Choi Coma

Chinese food always has a certain appeal to it. From haute chinois locations to fastfood moo shoo, everyone craves for Chinese at one time or another. Be it dim sum or peking duck or salted fish fried rice, Chinese food is almost always tasty. The plethora of flavors, spices and concoctions are so intricate yet complex that the balance must be established to make sure that it is truly authentic.

Most celebratory events for our family involve Chinese food. Lately, our resto of choice is Choi Garden, owned by, duh, Mr. Choi. Mr. Choi was a previous partner of the Gloria Maris restaurant group which has branches from here to there. After some disagreements and undisclosed issues, Mr. Choi decided to separate from the conglomerate and set up shop in Annapolis Greenhills. Not one to get in between drama, we went where our tongues salivated more. We have been willing and hungry Choi chompers since then.

Condiments: Hoisin, black vinegar, chilis in oil, white vinegar

X.O. Sauce. We ordered three platefuls, only one plate remained when the food started coming in.

Cold Cuts: Jelly Fish, Century Egg, and Char Shiu pork ribs so tender and flavorful, with the honey sweetness

Soy Chicken with ginger scallion sauce.

Double Luck Shark’s Fin Soup – Bro asks: Where’s the shark?

Hot Prawn Salad

I wished there was more fruit salad to it… but an overload of giant shrimp is something I’m not complaining about… YUM

Shell Meat & Squid in X.O. Sauce
Then came the Peking duck…. supposedly in two ways

Duck skin with hoisin, wrappers and leeks

Minced Duck and water chestnuts wrapped in lettuce leaves

But Birthday bro decides to be a brat and wanted the THIRD way and gets Peking Duck soup with tofu and greens. Yes, we had TWO soups that night. The server warned us that it might be oily because the meat had been fried for th 2nd way. Bro’s friend goes: Oh, it’s ok? Oh that’s all right, please just give us mango shakes so the sebo (lard) hardens.Lol

Happy Birthday Noodles

Because, of course, we need noodles in a birthday. M was so enamored by the noodles he had three servings before realizing that there were about 8 dishes waiting to come out…

Fried Giant Crab w/ Salt & Pepper

I LOVE crabs! And Shrimps, but crabs grab my heart in a heartbeat. I probably finished all of this because no one wanted to get their hands dirty, and coz I’m probably the only person with enough patience to crack event he legs open. No wasting!

Steamed Lapu Lapu

I thought I had ordered enough, more than enough even. Clearly from the absence of empty space on our table there was no way we could fit another dish, let alone in our tummies. But NOOOOOOOOO… Birthday bro decides he wants more!!!!!

Mr. Choi’s Special Fried Chicken

Now, there was a very heated discussion as to the actual awesomeness of this Chinese style fried chicken. No one really understands why you have to reserve it one day in advance and why it is not present on the menu. But once you sink your teeth in the tender meet and nicely browned skin, you don’t even need to understand. There is no need for reasoning when you’re biting into the hallucination-inducing chicken. Yes, my hungry readers, IT IS THAT GOOD.
For dessert we got this overwhelmingly nutty moon cake with almonds, sunflower seeds and other uric acid inducing grains and legumes.

But the best part about Choi is the home made Taho – Taho is a silken tofu/bean curd steamed to imitate a very delicate flan or panna cotta. It is served with some sweet syrup and tapioca balls. Sorry Manong Magtataho, Choi really knows their taho.

Exceptional food is what happens when you have 7 different chefs each with their own specialty. Oh… like the Peking Duck Chef, or the Dim Sum Chef, or the Cold Cut Chef, or the … ok I’m starting to make chefs up.. but there are 7 individual chefs all from mainland China to ensure that Choi is your cheapest and most delicious way to visit the oriental capital. Plus Mr. Choi speaks no Filipino nor English… so you really need to brush up on your Cantonese/Mandarin.