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 Four of the country's premier chefs have debunked the notion that says “anyone can cook, but not everyone can cook well.” The weekends of November saw the chefs Margarita Fores, Heny Sison, Robby Goco and Peter Ayson lending their talents to the first ever A-Card Culinary Workshop at the Ayala Malls. Dubbed Simple Gourmet, these series of workshops taught participants the secrets in flavoring, food preparation and presentation. The eminent kitchen masters proved that whipping up restaurant-grade gourmet dishes can be as easy and painless as the experts make it seem.

At the Alabang Town Centre, Chef Margarita Fores of Cibo showed the basics in Italian cuisine, from choosing the right ingredients to preparing the perfect, al dente pasta.

Inspired by her recent Thailand trip, Chef Heny Sison of the Heny Sison Culinary School gave the A-Card holders at Trinoma a taste of authentic Thai cuisine. The audience loved her Pad Thai and other delectable Thai treats.

Chef Robby Goco took his participants on a delicious trip to the cool Mediterranean via luscious, yet easy to make, no-cook Greek dips at Market! Market!

At the Al Fresco area in Greenbelt 3, Chef Peter Ayson shared delicious and flavorful food ideas for the holidays, evocative of the rich and heavy-handed Creole cooking.

Food obsessions change over generations, traditions are lost and are quickly replaced with new ones. This day and age of processed food  has created a lot of nostalgia for the neglected traditions of meal preparation. A case in point is the growing popularity of the Slow Food movement worldwide.

Those pining away for the lost era of long and leisurely lunches of lola’s secret recipes will truly appreciate what Pamana has to offer. Pamana, as its name implies, is a treasure trove of Filipino family recipes lovingly passed on from generations.

Tucked away in cozy Tagaytay, Pamana was borne out of the combined genius of restaurateur Happy Ongpauco and businessman Dexter Tiu. The three-storey structure is homage to each of their families’ the rich culinary legacy and history. The interior is a repository of aged family photographs and memorabilia. The rest of the fixtures remain true to the theme, evoking that collective Filipino memory of long-ago visits to the grandparents’ home for festive family gatherings. As an added treat, patrons get to enjoy an unobstructed view of the Taal Lake.

The menu is an anthology of century-old heirloom recipes not only from their own families, but that of their close friends. It lists familiar favourites with unique add-ons. As starters they have the likes of Pampanga’s Sizzling Sisig at Aligue, Sisig topped with Tortadong Aligue or crab fat, and the Bicol Express served with the famous Baliwag Chicharon on top. They offer a wide array of traditional soup dishes like the Nilagang Bulalo, and Chicken Binacol or chicken cooked in coconut juice and ingeniously served in a coconut shell. They also have native salads and tried and tested fares like Manila’s Original Crispy Pata which was first made famous in the Barrio Fiesta restaurants, and the Original Bulalo Steak, a Bakahan at Manukan Restaurant specialty. An order is usually good for sharing for 2-3 people.

Guest can also pre-order to recreate the splendid Ylagan family Noche Buena of lechon de leche prepared in different ways. There’s the traditionally chopped lechon to start with; sopa de ajo lechon or ribs cooked in garlic broth; char-grilled lechon ribs in olive oil; and paella lechon, the Yligan way.

Pamana also serve comfort food-type dishes for brunch, merienda and desserts, like their homemade pandesal and dirty ice cream.

They say that our fondest recollections are formed in the dining table. Friends and families bond during mealtimes and the food they partake of, quite precisely, takes center stage. Pamana is an open invitation to families to include sumptuous Filipino cuisine as they make their own memories. While not everyone has time nor talent to whip up such feasts, it only takes a couple of hours’ drive from the city center to Pamana where a priceless culinary inheritance is yours for the taking.

Pamana Restaurant is located in Aguinaldo Highway, Tagaytay City. For Reservations, contact 0920-856 1970.

In the dynamic and often cutthroat food industry a good reputation built solely by word of mouth is worth more than any number of “stars” or “thumbs-ups” bestowed by even the best restaurant guides, and infinitely more credible than the cleverest marketing stratagem. A satisfied customer’s commendation is in itself an advertisement, one in its purest.

Ask any authentic foodie out there and chances are, they have heard of In-Yo Fusion Cuisine. Like a secret too good to keep, In-Yo’s name spread like wildfire and got passed on from one gourmand’s lips to another. Naturally, when I dropped in for a visit my expectations far exceeded my appetite.

Nestled in the quieter, part-residential and part-commercial backstreet of Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City, In-Yo is a house-turned-restaurant borne out of its young chef’s many talents. As the lone fine-dinning establishment in a neighborhood swarming with fast-food joints, it outshines all others and beckons to those looking to pamper their palates with Chef Niño Laus’ one of-a-kind dishes.

The tall gate that shields it from its nondescript setting reveals nothing of the charm it hides inside. The restaurant, a quaint, two-storey structure built in one portion of Laus’ sprawling family home evokes an old-world elegance, showcasing the best of Asian architecture; a Japanese Zen garden with a flowing fountain, a pond with a wooden bridge that leads to a grand door and intricate Asian fixtures. Impressive, for sure but they saved the best part for last. Get a better view of the pond and the fishes through the glass floor inside!

Although the name In-Yo is Japanese for Yin and Yang, their menu, all original recipes, draws from different influences. The menu goes through revamps from time to time as Laus adds more of his innovative creations. “Its all about the plating,” he says of his intricately styled dishes that are almost too pretty to eat.

On second thought, nothing is too pretty to eat.

To lend a helping hand to the indecisive, In-Yo has a ready degustation menu, a thoroughly selected sequence of dishes for a perfect full course meal. Sit back and let the expert pick what appetizer goes with what entrée, for maximum enjoyment.

One of the latest additions in the salad section of the menu and a sure success is the mesquite smoked salmon gravlax with mixed greens in yuzu dressing. Eating your greens would not be such an unpleasant task when it’s prepared this delectably.

The trilogy of foie gras gets my personal seal of approval. Pan seared with caramelized onions, poached with truffled potato and torchon with cranberry jelly, its hard to pick just one favorite. It comes with mixed greens and seasonal fruits in honey ponzu dressing on the side.

A must-try for an entrée is the mesquite smoked fillet of local halibut with saffron mussel emulsion infused with vanilla bean. It comes perfectly paired agli-olio pasta topped with watercress relish. For the meat-lovers the US hanging tenderloin steak is mandatory. The tender meat is topped with red wine sauce and served with buttered seasonal vegetables in spicy yuzu.

Lastly, the Mango Pavlova certainly takes the cake. A merengue dessert, crispy on the outside but light and fluffy on the inside is topped with vanilla ice cream and fresh mangoes for a perfect finish.

To add to his unquestionable skill in the kitchen, Laus shows off his flair for landscaping in the restaurant’s alfresco area, which he designed himself. For awhile there I thought I had wandered into someone’s romantic fantasy; a crystalline pond, fairy lights, hanging vines, haute cuisine, mood music and valet parking!

The restaurant boasts of a lot of return diners, some of whom take time to travel from as far as Makati. On my visit during a standard Tuesday night, the place was filled to capacity mostly with couples, young and old. It makes perfect sense since In-Yo’s strength aside from its food is its romantic and cozy ambiance, a perfect backdrop for falling in love. Expect to get swept off your feet and drawn into the most delicious of love affairs.

(as published, Expat News)

Generations of American mothers have nourished their ailing children with the requisite chicken soup. With the advent of its canned variety, this timeless comfort food was easily and instantly made available to people, sick or otherwise.


Perhaps the closest counterpart of the Western chicken soup in Filipino cuisine is the Tinola, an uncomplicated soup-based, ginger-flavored chicken dish cooked with vegetables. Likewise, Tinola is also a preferred folk-remedy for Filipinos, as I observed during a recent bout with the common cold when everyone and their cousin offered to prepare the dish for me.


Unfussy though it may be, the humble Tinola is an inextricable part of the Filipino gastronomy. The dish even made a significant appearance in the monumental Noli Me Tangere, a novel by the National Hero Jose Rizal published in 1887, during the Spanish colonial era.


The ease of its preparation and its easily obtainable ingredients definitely account for its popularity. Far from being a fancy dish to be saved for special occasions, it is a quintessential mealtime offering in most Filipino households, but no less loved for it.


As for those who didn’t grow up eating Tinola, or Filipino food for that matter, the its mild and soothing flavor, which is easy on the palate, makes it an excellent choice to start you on a tasty foray into the local cuisine.


Although available in most restaurants, Tinola is something even the most inexperienced can whip-up effortlessly. This, dear readers, is certainly something you must try at home.


First comes the chicken, the undisputed star of the dish. While the run-of-the-mill chicken sold at supermarkets will do just fine, Tinola is best prepared using so-called native chickens, those often found in backyards of rural homes, the free-range type with a diet free from hormones. Native chickens tend to be smaller but they are infinitely more flavorful.


The vegetables included in the broth are easy to find, interchangeable and among the most inexpensive. The chayote or sayote, a vitamin rich gourd, may be substituted with green papaya. The chili leaves may also be replaced with malunggay leaves. Known as moringa in English, the malunggay tree is a common fixture in backyards of most homes.


The broth for this dish is as straightforward as it goes, relying only on ginger for its key flavoring. Adding fish sauce with calamansi or panama orange, in the mix is optional, a teaspoon per serving will suffice. The fish sauce, known locally as patis, and the calamansi are standard Filipino condiments sold in most every grocery.


Best served piping hot and eaten with the ubiquitous rice, a staple in every Filipino’s diet


Ingredients:
1 kilo whole chicken, cut into serving pieces
1 piece medium-sized green papaya or chayote, peeled and sliced into finger sizes.
1/2 cup chili or malunggay leaves
2 tablespoons fish sauce (patis)
2 tablespoons of crushed ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium-sized white onion, quartered
5 cups water
3 tablespoons oil
patis and calamansi to taste


Procedure:
1. In a large, deep dish, heat oil and sauté garlic, ginger, and onion in medium heat.
2. Add chicken pieces and stir-fry until meat turns white, usually under 5 minutes.
3. Pour in the water.
4. Bring to a boil then lower the heat and simmer until the chicken is tender. This will take a longer time if using the native chicken.
6. Add in the green papaya or the chayote and let simmer until the papaya or chayote is tender.
7. Add the chili or malunggay leaves then remove from heat. Keep it covered to allow the leaves to cook.
8. Serve hot over rice. Add patis and kalamansi to taste