Salo-Salo sa Uno

I definitely love Filipino food! Though I take pleasure in eating American, Chinese and Japanese cuisine, I just can't get enough of our native food.

Filipino food is a bold combination of sweet, sour and spicy. Asian cuisines are known for a more subtle delivery and presentation of food, but Filipino palates prefer sudden influx of flavor.

It was bliss to be invited to a native food banquet: Waterfront Airport Hotel and Casino Mactan's Salo-Salo sa Uno. It is a gastronomic tour of the Islands of the Philippines in line with our celebration of Independence Day.

There were a number of native specialties for dinner as Chef Michael Moran prepared all-time Filipino cooking - kare-kare (oxtail cooked in peanut sauce), lechon de leche (roast suckling pig), lechon kawali (deep fried pork), bulalo or pochero in the dialect, sinugbang baboy and isda (grilled pork and fish), pinakbet (vegetable stewed with fermented anchovy paste) to name a few. For dessert, halo-halo (shaved ice, milk, coconut sport, sweetened plantain topped with icecream), pastillas and famous kakanin that the Philippines is known.

Lechon de leche is a very special Filipino food. A real lechon de leche should be a suckling pig. It has really thin, crisp and utterly delicious skin. Uno's lechon de leche never failed, plus it had a new twist! It was stuffed with native longganiza!

My personal picks were kare-kare, pinakbet and itlog na maalat with tomatoes and onions. I savored the thick sauce of kare-kare and the salty flavor of pinakbet. I also loved the halo-halo and suman for dessert. Going to Mactan was actually worth it, despite the fact that I live in Talisay. I wouldn't exchange that bell-busting experience for anything else!

Not only did I enjoy the food, I also took pleasure in roaming around Uno and admiring the native food set-up! It helped in satisfying my palate for native food. I also had fun watching the others eat and go back to the food table to have some more.

Chef Moran captured the genuine taste of Filipino food. Here's a catch, Chef Moran was born here in the Philippines but grew up in Guam. In spite of this, he still has not forgotten his Filipino roots. He had been working in Waterfront for five years now.

It was a festive Independence Day celebration as Waterfront Mactan let native food lovers dine for only P750+++ per person from June 8 to 12, 6 pm to 10 pm.