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| Bonifacio High Street has many specialty shops as well as interesting dining outlets |
Ten or so years ago, the Philippine gastronomic scene
was dreary. Dining places were few and the choices were boring. As Filipinos
learned to value food not just as a source of sustenance but also as a fount of
profound pleasure in itself, dining outlets began to emerge and became varied,
interesting and inventive.
Though the food landscape is yet to blossom fully,
there are now what we can call dining strips or rows, particularly around Metro
Manila. Many of these dining places are nurtured in modern urban developments
such as the Bonifacio Global City, or BGC for short, in Taguig City, just east
outside of the financial hub Makati City.
The former Philippine Army camp is being transformed
into a 240-hectare sophisticated urban development of residential, office and
commercial establishments. At the heart is the Bonifacio High Street, an open-air mall
with a main street retail concept studded with specialty shops, as well as
outlets for recreation and dining. Aside from the beautiful public parks and
open spaces enhanced with public art, the dining is of notable interest.
“We are proud of our food outlets,” said Monica Llamas,
arts program manager of Bonifacio Arts Foundation, a non-profit and non-stock
organization that takes care of public art and holds arts events at the BGC,
including building “the country’s first world-class science museum,” The Mind
Museum.
That is why they are conducting a special food tour
called BGC Eats — to highlight the dining scene of BGC.
According to Llamas, they were thinking of “a twist to
explore the city” and “literally wanted people to explore BGC,” thus coming up
with BGC Eats, which is an afternoon tour of about three hours on a BCG Hop-On
Hop-Off Bus, a special bus available weekends that goes around BGC for those
who want to explore the area, and on foot, tackling about four
restaurants.
Each tour is different from the others, revealed JJ
Yulo, food connoisseur, contributing editor of Rogue magazine, a blogger
on food and BGC habitué who is the tour’s guide and “curator.”
Yulo said they will “feature the restaurants
‘indigenous’ to the area. Although some have branches in other areas they have
their origins here.”
It is like a sampler of eating places, said Llamas.
“It is also an opportunity for people who find some restaurants
‘intimidating’ to come in,” she added, “and break the notion people have about
how expensive these restaurants are.”
Not only that, restaurant owners and chefs will come
out to personally welcome and talk to participants, affording them an intimate
experience of the dining places.
The tour, which can accommodate up to 34 persons at a
time, is limited to BGC patrons and for a limited period. People can get two
free tickets if they have purchases worth P1,500 in single transaction or in
accumulated receipts from retail stores or restaurants at BGC establishments
such as Bonifacio High Street, The Fort Entertainment Center, Crossroads,
Bonifacio Stopover, One & Two Parkade, and The Mind Museum. Purchase
receipts should be from June 24 to July 21. One can get a maximum of two
tickets per day, which can be claimed at the Bonifacio High Street Central
Concierge (inside C1 building) from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily from June 24 until
July 20. One can choose the tour dates — June 29, July 6, July 13 and July 20.
If the selected tour date is full, participant will be booked on the next
available tour. Tour starts at 3 p.m. at the Hop On Hop Off Bus Stop at 9th Street between
Nike and Bo Concept.
Llamas said that they might consider making the tour a
regular event if this one proves successful and there is clamor for it. Before
the launch on June 29, we did a test run, with Ukulele Manila providing the
“soundtrack” of the tour, appearing and serenading the so-called “food
tourists” as they arrive at a stop.
Wildflour Cafe and Bakery
Wildflour at the Netlima Building
at the corner of 4th Avenue
and 26th Street
served as the first stop. The cafe-cum-bakery has become known for offering
Cronuts, a curious cross between a croissant and a donut, originally created by
Dominque Ansel at his SoHo bakery in New
York City.
The Cronuts are so in demand that people order weeks
ahead, thus we did not have any. We had though two kinds of tarte flambee —
bacon and wild mushrooms — with caramelized onions and gruyere cheese baked on
a thin crust (both P425). The tarte flambee is Alsatian in origin — bread dough
rolled out thin into rectangles, covered in cheese and baked in a wood-fired
oven, similar to a pizza. At Wildflour, it is served on a wooden chopping
board, creating a rustic feel, contrasting to the look of the restaurant which
has all glass walls. We were also offered Agua Fresca, a refreshing cucumber,
line and mint drink of Mexican origin.
Owner Ana De Ocampo and chef Allen Buhay came out to
greet guests. Buhay said ther original idea was a family bakery but it turned
out to be a restaurant with a bakery, offering sandwiches, pastas and dishes of
mostly European origins and infleunces. Buhay emphasized their use of the
freshest and natural ingredients. Menu changes almost every day depending on
what ingredients are available.
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| Ukulele Manila serenades participants at Wildflour |
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| Wildflour’s bacon tarte flambee |
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| Agua Fresca, a cucumber, line and mint drink of Mexican origin, from Wildflour |
Nolita
Nolita is one of the newer restaurants located at the
newest portion of the Bonifacio High Street, the BCG Central at the corner of
7th Avenue and 29th Street. The restaurant is named after a neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City,
nicknamed Nolita, an abbreviation of North of Little Italy, said Nolita
managing partner Patrick Santos, and owners want to bring in authentic New York pizza to Metro
Manila.
When we
went is to get our slices, we went to the counter and chose a slice of
freshly-made pizza like the turo-turo style of the Philippine karinderya.
A slice costs from P160 to P250. Intriguing pizza choices include pepperoni;
chicken parmesan; shrimp carbonara; regular cheese; pesto grilled chicken with
sundried tomato; sausage, pepperoni and mushroom; spinach and artichoke; spicy
Italian sausage; buffalo chicken with or without blue cheese; wild mushroom and
walnut with blue cheese or ricotta; and cheeseburger.
Aside from the pizza, we had fried shrimp with Creole Hollandaise sauce
and Tex-Mex savory bread pudding (P270), downing them with iced wild berry
herbal tea. Nolita also offers burgers, sandwiches, salads and other American
comfort foods.
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| Tex-Mex savory bread pudding |
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| Different pizza flavors of Nolita |
2nd's Restaurant
"Bacon chicharon is really, really crisp bacon, and it made
us pretty known," said Nadine Howell, and we grabbed the strange-looking
ribbon lying on the plate and dipped it in spiced vinegar. The bacon chicharon
(P315) also comes with muscovado mustard dip, and tossed in Buffalo Sauce
and served with blue cheese dip (P325).
With head chef Mikko Reyes helming the kitchen, 2nd's restaurant serves
comfort food with a twist. The restaurant
is located at the second floor of Building 1 of Quadrant 3 of Bonifacio High
Street, thus the name, said one of the owners Indy Villalon, who is known as a
kart racer. But he added: “We want it to be a second home, and we want everyone
to come back for seconds.”
2nd opened in Dec. 27, 2010, and the menu was created when owners
thought of comfort food that reminded them of their childhood.
One of Howell's ideas is their best burger — the Benedict burger (P575).
It is a burger with an Eggs Benedict twist with USDA beef patty on top of
slices of Spam topped by a fried egg.
The ketchup on the side is homemade with spices. It was a hefty and
delicious eat. The Spam, a favorite of multitudes, made the difference.
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| From left: 2nd’s chef Mikko Reyes, 2nd's owner Nadine Howell, BGC’s Monica Llamas, 2nd’s owner Indy Villalon and JJ Yulo |
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| 2nd's Restaurant’s famous bacon chicharon with two dips |
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| Benedict burger |
Cupcakes by Sonja
What better way to cap a food tour than with cupcakes? And the best
cupcakes in the country can be found here, particularly at the Serendra Piazza
of Serendra, Ayala
Land's flagship
condominium development.
I was not fond of cupcakes, finding them lackadaisical, until Cupcakes
by Sonja came about. Its first store opened on Sept. 8, 2006. Sonja Ocampo, a
classically trained chef, is said to have introduced the idea of the gourmet
cupcake, coming up with creative flavors and varieties. Suddenly cupcakes
present a limitless potential for creativity. Right now, there is a delightful
array of flavors and varieties that include Valrhona dark chocolate with
peppermint frosting; pineapple upside down passion fruit; Red Velvet Vixen;
peanut butter and jelly; Vanilla Sunshine; Bunny Hugger Carrot; Chocolate
Overload; Chocolate Surprise; lemon drop; pistachio, berries and cream; Loa
Lani coconut cream pie and Banana Monkey Cream Pie. More flavors are promised
and more branches, particularly at the Glorietta 2 at the Ayala
Center and at the Shangri-La Mall in Mandaluyong City.
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| Chef Sonja Ocampo with Monica Llamas and JJ Yulo |
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| Chef Sonja Ocampo |
One tour may not be enough to gauge and immerse in the lively dining
scene, but it is an effective introduction.
For inquiries, contact
Martha Asuncion through e-mail address martha.asuncion@artsatbgc.org or
telephone number 818-3601 local 3207.
Visit Facebook.com/BonifacioGlobalCityPH or Facebook.com
/ArtsAtBGC, for more details.
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