Chef Lu: a Taste of Hongkong now in Davao City

Who is Chef Lu? Chef Lu is a Hong Kong-trained master chef. He has been teaching cooking lessons for the past 40 years in Manila. If you're familiar with Mandarin Tea Garden here in Davao, then you'd be glad to know that Chef Lu was actually the one who brought it in Davao.

What makes Chef Lu different from other Chinese restaurants in Davao City? Chinese, and lovers of Chinese food, would actually appreciate Chef Lu's authentic Chinese cooking. Food served in Chef Lu are those which are not offered in the other Chinese restaurants in Davao City.

Last June 16, 2013, Davao Bloggers and the other delegates of the Davao Food Appreciation Tour 2013 (DFAT 2013) were served with unique and delicious Chinese food from Chef Lu. It was a great way to introduce the restaurant who opened a new and bigger branch in the downtown area. The first branch of Chef Lu was established in Lapu-Lapu Street, Agdao, Davao City. This year, Chef Lu opened a restaurant at CM Recto Street, in between RCBC and Veterans Bank.

Opening this new branch has made authentic Chinese food more accessible to Davaoeños. Let's take a look at what's inside their menu....

Here's what's on my plate:

Clockwise: Vegetarian Spring Roll, Bean Curd Roll, Salted Dumpling, Mom's Hopia, and the Noodles with Spicy Meat Sauce

Let's get to know these dishes one by one:

Bean Curd Roll or Oyster Sauce Fresh Bamboo Roll, it is wrapped in Bean Curd Skin. It contains bamboo shoots, lean meat, roasted pork or asado, and some mushrooms. This may be a simple dish but the ingredients of this Bean Curd Roll are really great in cooling the body and reducing spasms caused in the gall bladder.

Vegetarian Spring Roll is, you guessed it, made purely from vegetables. It has carrots, black fungus, mushroom, bean yam (singkamas), pressed bean curd (tokwa), bamboo shoots, and bean sprouts (togue).  It comes with its special sauce. 

Salted Dumplings. If you're familiar with tikoy then you will surely think of that sweet sticky dessert when you're eating Chef Lu's salted dumplings. The outer shell is made of glutinous rice flour but what's different about it is that it's a bit crunchy on the outside but soft and chewy on the inside. The filling is made up of pork, mushroom, shrimps, preserved radish, and spring onions, all shredded into pieces and salted to perfection. This is my favorite dish at Chef Lu's and its affordable at P75 for 3 pieces.

Cantonese Mom's Hopia is also one of my favorites. It's sized just right and costs P15 a piece. It is made from wintermelon and is a great dessert after a full meal. This is also a great pasalubong for the kids at home. It's both delicious and healthy.

Noodles with Spicy Meat Sauce. It has ground peanuts, spring onions. They say that this is the Chinese version of the famous Spaghetti. The noodle actually reminds me a lot of the wanton noodles back in Mandarin Tea Garden.Sauce contains shallots, dried shrimps, preserved black bean, salted yellow beans, fried pigs skin, ground pork and sizzled with spices to taste. The noodle used is called “Egg noodles” .These noodles are made of wheat flour, egg and water.

What's also great about Chef Lu is that they have this special concoction of different fruit concentrates like cherry, strawberry, mango and orange, which has now become their House Blend Iced Tea. This iced tea is so refreshing and guarantees NO AFTER TASTE. You can get bottomless servings of this iced tea for only P45. A glass costs P25.

By the way, Chef Lu is proud of their moon cakes. Customers are actually saying that Chef Lu Moon Cakes are better and tastier than any other moon cake on the market. The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Cake Festival, is going to be held on September 19, 2013 and Chef Lu is all set and ready for the coming festival. Their Moon Cakes are 100% hand made and guaranteed with more than 35 years of superior craftsmanship, taste, and quality at the most reasonable price and mostly imported ingredients. They normally sell 2,000 boxes of these Moon Cakes and Davao is so fortunate that for 3 years now, these Moon Cakes are being freshly made in Davao.

Other food that might interest you in Chef Lu are Lechon Kawali (Lechon Macau, which is actually a healthier pork dish) and the Peking Duck. One of Chef Lu's plans is to serve Premium Beef Steaks at the second floor of the restaurant. Chef Lu also serves Rice Toppings with prices ranging from P65 to P85.