Food, Restaurants

Flavours of China

One of the perks of working on Southbound is being able to try all sorts of food and restaurants—from hotel buffets to street food to regular, everyday restaurants like those you see in SM. As much as possible, we try to plan our meetings around food… why not hit two birds with one stone? So our last meeting was held over lunch at Flavours of China.

It wasn’t my first time at Flavours of China—in fact, it has taken the place of North Park as my number one choice for authentic Chinese food. I love the feeling of eating Chinese food in a place where you feel like you are in Macau or Shanghai dining with the Emperor and Empress. Oh well, that sounds exaggerated, I know… but with all the reds and the golds that adorn the place, I can’t help but feel transported—out of SM, at the very least.

Mei and I—the only ones who had eaten here before—played host to the group, ordering our favorites. We had the Sizzling Beef in Flavours Steak Sauce (a house specialty, P190), the Salt and Pepper Cuttlefish (a must try, according to the menu, P170), the Flavours of China Seafood Rice (P155), and the Asparagus with Scallops in X.O. Sauce (P190). Of course, we also had dimsum: Steamed Pork Siomai (P65 for 4 pieces) and Fried Dumplings or Potstickers (P89 for 5 pieces).

We had already started discussing (ahem) “work” when the food arrived, but we happily set aside our business as we indulged in happy scrutiny of the food on the table—with all the attendant “hmmms,” “wows,” “sawaps,” and unintelligible grunts of delight. It was a very good meal, sans the MSG taste, much to our delight. Mei and I enjoyed the cuttlefish, a dish which she always has at Chinese restaurants. The meat here was soft and tender—perhaps because it was cuttlefish and not squid (what’s the difference, anyway?), and the pieces came in large chunks that looked almost like fish fillets.

Betty favored the potstickers, because the filling had ground meat without the usual chunks of fat. Also, for a person who claims not to be too fond of beef, she had a lot of the sizzling beef, because the meat was soft and tender: the strips were cut across the grain and quite lean, but the sauce kept the pieces from becoming dry.

The rice made a good backdrop to the food—it was “flavour”-ful but not oily or greasy, as fried rice tends to be. The delicate scallops were overpowered by the sauce, but the asparagus spears that came with it were quickly devoured.

Hey! Whatever happened to our meeting? Well, we muddled through. We can be very good multitaskers, but not when food is at stake. We finished our meal first, then got down to business. We would have loved some dessert while we talked, but unfortunately most of their desserts weren’t available right then. Too bad—the almond jelly sounded promising. Maybe next time, then. This restaurant is accessible and can be found in a lot of SM branches, so for sure there will be a next time.

Flavours of China
Upper Ground Level, SM Southmall, Las Piñas
806-0088 (Delivery service available)
Restaurant hours: 10AM – 10PM daily
Other branches in the South: SM Sucat – 825-7399 / 820-5120; SM Sta. Rosa – 900-1023; SM Batangas – (043) 980-6619; SM Lipa – (043) 784-0348; Robinson’s Lipa – (043) 756-3215

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