MOTT 32 in Cebu City launched its first lunch menu offering on March 31. It is one of the restaurants at the Fili Hotel in NUSTAR Resort and Casino, a Robinson’s Land Corp. development.
Beginning April 1, lunch at Mott 32 Cebu is available four days a week from Thursday to Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Diners can choose either of the two lunch sets — priced at P5,500 and P6,100 per person, respectively — or go choose ala carte among the restaurant’s dishes or dim sum.
“Our food and beverage business has been really growing,” said Paolo L. Campillo, general manager of NUSTAR Resort and Casino.
“The biggest attraction is Mott 32. I’ve had people come in from Malaysia who couldn’t get into Mott 32 in Singapore travel here,” he told BusinessWorld in an interview on the same day. “I’ve had friends who I haven’t talked to in 18 years since I’ve been away call me to say… ‘I’m coming over for the weekend. Can you get me a table?’”
Mott 32 is a Chinese restaurant with dishes created from a Cantonese palate, but with flavor influences from Beijing and Szechuan in China. It has locations worldwide including in Hong Kong, Singapore, Las Vegas, and Vancouver.
The name is a homage to 32 Mott Street in New York, where the city’s first Chinese convenience store opened in 1891.
MIXING PEKING DUCK WITH TRUFFLESThe starters at the menu launch were shredded Peking duck salad with beetroot, crispy taro, and citrus truffle dressing, plus a cold free-range chicken with Szechuan peppercorns and chili sauce. This was followed by several dim sum, including vegetable dumpling with garoupa, chopped chili, and prawn; taro croquette with chicken and prawn; and a soft quail egg variant with Iberico pork and black truffle siu mai.
Signature cocktails such as Forbidden Rose (vanilla infused pisco, passionfruit, lychee, chili, and lemon) and Fujian Negroni (amaro, aperol, ginseng, lapsang souchong tea, and Sichuan pepper) were also available.
Truffles are not a typical ingredient in Chinese cuisine, admitted head dim sum chef Chin Chin. In a dim sum making session at the launch, he said through his interpreter that Mott 32 incorporates innovative and modern twists to its offerings.
“We only incorporated mango here in Cebu to give a nod to Filipino culture,” the interpreter told guests as she explained the ingredients of the Peking duck salad. “You have fantastic mangoes.”
The meal ended with a fresh mango, coconut, and glutinous rice roll and a sesame chocolate tart with lime, sea salt, and pine nut.
“We are very excited to offer this lunch,” said Lee Man Sing, Mott 32’s group Chinese executive chef, at the launch. — Patricia Mirasol