All in one night, at different tables: Henry Sy, the richest Filipino; Vivian Yuchengco of the stock exchange; Ma-an Hontiveros, guitarist and friend of the CCP. On other days, Bongbong and Lisa Marcos; PAL president Jimmy Bautista; ex-Rep. Carmencita Ongsiako Reyes and family; MetroBank Foundation’s Elvira Chan and banker Sol Angala; Mayor Fred Lim; former Comelec chairman Harriet Demetriou; Wellington Wei, director of the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office.

They all like Hainanese chicken, the national dish of Singapore, about which it has been said that Joseph Estrada makes it a point to ask Singapore-bound friends to bring home an order or two for his delectation.

Hainanese chicken, for some reason, has a following in Manila, and now they don’t have to fly to Singapore just to take another bite, because they can grab a cab and head for A. Mabini corner Gen. Malvar, beside the Pan Pacific Hotel in Malate, for the best Hainanese chicken in town.

All because the restaurant known as Tao Yuan happens to have three prime ingredients.

The chef, Ah Long, an authentic Singaporean. The GM, Lourdes Chu, who knew, even as she prepared the menu, that the dish would be an instant hit in a restaurant whose previous incarnations were for the birds. And, last but paramount in importance, the chicken imported from Hong Kong, 35 to 40 of them sacrificed every day on Manila’s altar of culinary glory.

As every educated lover of Hainanese knows, the steamed rice, flavored by the chicken’s oil and drippings, is served hot, but the chicken itself, skin glowing golden and meat temptingly white and tender, must be chilled, cooler than room temperature.

The cook who serves the dish piping hot ought to be steamed alive!

Hainanese chicken looks – repeat, looks – like a simple dish, but it requires a trio of sauces to enhance its full, natural flavors. Ginger mixed in a little spot of oil, soy sauce touched with a bit of sugar, and red hot chili blended with a little water to put out the fire even before it burns the tongue! Indeed, the simplicity of the food is complemented by an array of soft colors – yellow chicken, white rice, a bed of green cucumber slices, and the green, black and red sauces.

As the Chinese say, “Come eat!”