For the month of July, Filipino cuisine takes the center stage at UNO, Waterfront Cebu City Hotel & Casino (Salinas Drive, Lahug phone 232-6888 local 8200, www.waterfronthotels.com.ph) every Friday and Saturday. Executive Sous Chef Archie Santok and his team of chefs have assembled an assortment of traditional favorites from the various regions of the Philippines.
The lunch invitation was set at 12 noon and your favorite food columnist came exactly at the appointed time. Only problem is that no watch can tell exactly when 12 o'clock happens since our timepieces are not synchronized and there is no reference point to an atomic clock server. Minutes later, Waterfront executives Maebelle Varron and Alastair Granger (F&B Director) joined me to enjoy this selection of Filipino culinary delights.
I took the obligatory photos and was happy that I came early because the food displays were intact and the beautiful presentation can be viewed by my beloved readers. Food is first consumed by the eye, followed by the nose before it reaches the palate. Japanese food manufacturers have mastered the art of food packaging and a short visit to a Japanese grocery can confirm this fact.
I selected the following appetizers: Tamis-Anghang na Dilis, Embutido and Crispy Crablets (indeed, crispy) and then I recall a pressing issue that has been lingering in my mind for a long time. While some of the cuisines of Asian countries like Thailand and Vietnam have been making headway in the world, Filipino food remain in the background. Anthony Bourdain of the TV series No Reservation asked a similar question in his visit to Cebu, "with Filipinos so well represented in America, why is that Filipino cuisine is a kind of a blank page, why does it not have a higher profile in the States?"
Soup was Bulalo and I remember that one of the pressing problems in Filipino cuisine is the standardization of its dishes from the quality of ingredients to weights and measures in its recipes and its cooking methods. Tasting the main dishes, Relyenong Alimasag, Lechon Kawali, Bangus Relyeno (the best dish in that buffet), Kare-Kare and Pancit Habhab, the book KULINARYA, A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine came to my mind, which is a written by the country's prominent chefs like Baretto, Segismundo, Tayag and others. This book is the guide to make Filipino food achieve the status of world class cuisine.
As I tried the Pinakbet, Steamed Fish with Rainbow Colors, Binagoongan Rice and visited the Sisig Station, I recall the statement of Joel Binamira, Marketman, the pseudonym of the blogger Market Manila "the Filipinos in general adapted to new places much quicker and much more readily than many other cultures….We are just as comfortable eating a shawarma from the guys who come back from the Middle East, to Chinese food, to Japanese food, Korean food and American food."
Closing this wonderful lunch with the following desserts like the Torta Cebuana, Kutsinta Quenelle and Baked Bibingka and this has brought back memories to a train ride between France and Italy. When I introduced myself to a group of Europeans that I came from the Philippines, they all asked in unison… "Where is that?" Indeed, we have a long way to go.