Savoring Philippine cuisine’s rare ingredients, hidden flavors
By Cristina DC PastorAmy Besa’s curiosity about Philippine delicacies that are off the beaten path began with the Cab-cab.
A food scholar, she first tasted these paper-thin wafers made from cassava pulp in Bohol. She would later learn they are available around the country but known by different names — Kuping in Bicol, Kiping in Quezon, Piki in Samar, and Pinais in Ilocos.
“Why don’t I know about this, I’m a Filipino. And it’s all over the country?” Amy mused before guests at the launch of the North American Philippine culinary tour called “Hidden Flavors of the Filipino Kitchen” held at the Philippine Center on September 19.
Throughout her culinary journey – marked by the opening of her and husband Romy Dorotan’s first restaurant in NYC, Cendrillon, in 1995 – Amy has always wondered why Filipino food is taking a long time to find its way on the American table. A foreigner shared with her the observation that “You Filipinos like to keep your food hidden.”
Yielded Amy, “Filipinos take (their food) for granted. They think because it’s in their environment it’s nothing to be proud of, it’s nothing unusual. People have no idea what gems they have in their kitchens. I am an endless tourist in the Philippines.”
During the tour, Amy and Romy’s Purple Yam chefs in Brooklyn and Malate will cook their way through four U.S. cities – namely, Seattle, Chicago, Toronto, and Philadelphia — and introduce the country’s “hidden” culinary treasures. They will craft meals using indigenous and rare ingredients that “truly reflect the flavors of the soil, water, and air of the Philippines.”
To demonstrate what guests could expect during the tasting events, traditional dishes were given a different twist. Adobo was served using duck meat and Iloko vinegar; Lumpiang Sariwa was savored in spring roll wrapper made from Dumagat taro flour; the Halo-Halo had Pastillas – not Leche Flan – as flavorful topping.
Among the rare ingredients and condiments that made a lasting impression on the palate were different varieties of vinegars and heirloom rice. Amy said they made sure there was nothing artificial or processed used in their cooking, “only artisanal ingredients.”
The event, sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Philippine Consulate General in New York, was well attended by the NYC media, FilAm journalists, bloggers, and editors of The New York Times and BuzzFeed.
Consul General Tess Dizon-De Vega lauded the couple who are Filipino food stalwarts for more than 20 years. She said the launch proved to be “an evening of encounters, of remembrance, of discovery.”
It is now time for Philippine cuisine to “shine,” she said. “The wonderful flavors, methods of cooking and layers of complex tastes are coming to the fore now.”
She said the dishes served by Romy’s team – including Purple Yam Malate Chefs Rap Cristobal and Alvin Cruz – have raised the profile of Philippine culinary culture as well as its history.
“It is not fusion,” she stressed. “It’s Philippine cuisine. It brings together everything that makes up our persona and what makes us Filipino.”
© 2017 The FilAm