Yes, you read it correctly: Quirky, not quickie, meals.
That’s how chef Sharwin Tee calls the bacon-based items served at Quirky Bacon, the restaurant he put up in November last year in San Juan City, nestled at a cozy corner on 192 Wilson St. in Barangay Maytunas. It’s located several steps from the sidewalk, so you have to be alert (check out the sign) or you might miss it.
According to a reminder on the menu (featuring an outline of a pig): Quirkiness cannot be rushed, that’s why your food is made to order.
Sharwin, 34, is a food whiz.
After tucking up a degree in ComArts at Ateneo, Sharwin enrolled at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts in Vancouver in 2003. Back the following year, Sharwin taught Culinary Arts at Xavier where he finished elementary school. In 2010, he competed in the Clash of the Toque-en Ones reality-TV on Lifestyle Network and beat five finalists (from among more than two dozen contestants). His victory earned him a hosting job on the network’s show Curiosity Got The Chef which is now replaying episodes preparatory to the new season in May or June.
Bulletin columnist Shirley Pizarro and I had a taste of Sharwin’s quirky meal early last month when Rudy Tee and his wife Myrna invited us to a post-Christmas get-together, along with Narcisco Chan, Vic Valenciano, Mario Joson and Chito Confiado, all retired from Sony Music and who have put up a new company called Curve Entertainment. Sharwin is the son of Rudy’s brother.
Pictured on this page are some of the items Sharwin prepared for our group, with the main courses topped by Chocolate Labuyo Leche Flan (P245 per serving, from the “Happy Endings†selection), made of dark chocolate, siling labuyo, eggs, evaporated milk, sugar and whipped cream, a “guilty pleasure†only an imaginative chef like Sharwin can whip up.
(For inquiries about Quirky Bacon, call 0927-9184189 or landline [02]570-2494].)
(E-mail reactions at entphilstar@yahoo.com. You may also send your questions to askrickylo@gmail.com. For more updates, photos and videos visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on www.twitter/therealrickylo.)