilad looks like an old-time café with a refrigerated display case filled with cakes. Inside, it has the air of a neighborhood favorite that has seen countless people stop by for a meal. Augie is a hotelier who has worked around the world, including far-off Africa. While his training and experience have equipped him to open a fine dining restaurant, he and his wife chose to open a family restaurant. “A lot of the dishes were my growing up food. Most of them have a story,” he tells me. He then goes on to tell me that my brother helped him tweak some of the dishes, which may explain why many seemed so familiar.
The Army Navy sandwich, basically a club sandwich (the crusts cut off, of course) that swims in melted cheese sauce, and the chicken kiev, with melted butter that squirts out and pools onto the plate when you cut into the chicken, were our favorite orders at the Manila Polo Club back when we were in school, and Fudge has gotten them exactly right. The pork steak is like a t-bone, charred in places and with a nice rim of fat. It is served with gravy, thick and rich, and chunky with dried shiitake mushrooms. It didn’t taste like the one-dimensional fake gravy you get at so many restaurants these days, it tasted like something that could have come out of my kitchen. In hindsight it probably did, because my brother and his friends would raid our refrigerator after their nights out and Augie must have remembered the taste.
Despite Augie’s claim that Fudge serves comfort food, many of the dishes on the menu have touches that nudge them toward a level of style that reflects his work with international hotels. The adobo ravioli, for example, has a filling reminiscent of a good chicken liver pate, with hints of adobo. Caramelized onions and balsamic dressing, work well with the liver and echo adobo’s sour notes. Aligue and prawn spaghetti doesn’t have the usual strong garlic flavors associated with this dish, instead it is almost restrained, you can taste the crab fat, its richness tempered with some citrus acidity. Some of the dishes are served, not with plain garlic rice, but topped with furikake or with mushroom rice. An otherwise plain cream of pumpkin soup is given smoky umami flavors with the addition of bonito flakes. “Most places don’t serve these dishes,” Augie says.
The desserts are his wife Cathlene’s forte. And while many are delicious, including a refreshingly tart frozen lemon pie drizzled with caramel, it is the lava cake that truly stands out. Inspired by Joel Robuchon’s iconic recipe, it gushed deep, dark, warm chocolate when I sank my spoon into it. The cake itself is slightly crisp around the edges, with a fine crumb and the flavor of good bittersweet chocolate. They make it from scratch with every order, Cathlene tells me, so customers should be prepared to wait a little bit. They became so famous for it in Cebu that they built a brand around it, Lava by Fudge, which focuses on desserts.
As different as they seem, Enye and Fudge have more in common than meets the eye. Both have found a formula that suits Cebu, an easy blend of familiarity and pushing comfort zones just enough to elevate the dining experience to something different. There is pride in serving dishes unique to their restaurants. There is attention to detail and an effort to provide the best possible quality of food. Gonzalez doesn’t reside in Cebu, but is hands on enough to visit regularly, Enye is in the capable hands of chef de cuisine Ivan Saiz Sordo who has worked closely with Gonzalez for two years. The Lontoks also put in the hours managing and nurturing Fudge. On a trip to Cebu, both are worth visiting.
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Enye by Chele Gonzalez.Crimson Resort and Spa Mactan. Seascapes Resort Town, Mactan Island, Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu.(+63) 32 4019999 or(+63) 32 2393900. Open for dinner from 6PM to 10:30 p.m.
Fudge Restaurant. 888 A.S. Fortuna St., Banilad, Cebu or Ayala Center Cebu. (+63)32 4161727. Open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.