Monday, March 28, 2016

The Best Filipino Dishes at Pico de Loro Cove

Chefs Sandy Daza, Glenda Barretto, Myrna Segismundo and Jill Sandique
The munggo soup (mung bean soup) is a favorite, rich and thick, common in many Filipino households. I love putting a spoonful of it on a dollop of rice and a dash of patis (fish sauce) with crushed chilis. Chef Myrna Segismundo prepared it the traditional and common way, but suggested a little twist. A small bowl of munggo was garnished with thinly-sliced crunchy pork chicharon (pork cracklings) on which she put a dash of vinegar and drops of olive oil. The munggo suddenly developed another dimension. The chicharon and olive oil added more flavor and body to the already thick soup and the vinegar cut the richness. Yet, another way of loving munggo more.
A proponent of Filipino traditional cuisines, Segismundo offered adobo the way it is cooked at home, but savored with side dishes that have become rare in Filipino households, particularly in Metro Manila. Her Batangas chicken and pork adobo came with burong mangga and burong santol. The fermented young mango had a little acridity and the santol sweetness that complimented the saltiness of the adobo.
The author of two cookbooks, who has been showcasing Filipino foods around the world, has a cooking studio in Quezon City where she holds private dinners and cooking classes at night.
On the other hand, restaurateur and chef Sandy Daza, whose mother Nora Daza was a pioneer of cooking shows in the Philippines, whipped up pancit langlang, which tasted like pancit gisado, sautéed noodles with soy sauce, but this dish used four kinds of local noodles such as bihon and miki. Also a cooking show host, Daza created oxtail bistek, his take on the bistek Tagalog but using oxtail.
The founder of the famous restaurant Via Mare, Glenda Barretto did not put too much twists on her Filipino dishes and instead concentrated on getting the best ingredients and perfecting the cooking as evidenced by her yummy sugpo with gata and talangka (prawns in coconut milk and freshwater crabs) and pinangat (taro leaves in coconut milk).
Trained by prestigious chefs, the owner of pastry shop Delize, Jill Sandique presented pastries and sweets that have made her famous such as the pistachio sansrival and chocolate mousse. She also deconstructed the brazo de Mercedes. The custard, which forms the core of brazo de Mercedes, was flavored with lemon and placed inside a glass, and then topped with meringue and fruits. It tasted closer to lemon meringue pie.
These dishes and more will be offered together in a food event from April 1 to 3. The 40-hectare “residential resort village” Pico de Loro Cove, the first phase of the 5,900-hectare coastal development Hamilo Coast of the SM Group in Nasugbu, Batangas, will gather these award-wining chefs, known for elevating Filipino dishes, for an occasion considered to be very rare.
One of its several dining spots, Lagoa Restaurant of the Pico de Loro Beach and Country Club, will highlight the four celebrity chefs’ dishes in its dinner buffet on April 1, lunch and dinner buffets on April 2, and lunch buffet on April 3. This celebration of Filipino cuisine is a fitting prelude to the upcoming big food events of the Philippines, including the second run of Madrid Fusion Manila.
     

      For more information, call (02) 4647-8888

Sugpo with gata and talangka 
Munggo soup

Oxtail bistek

Pinangat
Pork belly
Pistachio sansrival
Lumpiang Shanghai
Brazo de Mercedes