No Other Way but One Way

Where Salcedo Street ends in Legazpi Village of Makati City, the country’s financial hub, it can get a tad quiet. Though still part of the business center, the area is off the shopping and dining hubs and is characterized by the back view of imposing buildings. There is a couple of residential condominiums and a few stores. A small art gallery just opened. And at the corner of Salcedo and Benavidez Street, behind the one-way sign, perhaps the most noticeable thing on the street is a restaurant named One Way.

The area is not known as a dining hub, but “we hope to pioneer a dining scene here,” said wine connoisseur and distributor Ronald Lim Joseph.

The director of the Philippine Wine Merchants co-owns the restaurant at the ground floor of the Concorde Building, which was first a wine bar called Nectar with a predominantly Greek menu, with his brother Ralph.

“Then a bunch of friends came in. We changed the concept and the whole menu,” Joseph related.

Seminal to that change is consul of Lebanon Joseph Assad, who tasted pizza with crust made from sourdough for the first time in 2012 at a restaurant called The Luggage Room in Pasadena, California. He recounted the experience in One Way’s Web site: “I was flabbergasted! It was the best pizza I ever had in my 60 years of pizzastromy! I was in Pizza Heaven! I was in love! It was a major revelation! It’s the toppings that normally make a great pizza but in this case it was not just the toppings it was the crust. The sourdough had that extra tangy bite to it that the normal plain white dough pizzas do not have. I truly fell in love with this sourdough pizza.”

When he got back to Manila, he told of his discovery to the Joseph brothers and began his search for sourdough bread and pizza, which led him to chef Harold Nilooban. A family lunch with Nilooban cooking made him decide to open a restaurant pulling in the Josephs, executive Nando Ortigas and “nightlife legend” Louie Ysmael. They transformed the Josephs’ wine bar into One Way Restaurant, which formally opened in March 2014.

One immediately notices, upon entering One Way, that the design motif is inspired by the iconic street sign—predominantly striped with black and white. Diners who come in in outfits that match the interiors need not fret; they get a surprise prize. Breaking the preponderance of black-and-white stripes are framed photographs riddled the walls, mostly of people, friends and visitors of the owners, enjoying the food and company.

The main dining area can accommodate about 120 persons, and there is a small deli and bakery for breakfast and sandwiches. Equipped with its own entrance is the Tasting Room, which can accommodate up to 18 persons and can be used for small conferences, meetings, get-togethers, etc.

Here, we sampled some of One Way’s bestsellers, prepared by its new Ukrainian chef Vitaliy Lavrenchuk, with wines (and wine education) courtesy of Ronald Joseph. 

“We don’t push it to be a fine-dining restaurant,” Joseph said of the restaurant. “It’s not fine dining, but you get fine dining food and experience without the fine dining prices.”

The menu is predominantly European with smattering of American. Most of the dishes are all-time favorites ? “comfort food,” they like to say currently.     

While lunch was being prepared, canapés of shrimp cocktail on multigrain bread with balsamic and garlic butter allayed our hunger. A welcome drink of a slushie of lemon and generous helpings of basil and mint was a goblet of sunshine, perking one up.

Lunch started off with cream of wild mushroom soup (P290), served in a bowl of hallowed out bread, freshly baked and made from sourdough. Not cloyingly rich but hefty with ample pieces of mushrooms, the soup was thoroughly enjoyable, which made me scrape out the bottom and sides of the bread bowl, bread pieces dissolving into the soup that got thicker.

Lavrenchuk immediately rolled out their pizzas, the two bestselling kinds with thin sourdough crust. The Mediterranean pizza (P590) has toppings of goat cheese, sundried tomatoes, roasted peppers, fresh basil, capers and salami, while the Pamplona pizza (P580) has jamon Serrano, Spanish spicy chorizo, cherry tomato, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese and lemon dressing.

Bright red and festive-looking, Pamplona was unanimously the favorite, with the salty and smoky flavors of the meats perfect for the light sourness of the dressing. Toppings complemented also the sourdough crust, which is chewy and more flavorful than the ordinary crust.

“We’re pushing for the sourdough,” Joseph said. Indeed, the pizza has become one of the popular items in One Way, which offers five kinds. You can even create your own pizza (for P680) with about 15 toppings to choose from.

Sourdough is used for their breads, which can be savored as Danish-style open-faced sandwiches and burgers (from P360 to 480).

Their pastas are also noteworthy. We tried the cream of aligue (crab fat) spaghetti (P370) which had baby prawns, crab paste, cognac and cream, and the red pesto (P360) linguine with Spanish-style sardines and sundried tomato. The sauces were blended well, with interesting flavors harmonizing like symphony.

The entrees employed much effort to prepare. The classic French dish coq au vin (chicken braised in white wine) with rice pilaf and green pea puree (P490) was tastier than I previously had, but the three-hour melot-braised lamb shank with pimiento risotto (P990 for single and P1,350 for size meant for sharing) was a delight, with the meat sliding off the bones, drenched in rich tangy sauce.

Capping the meal was one of their crepe flavors-the Mango Jubilee-prepared in a flamb‚ by the table.

As much as the dishes, the wines were also stars.

“Our wine selection is probably the most extensive in the whole country because we’re wine importers,” boasted Joseph.

He picked the wines that best go with the dish, not minding anymore the red wine-for-meat rule. He said that it is best to gauge body when pairing-light wine for light dishes. For the mushroom soup, he recommended Angas Brut, dry chardonnay from Australia, while the pizzas were accompanied by Valpolicella from Verona, Italy. It was Pirramimma from McLaren Vale, South Australia, for the pastas. The crepe was paired with the sweet Gancia Asti sparkling wine from Italy.

While they can whimsical with the design of the restaurant, One Way takes their foods and wines seriously, taking much effort to prepare them. And that’s the way dining should be-earnest in cooking, light-hearted in eating.

One Way Restaurant is at 206 Salcedo Street corner Benavidez Street, Legazpi Village, Makati City, Metro Manila, with telephone number 869-8958 and mobile number 0906-5572588.

Black-and-white stripes is the dominant design  of the restaurant's interiors

Canapes

Three-hour merlot lamb shank

Cream of aligue pasta

Cream of wild mushroom soup

Mango Jubilee

Mediterranean pizza

Pamplona Pizza

Red pesto pasta with sardines

Three-hour merlot lamb shank

Preparing the Mango Jubilee

The chef

Japanese-style Adobo and Other Delicious Things You Can Cook in a Microwave Oven

Japanese-style spicy adobo of Machiko Chiba

What piqued the interest of the Filipino audience most during the cooking demonstration of chef and inventor Machiko Chiba was her adobo. Aside from being the favorite Filipino dish, it was prepared spicy, Japanese-Korean-style, and cooked just using the microwave oven. Most of the audience don’t really use the microwave oven for cooking dishes, but Chiba showed that many dishes, even traditional ones, can cooked using the modern appliance, which has become almost ubiquitous in home kitchens.

Chiba was brought in by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF), which is responsible for promoting Japanese agricultural, forestry and fisheries products, among many other functions, for the culinary event “Taste of Japan in Manila” at Restaurant 9501 in Quezon City on January 21, 2016. The multi-awarded chef works with MAFF in promoting Japanese cuisine in different parts of the world.

Winner of several cooking competitions, Chiba has been conducting cooking demos and has written cookbooks such as Japanese Dishes for Wine Lovers (Kodansha International), Cook-Zen Kandou Recipes (Nikkei BP Planning), Denshi Range de Raku Raku Okashi Tsukuri (Sekai Bunka Publications) and Taberu Classic (Gentousha Publications). She’s also known for her kitchen inventions such as the Cook-Zen microwave pot and the Kikurage Essence.

Her Cook-Zen microwave pot became indispensible during her “Taste of Japan” cooking demo, where all dishes were cooked in it. Unfortunately, the polypropylene pot is not currently available locally but it can be purchased online in such sites as Amazon.com.

Chiba’s cooking methods might have surprised many because the Japanese is known for favoring and taking pride in their culinary traditions. Japan, though, is also known for advances in technology.

Chiba herself said she initially disliked using the microwave oven. She studied traditional Japanese cooking under famous chefs of Tokyo and Kyoto. The common thing about traditional cooking, she noticed, is that the preparations of these dishes are time-consuming. She had always thought of ways of making traditional dishes easier to prepare. When she went to the University of Pittsburgh to study and then to New York, she changed her mind about the microwave oven. The oven was popular there. She began using the oven and invented ways to combine tradition and innovation. Eventually, she came up with the Cook-Zen pot, a result of 10 years of experimentation.

You just put everything inside the pot and put on the lid, which has a control system. Like a pressure cooker, the Cook-Zen pot traps the steam, which helps in cooking the dish and prevents it from becoming dry. Cooking time takes about four to 10 minutes. 

Aside from the convenience, microwave cooking is also healthy, said Chiba who is now based in New York and Tokyo. One uses less oil with it and the nutrients are not washed away or destroyed as much as in traditional way of cooking over fire.

You can cook almost anything with the microwave oven, as Chiba demonstrated—from vegetables to meats to desserts. Yes, even adobo. Chiba expressed fondness for the garlic-and-soy-sauce based dish, which she was introduced to by a Filipino friend of a friend in Hong Kong several years. She created a version that is sour and spicy, but still has an unmistakable adobo flavor, perfect on top of steaming rice.

The cooking demo concluded with a simple dessert, the baked apple, which also amazed. The fruit became almost translucent slices of yumminess, chewy and zesty.

Find the recipes of her adobo and baked apple, as well as of other dishes, below:

Green beans and fried tofu

150 grams green beans or string beans

1 sheet fried tofu (50 grams)

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons dashi stock or water

1 ½ tablespoon sugar

Directions: Wash string beans and cut into five-centimeter lengths. Cut fried tofu in half and julienne them into five-millimeter slices. Place beans, fried tofu and all remaining ingredients in the Cook-Zen pot. Mix well, cover and cook in microwave oven on medium-high for four to five minutes, with the steam holes set to “close.”

Simmered eggplant and chili

3 Japanese eggplants

2 fresh Japanese green chilies

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 ½ teaspoons soy sauce

1 ½ teaspoon sugar

Directions: Wash eggplants and cut them in bite-size pieces. Cut chilies in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Put all ingredients in Cook-Zen pot and mix well. Cover and heat in microwave oven on medium-high for five to six minutes, with the steam holes set to “close.”

Japanese clams steamed with sake and garlic

400 grams Japanese clams

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 clove of garlic, minced

¼ cup sake or white wine

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon chopped parsley

Directions: Place clams in a bowl and rinse under cool, running water. Drain well. Place olive oil and garlic in the Cook-Zen pot. Heat on medium-high, uncovered, for 40 seconds. Add clams, sake and soy sauce. Cover and cook in microwave oven on medium-high for six minutes with the steam holes set to “close.” Sprinkle with parsley and mix before serving.

Special spicy pork adobo

300 grams pork shoulder

3 cloves garlic, minced

¾ cup rice vinegar

6 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon chili pepper (red crushed chili)

1 tablespoon Yanninjan (Korean hot paste)

1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions: Cut pork shoulder into cubes. Put all ingredients in the Cook-Zen pot and mix well. Cover and heat on medium-high for 10 minutes with the steam holes set to “close.” Remove and serve over rice.

Spareribs

4 teaspoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, sliced

¾ pounds pork ribs (about eight single ribs)

4 tablespoons ketchup (with small vegetable pieces)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons sugar

Directions: Place olive oil and garlic slices in the Cook-Zen pot. Heat on medium-high for one minute without the lid. Add the pork ribs, ketchup, soy sauce and sugar. Mix well. Cover and cook in microwave oven on medium-high for 10 minutes with the steam holes set to “close.”

Japanese roast beef

300 to 400 grams beef round

3 cloves garlic, sliced

80 cc soy sauce

80 cc rice vinegar

Directions: Put beef, fat-side up, inside the Cokk-Zen pot. Add garlic, soy sauce and vinegar. Cover and heat in microwave oven on medium-high for four minutes (for rare) or five minutes (for medium rare) with the steam holes set to “close.” Immediately remove the beef from the Cook-Zen pot so it does not continue to get cooked. Slice and serve.

Baked apple

1 apple, medium

2 teaspoons sugar

½ teaspoon lemon juice

Directions: Wash and quarter apple, leaving the skin intact. Remove core by making V shaped incision with knife. Cut apple into one to two millimeter slices and place them in the Cook-Zen pot. Sprinkle them with sugar and lemon juice. Cover and heat in microwave oven on medium-high for one and half minutes with the steam holes set to “close.”

Machiko Chiba with daughter Akiko, a pianist who loves to cook

The Delectable North

The sisig is one of the well-known dishes of Pampanga. From the railroad eateries of Angeles City, the dish of chopped pig ears, cheeks and snout, served on a sizzling plate with a side of calamansi and chilis, has become a staple fare in numerous restaurants in the whole country. But the sisig is not the only dish Pampanga has to offer. The province, known as the food capital of the Philippines, has a lot of unique dishes and foods to offer as well as interesting culinary traditions. In fact, northern Luzon is home to many cultural communities with interesting foods. For a quick survey and introduction to northern Luzon foods, the best bet is the Big Bite! The Northern Food Festival, which annually gathers select food producers from the Ilocos Region, the Cagayan Valley, the Cordilleran region, central Luzon and Metro Manila for a food market and a celebration of everything delicious.

Big Bite! is organized by MarQuee Mall in Angeles City, and this year it was held from October 16 to 18, 2015, at the MarQuee Park as part of Angeles City’s month-long Fiestang Kuliat. As a salute to the popular Pampangan dish, the food festival and market mounted a sisig festival, highlighted by a grand cookout.

After kicking off with fireworks, a marching band and street dancing, the opening day on October 16 featured the cooking of sisig and its varieties. For the cookout, MarQuee Mall invited three well-known chefs—Jackie dela Cruz, Danilo Maramba and Sau del Rosario.

Dela Cruz cooked the Ilocano dish dinakdakan, which is likened to the sisig. Meanwhile, Maramba made a Pangasinan version, replacing pork with milkfish, which is one of the province’s well-known products. Pampanga’s own Del Rosario prepared the sisig as traditional as possible.

Other chefs also made appearances at Big Bite! including Chef Next Door host Jonas Ng, and Center for Asian Culinary Studies founder and president Gene Gonzalez, who hosted cooking demonstrations the following days. Future chefs, on the other hand, participated in cook-offs among top culinary schools from Pampanga.

The meat of the festival was, of course, the food stalls. This year, about 100 merchants participated, offering a range of food items, from the traditional to the innovative, from the old favorites to the novelties, but all homegrown and locally conceptualized. The Ilocos region brought in its popular Ilocos empanada, bagnet and longganisa, while Kalinga and Benguet had coffee, jams and spices. A food stall from Bulacan offered its own version of okoy, made predominantly of grated squash, while another one was owned by a Pampangan kakanin maker, who sells at the San Fernando City public market, offered different kinds of suman as well as the Pampanga tamales. Other Pampanga merchants offered different sweets, baked products, pastries, etc.

For three years now, Big Bite! has become known among foodies and gourmands as well as professionals from the food industry as a go-to event for northern culinary specialties, which can be enjoyed in a light and festive atmosphere.

Big Bite! The Northern Food Festival was mounted in partnership with Department of Tourism, Department of Trade and Industry, Angeles City Tourism Office, North Luzon Expressway and Lifestyle Network.

For more information, contact (045) 304-0110 to 11. Like and follow MarQuee Mall’s social networking sites such as Facebook (facebook.com/MarQueeMall), Twitter (@MarQueetweets) and Instagram (@iloveMarQueemall).

Angeles sisig babi

By Sau del Rosario

Ingredients

1 kg pig ears, snout and face

1 kg pork belly

4 large onion, minced

6 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

5 tbsp chili fresh

10 tbsps vinegar

10 pieces calamansi

1 cup margarine

250 g chicken liver

12 cups water

2 tsp salt

Bay leaf

2 large onions

Some peppercorn

Procedure: Simmer pig head in a pot of water with onions, bay leaf and peppercorn  for one hour (or until tender). Remove the boiled ingredients from the pot then drain excess water. Grill the boiled pig ears and pork belly until done. Chop the pig ears and pork belly into fine pieces. In a wide pan, melt the butter or margarine. Add the onions. Cook until onions are soft. Add the chicken liver. Crush the chicken liver while cooking it in the pan. Add the chopped pig parts and pork belly. Cook for 10 minutes. Put-in the soy sauce, vinegar, calamansi and chili. Mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot. This makes six to eight plates.

  

Bangus sisig

By Danilo Maramba

Ingredient:

1 medium to large boneless bangus

1 large white onion, chopped medium/fine

½ tin (85 grams) liver spread      

Vegetable oil for frying

30 grams butter           

¼ teaspoon garlic powder           

¼ teaspoon ginger powder          

A few splashes of Worcestershire sauce

Black pepper to taste (fresh ground or bottled restaurant grind)

Real mayonnaise (optional, turns the appetizer into a dish)

Procedure: Fry boneless bangus in hot oil until brown and crisp. Allow fried bangus to cool down and flake into small pieces. Toss flaked bangus with liver spread until just about evenly distributed. Set aside. Melt 30 grams of butter in a wok over medium heat. Add chopped onions and sweat slowly until limp and transparent. Add bangus and liver spread mixture then stir and toss till almost done (roughly three minutes). Add garlic powder. Add ginger powder. A few splashes of Worcestershire sauce will give the mixture a slightly darker shine. Toss everything for two minutes more. Immediately remove to serving platters. The completed dish is an appetizer. To turn it into a viand, just add a heaping tablespoon of real mayonnaise.

Dinakdakan

By Jackie dela Cruz

Ingredients

500g pork head, cleaned

100g pig brain

2 pcs bay leaf

1 tbsp black peppercorn

Water for simmering

2 tbsp oil, for grilling

4 tbsp vinegar (sukang Iloco)

1 pc red chili, minced

2 pcs red onion, julienned

1 tbsp ginger, grated

Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Spring onion, chopped, for garnish

Procedure: Simmer pork head with bay leaves and black peppercorns until tender. Strain and cool. Simmer brain for 10 minutes. Strain, cool, remove membrane, coarsely chop and set aside. Grill pork head over medium heat until golden brown. Slice pork head into 1/3 inch by 1/8 inch strips. In a mixing bowl, put sliced pork head and flavor with vinegar and calamansi juice.  Season with salt and ground pepper. Add chilies, red onion and pork brain. Serve in a platter. This yields four servings.

Empanada and other Ilocos delights

Puto flan of Gabee’s of Angeles City

Okoy from Bulacan, made  of squash

Tamales  and sumans of Pampanga

Rattan fruit from Nueva Vizcaya

 

Masa podrida of Apung Diung of Guagua

 

All photos by Roel Hoang Manipon