The Filipino
favorite sour soup, the sinigang, is transformed into finger food,
taking its basic ingredients and preparing them in a different way. Water
convolvulus leaves are coated with batter flavored with tamarind and fried
crisp, then topped with milkfish mousse. The favorite merienda item, pansit
palabok, is packed into fresh rolls and sprinkled with crushed chicharon
from Carcar, Cebu. Then, different kinds of sisig are placed in fried
rice wrappers and topped with garlic aioli.
The Sinigang Bites, Palabok Bites and Sisig
Baskets are just three items to introduce you to a sumptuous spread of
classic Filipino dishes given updates and modern twists; fused with other
dishes; or prepared with different techniques and surprising ways by the
husband-and-wife tandem of chefs, Roland and Jackie Laudico.
Just in time for
the celebration of the 119th anniversary of the declaration of
Philippine independence on June 12, and highlighting to the growing interest on
Filipino foods in the United States, the Waterfront Group of Hotels is
featuring Laudico creations in its all-day dining outlet Uno, which offers
international buffet and ala-carte dining.
The food
festival, “Uno’s Modern Filipino Taste: A Filipino Feast for All Senses,” will
be at the Waterfront Airport Hotel and Casino Mactan in Lapu Lapu City on
Mactan Island, from June 8 to August 31, 2017, and at the Waterfront Cebu City
Hotel and Casino in Lahug, from June 9 to August 31. It will then be brought to
Waterfront Insular Hotel in Davao City in August.
Waterfront has
been promoting itself as a prominent gastronomic hub in Cebu City, intensifying
into this food festival. It chooses the Manila-based Laudicos for their
reputation for innovating on classic Philippine cuisine. The Laudicos have been
in the catering and restaurant business for seventeen years, earning a popular
reputation. They have been in television shows and chosen to endorse several
products. Their culinary careers are crowned with the opening of their own
restaurant, Guevarra’s, in San Juan City, Metro Manila.
The Laudicos
have professed an advocacy of championing Filipino cuisine, which is currently
gaining traction in the United States. They are glad that Filipino food is
getting noticed and predicted that it will continue.
For the
Waterfront festival, the Laudicos have prepared about sixty dishes, to be
featured in Uno’s buffet spread in rotation. These include their signature ones
and their takes on popular Cebuano dishes. Many of the dishes are conversation
pieces because of their novelty.
The appetizers
are curious and delightful. Aside from their deconstruction of sinigang,
palabok and sisig, they have the Kinilaw
Spoons, local ceviche with kalamansi juice, spices and capsicum
emulsion, served on spoons; the Pinoy Maki, maki topped with bigeye scad
or matambaka flakes; and Balut Napoleon Shots, pureed duck embryo.
Popular chef
Tristan Encarnacion has recently joined the Waterfront food-and-beverage team
and contributed the danggit macaron, macaron with laing and dried
rabbit fish mousse and shrimps, with is intriguing with the blending of the
sweet, the salty and the fishy.
The main dishes
featured interesting fusions such as pinaupong nilasing na manok and the
kimchi pinangat, the Bicol dish of taro leaves and smoked fish cooked in
coconut milk with kimchi. The Kaldereta
Pie is kaldereta prepared like shepherd’s pie or more accurately, spicy
lamb stew topped with mashed potato and cheese. The San Miguel battered fish
with buro cream is fish dipped in batter using San Miguel Beer and
served with creamy fermented rice sauce.
In experimenting
with Cebuano dishes, the Laudicos have come up with such things as the Ngohiong Cones, the fried rolls, popular
as street food, served in fried conical wrappers; and the nilagang
bouillabaisse, updated version of the Cebuano fish soup.
The pochero
corn chowder is beef stew with corn puree and the fried humba is a drier
version of the popular Visayan and sweetish version of the adobo. The Balbacua Uno is slow-cooked oxtail, beef
knuckles and skin, and the Puso
Surprise is the puso, rice cooked in packets of woven coconut leaves
ubiquitous on Cebu streets, but prepared with a sparse filling of meat and
peanuts sauce, similar to Batangas tamales.
These
innovativeness spill into the dessert spread which has biko made into
balls, suman into panna cotta, cream puffs that are actually bicho-bicho
with yema and the cheesecake using queso de bola.
The looks of
these Filipino dished may be different but the flavors are very recognizable.
The Laudicos have defamiliarized Filipino cuisine that makes us look at it in a
different way and makes the Filipino feast a dining experience that allows
surprises, discovery and delight.
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| Uno Restaurant of Waterfront Cebu City Hotel ans Casino in Lahug |
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| Balbacua Uno |
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| Bicho-Bicho Yema |
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| Biko Balls |
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| Danggit macaron |
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| Fried humba |
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| Fried rice station |
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| Kaldereta Pie |
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| Kinilaw Spoons |
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| Kimchi pinangat |
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| Ngohiong Cones |
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| Chefs Roland and Jackie Laudico with Waterfront Cebu City Hotel general manager Anders Hallden and Waterfront Airport hotel manager Rex Benhur Caballes |
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| Palabok Bites |
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| Pan de coco |
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| Nilasing na pinaupong manok |
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| Pinoy Maki |
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| Puso Surprise |
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| Queso de bola cheesecake |
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| Salt-crusted fish |
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| Sinigang Bites |
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| Sisig Baskets |
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| Suman panna cotta |
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