2009 Pinoy! Food festival

If you are a student or teacher, you know it is the month of June because schools start to open. If you drive around the city, your notice that little Philippine Flags are sold by ambulant vendors (besides the usual mineral water, shades, hats, cigarettes including siakoy near E-Mall) and this reminds you that the celebration of Phil. Independence is near, that it was proclaimed in Kawit, Cavite on June 12, 1898, at about 4:00 p.m. by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo and you learn all this in Phil. History seated next to that cute personality (gender sensitivity!) in school.

If you are a food aficionado, you know that it is time to visit Marco Polo Plaza (phone 253-111, www.marcopoloplaza.com), because Pinoy, Pinoy Food Festival has began (June 8 to 21) and that it is time to feel patriotic by savoring the best of Pinoy classic cuisine as returning guest chefs, Gene and Gino Gonzalez, unveil recipes from “The Little Cook Book Series,” authored by this father and son team.

It is also the period for your favorite food columnist to rest from the hazardous job, excuse me, of tasting all those French, Italian, Thai, Macanese, Brazilian and other foreign dishes; sort of sit down and relax with the cuisine of our native land.

And my beloved readers know that the Philippines have 6 distinct regional schools of cooking, namely: Ilokano, Pampanga, Bicol, Tagalog region, Visayan regions and Mindanao regions with their developing cuisine like kinilaw with tabon-tabon (fruit-nut condiment), steamed pigek, and halal lechon manok in Zamboanga.

During the launching of the food festival last June 8, 2009, many of the dishes were from Luzon although some of the dishes are now widely available in the rest of the islands. Appetizers include Sisig Terrine, Ensaladang Kasag and Buro Ampung Mustasa. The sisig is an old favorite, the kasag salad, a new acquaintance (highly recommended!) and the buro is always an acquired taste with the slightly bitter veggies performing a cleansing action on the palate.

The Tinolang Sopas Bilo-Bilo reminds me of the soup stock of La Paz batchoy combined with the dumplings of the Pancit Molo; very rich stock of the former but the bilo-bilo as presented, was too plain when compared with the dumpling of the latter soup.

Hot dishes served were the Frog Legs Adobo, Crispy Tadyang, Adobo del Diablo (an old favorite), Bringhe, Asadong Tiyan ng Bangus and Crispy Pata con Bihon. 

Frog legs have never been favored by Cebuanos and for sometime I was wondering about the reasons behind the dislike. Frogs are available where there are plenty of rice fields in an area with a vast expanse of land mass like Luzon. Cebu has very little rice fields (Carcar, Argao, Balamban, Asturias), plenty of mountains but surrounded by sea with its bountiful fish and the only frogs we see are those ugly-looking toads (bull frogs) with white liquid seeping out of the skin when agitated and can actually kill dogs. Buwad na lang!

In my personal opinion, the best two dishes were the Crispy Tadyang and the Crispy Pata con Bihon although the Adobo del Diablo comes very close.

Dessert was very sinful and you had no option to choose because each guest was served a platter with the following delicacies: Pinasuyo, Creamy Coconut & Lychee Mousse, Halo-Halong Puti, Salabat Bar, Capampangan Leche Flan and Mantikado. And your favorite food columnist, acting like a true gourmand, excuse me, had left very little on the plate.

GM Hans Hauri has always welcomed fresh new ideas from visiting chefs to upgrade the skills of the kitchen and such perception will definitely continue for the years to come.