I blame myself. Although the Greenbelt malls are my weekend stomping grounds, I couldn’t believe I had never tried Hossein’s Restaurant. I’d passed it countless times before and little did I know that, on all accounts, I was in the minority. The 25 year old restaurant has been critically acclaimed and its dishes heralded in local and international magazines and newspapers over 200 times.
“Well I’ll be the two-hundred and first,” I jokingly said to Mr. Hossein as he laid out several newspaper clippings and magazines with dog-eared pages. In his corner office on the second floor of their Greenbelt 3 restaurant one late Christmas season evening, we talked a little about his family, his history in the Philippines, and of course, food.
Fewer chefs could have as adverse a background as Mr. Hossein’s. Migrating to Manila in 1979 to further his studies as an engineer, the Iranian Revolution broke out leaving him unable to return to his homeland. Against all odds, he persevered selling the food he knew and loved from a humble kebab stand on Jupiter St. in Makati.
“It was hard,” Mr. Hossein recalls, “this was the 80′s and no one knew about what this ‘kebab’ is.” He explained how he painstakingly showed each new customer just how its preparation was done and what it meant to him as a Muslim. “Someone from the media took a photo of me slaughtering a goat,” he laughs, “to them, it was something totally different, something they weren’t used to.”
And yet, look at him now. His menu with over 535 items lists page after page of Indian, Middle Eastern, and Persian influenced goodness – all of which, can be prepared fresh and within “10-15 minutes only,” Mr. Hossein proudly claims. His restaurant won Manila’s Best Kept Restaurant Secrets’ Best Specialty Restaurant in 2008.
Local celebrities, politicians, and food connoisseurs have been known to frequent any one of his four branches, the newest one in Serendra in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig. For someone who has only been back to his mother land thrice in the past 30-plus years, he is able to change and revamp the menu each year. “Of course I cannot forget the food,” he grins. He explains there is no average for how long it takes him to come up with a new dish, because it is perfection that he aims for, the exact mix of spice, meat and preparation. “sometimes I am happy with a new dish in one day, or it could take months, even a year.”
Who was Moses to the Jews, is Mohammed to the followers of Islam. The rules which were set in those biblical times are also the ones that govern what is halal today. “There is a ceremonial way which the animals must be slaughtered,” explains Mr. Hossein, “and it is not available here in the Philippines. Everything we order from abroad through special Halal suppliers.” Certificates hang on the wall to support what Mr. Hossein says to be the reason why his is the real Persian food, the real kebab.
Rarely do chefs actually sit down to eat a meal with journalists like me. I’m not talking about exchanging pleasantries over the soup of the day. I’m talking about exchanging pita bread over personally selected dishes which would be his own dinner also. His son and long-time friend join us at the table. I ask about each dish as they are served. One fish platter comes which Mr. Hossein says is still without a name because he doesn’t feel it’s ready to be added to the menu.
“This one has taken me about six months to perfect,” he says while serving me a slice of the moist, succulent meat of a white snapper fish. It may take another six months to choose a name. “No, no, it will be easy once it’s just right,” Mr. Hossein smiles.
Even if there are 200 more articles about this restaurant in the years to come, that’s fine with the King of Kebab. It’s a cheesy name, I know, but you can’t blame me for it.
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Tags: food connoisseurs, fort bonifacio taguig, restaurant secrets, stomping grounds