Dimsum. Noodles. Fried Rice. These are just some of the many comforting Chinese dishes that gather around friends and family at a round table. What I often crave are Chinoy dishes that evoke memories of Binondo food trips and street corners of Hong Kong. If you’re sorely missing tasty, down-home Chinese food like myself, The Grid has something new you should check out.
White Flower Tea House is the latest food concept at The Grid by Chef Decker Gokioco, and features Chinoy comfort dishes you can have delivered to your home. It’s cheekily named after the famous cure-all Asian aromatic oil, its scent and soothing powers familiar and nostalgic to the titos and titas of Manila. This time around, White Flower is going to keep you comfortable whenever you’re aching for Chinese comfort food to soothe the soul.
Tasty Chinese Favorites
Chinese cuisine is vast and teeming with so many delicious dishes hailing from many regions. To streamline White Flower, Chef Decker taps from his experience in Chinese kitchens (Tin Hau in Mandarin Oriental and Lili in Hyatt). He also finds inspiration from his late father who loved to cook. “He would always cook for us, sharing recipes that he learned from our Grandmother,” the chef shares. Additionally, he mentions that inputs from Charles Paw, founder of The Tasteless Group, were of big help during R&D sessions.
White Flower’s menu has a solid lineup of top hits. There’s dimsum, fried chicken and fried porkchops, lechon macau and charsiu, fried rice, noodles, noodle soups, and maki. There are tray/potluck portions perfect for sharing, too. Their Dry Noodles with Lechon Macau (P295) is a personal favorite, the slices of pork well-flavored with its marinade paired with equally lip-smacking thin noodles so enjoyable to slurp.
Chef Decker continues to impress with their meat selection, as his bowl of Charsiu Over Rice (P285) is also fantastic. It’s tender slices of sweet-salty pork barbecue so flavorful you’ll want to chase it with a lot of rice. Want an umami bomb? Another flavor-packed noodle dish is the Sate Mi (P340), their signature saucy noodle dish tossed with chicken, veggies, sesame seeds, and topped with a crispy fried egg. This one’s a great beer match!
Chef Decker also recommends the Cha Misua (P375), a dish that he can eat every day. More comfort food dishes will be added to their menu as well. The chef says White Flower will offer a steamed egg dish that his father used to cook for the family.
How to Order
White Flower Tea House is located at Stall 9, The Grid Food Market, Power Plant Mall, Makati. You may order for take-out at the stall, and order for dine-in via Rockwell Streetside’s al-fresco dining. You can also order for delivery or store pick-up at thegridfoodmarket.com. Follow @whiteflowerteahouse on Facebook and Instagram.
