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At a corner of Metrowalk, a small dining and shopping complex at the
edge of the Ortigas business center, the newly opened Opus glows in white paint
and blue lights. The restaurant-bar can accommodate only about 40 persons, but
it exudes an air of mock elegance with its minimalist interiors, clean lines
and immaculate paint. One may think the food being served here is “sanitized”
– too chic to be flavorful and too safe to be exciting. On the contrary,
unlike many restaurants in the area that are too big in atmosphere to mask food
either not given much attention or overly tinkered with, Opus holds a few
surprises.

“I love white,” says owner Danielle Lee, explaining that the color
connotes a bit about herself: Simple, a catch-all word to mean something straightforward,
easy, unburdened with affectation or anything regarded to be complicated, and
thus good. Many things surrounding Lee are not really “simple,” however,
considering she is only 19 years old. That is one surprise: the owner is too
young to own and manage a restaurant. 

With a very pretty face and a comfortable background, she is supposed
to be partying, studying and if doing some work on the side, modeling. Lee,
like her older sister Divine, has done some modeling, and is studying to become
an entrepreneur. She says her parents raised her in a strict manner, which has
made her quite disciplined. And independent, too, now that she is living on her
own in a condo unit, doing many of the chores and now earning her keep.

With a restaurant, she breaks the common notion about people of her
age and stature, but confirms conception on her ethnic background. Being of
Chinese descent, she must have inherited the business acumen and started
early. The business acumen will be seen
in time. About the matter of starting early in business, Lee worked for a time
in her full-blooded Chinese father’s real estate and condominium company Globe
Asiatique. While her sister Divine became vice president for sales in the
company, she chose to put up her own business.

It was only last April that she really seriously thought of putting
up a restaurant. It was a dream of hers, to share her passion for food and
cooking. This she inherited from her mother Maria Victoria Lee, who used to own
a flower shop. At a very early age, her mother allowed her to tinker around the
kitchen. Lee says she learned how to cook at the age of three, which meant she
didn’t burn the hotdogs. But by six, by the guidance of her mother, she knew
how to cook the complicated kare-kare from scratch. Next she learned to
cook Chinese and started experimenting.

“I want to share my food,” she says, recalling that she would have
friends over and cook for them. Now, she wants to share her food with the
larger public, so a restaurant is but a logical next step.

 From April until its
opening on Aug. 8, an auspicious date for the Chinese, Lee has been hands-on
from the interiors to the recipes. She even trained the waiters herself, she
relates, and to an amusing degree. She told them how to serve, even though she
had no background in restaurant management. She just happened to know how, she
says. She even designed their uniforms and gave them grooming kits, which the
waiters really like. They even wear scents recommended by her. Everything
reflects herself, Lee adds. 

 The menu is of
personal importance. It is virtually a compilation of her favorites. Thus
compiled, she had it looked over by the chefs. For the food, she got some help
from chef Blanche Hontiveros and consultant Redd Agustin, who both have
impressive culinary backgrounds.

 “I love them!” she
exclaims about her helpful staff. And she also loves her food.

The menu is largely Filipino. There is a sprinkling of Ilocano
influence, which more likely comes from her boyfriend Ryan Singson, son of
former Ilocos Sur governor Chavit Singson. He also taught her how to drink, she
relates. She is proud of her bar menu.

 The Filipino in the
food here is a more encompassing term, which includes the traditional, as well
as the ones that have become part of the Filipino’s ordinary diet, like corned
beef.

 Lee calls her food
“updated” or “modern Filipino cuisine.” For her, this is simply put as Filipino
dishes served on modern plates instead of palayok and banana leaves. It
may sound a tad simplistic, but it has a point. To be served on chic square
plates, the dishes must be very presentable, and Filipino dishes traditionally
and largely lack in visual appeal. To be more precise, the dishes are given
modern twists, and it is not fusion, the chefs aver. As part of the update, the
dishes are given modern names, sometimes fancy.

Opus’s menu lists 54 dishes. The top eight, which was an excruciating
selection, according to Lee, are called her Eight Masterpieces. It includes North
and South, the pork sisig rolls, Twisted Pate, Big Boy, bulalo
con sinigang, bangus and pork crackling, tuna salad and crisp
chicken and pork pasta.

The certified bestseller of the restaurant, even this early, is North
and South (P200), so named because it combines two recognizable food items
of the Ilocos region of northern Luzon and General Santos City in Mindanao: the
bagnet and the tuna. Chunks of the crunchy pork and raw tuna meat are
mixed together with a dressing of sinamak, the coconut water vinegar
popular in the Visayas, and coconut milk.

 Another bagnet
dish in the menu is the bagnet salad. The bagnet salad combines
two quintessential Vigan fares: the bagnet and the KBL. KBL stands for kamatis
(tomato), bagoong and lasona (the local shallot). The tomato and
shallot are diced and drizzled with fish bagoong, making a delicious
side salad, a favorite among the Ilocanos.

Chunks of bagnet are mixed with diced tomatoes and onions.
Chef Redd thought of using another kind of bagoong, the bagoong
alamang, mixing it with honey and vinegar to make a very delectable
dressing. The dish is topped with sprigs of cilantro, one of my favorite herbs.
I would pick the leaves off the stem and carefully skewer a leaf with my fork
together with a piece of tomato, onion and bagnet. The result is a
pleasurable symphony of textures and flavors. 

 Opus took the
favorite pulutan, which originated in Pampanga, and has it neatly
wrapped like a lumpia. The pork sisig rolls (P160) contains
grilled pork and liver, diced and sautéed with spices and held together by egg
batter. This is wrapped in lumpia wrapper and then fried. The rolls are
served with a Thai chili glaze.

 An American food
item that has become a favorite of Filipinos is the hamburger. Here, it is
served hefty. The Big Boy burger, they call it, and it is grilled
sirloin beef burger topped with fried egg, bacon, melted cheddar cheese and
sautéed mushrooms. This is served with tomatoes and lettuce on the side.

 The Italian pasta
has also crept into the Filipino table. Here, the pasta is served with a
Filipino flair. Crisp chicken and pork pasta (P190) has linguine pasta drenched
with a savory adobo-infused cream sauce and topped with chicken and pork adobo
flakes. It is surprisingly yummy.

 The tuna salad (190)
is more Japanese-inspired. The tuna is perfectly seared and encrusted with
sesame seeds. It is nestled on a bed of mixed greens drizzled with
honey-wasabi-ginger vinaigrette, another dish worth a try.

 The more familiar
milkfish comes as bangus and pork crackling (P180), which is boneless bangus
cooked in sisig-style marinade.

 Of course, every
Filipino menu must have the sour soup sinigang. Here, two favorite soups
are blended together with surprising results. The Bulalo con sinigang is
bulalo and sinigang in one dish. The beef chunks and bone marrow
are cooked with traditional sinigang vegetables in tamarind nam pla
broth. Served with jasmine rice, this is perfect for rainy days.

 The restaurant also
serves other sinigang variations, including sinigang na liempo at
spare ribs (pork belly and spare rib sour soup) and sinigang na sugpo at
puso ng saging (prawn and banana blossom sour soup).

 The most exotic in
the list is the Twisted pate (P130). The Southeast Asian delicacy of
duck embryo, which is sold here on the streets, is given a “gourmet” treatment. The balut and chicken liver are pureed
with thyme and cream, and spiked with local rum. Then the blend is spread on
crostinis. What a lovely way to make a dish out of the balut.

 Another balut
dish in the menu is not for the squeamish. The balut and prawns (P190)
has whole shelled balut and prawns cooked in oyster sauce and chili
sauce reduction. 

 There are other
notable items in the menu, which could have made it to the Eight Masterpieces.
One is the corned beef steak, which has a large chunk of corned beef served
with roasted onions, mushroom, garlic mashed potato and soy infused gravy. The
seafood in ginger coco cream consists of prawns, tuna, snapper, squid cooked in
coconut cream. Then there are the usual treats-kare-kare, crispy pata,
gambas — which are also recommendable.

 The dessert list is
limited but special. The cheesecake is light and smooth. The brownies are
round, moist and drenched with chocolate icing. These are serves with fruit
salsa, diced fruits in sugar ginger syrup.

 Among the rows of
flashy restaurants, Opus, with its
look and creative dishes, is a
pleasant surprise.

Published in The Daily Tribune, September 09 2007, page 12

Opus Resto-Bar is open 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
and Sunday, and 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.