Sticky beginnings for a Japanese bistro
October 6, 2005 | 12:00am
What began as a yakitori joint soon morphed into a modern Japanese bistro that fuses elegant traditional cuisine with local flavor. Sticks, a name coined after the sweet marinade-coated barbecue sold at kiosks that clutter Japan’s little side streets, is owned by Gilbert Pangilinan, a chef who cut his teeth training at restaurants in New York where he studied at the Culinary Institute of America, along with siblings Mae Cruz, Grace Ann Pineda, and George Pangilinan. Currently part owner and chef of Kai, the high-end Japanese restaurant in Greenbelt 2, Gilbert wanted to create a restaurant that focused on yakitori, a particular favorite of his. "The restaurant, which first opened in Robinsons Pampanga, was meant to be a yakitori resto, based on the places you see in Japan that serve different kinds of barbecue, from chicken to pork to fish," explains Gilbert. "But people kept ordering fare they normally associated with Japanese food – tempura, sushi and sashimi. We kept adding dishes to the menu until it became a full-blown restaurant."
"It’s not possible to have a small menu when you’re based in Manila," he adds wryly. The current menu has a variety of categories, from the regular sushi, sashimi and maki to rice toppings, entrees that feature Japanese specialties, like grilled tenderloin in teriyaki sauce, and starters, with such unique dishes as onigiri with bonito flakes, grilled Japanese rice drizzled with flakes made from a dark, oily fish of the same name that is dried and then shaved into fine flakes.
Based on a cuisine known for its traditional approach to cooking and a fondness for fine ingredients, especially important for a culture that often serves food raw – high-grade ingredients, like incredibly fresh fish and other produce, are necessary – Gilbert chose to do a younger, more modern take on the ancient cuisine. "When I went to Japan, there was a bridge between the young and old. While the old were very strict when it came to preparation of food, the young were more open to quirkier concepts, to new ideas when it came to substituting ingredients or altering the method of cooking."
Sticks is an attempt to bridge Japanese and Filipino, ameliorating age-old techniques and fine-tuning them to fit the taste buds of the locals. As Gilbert observes, "The closest flavor I could find to the local palate was Japanese food. It’s basically got a sweet characteristic, with a vinegary twang that’s not too rich." This marriage of the sweet and tart has spawned dishes that often times strike the diner as that perfect balance of Asian flavors.
An example is the pako salad (P150), with greens consisting of a tasty fern (otherwise known as fiddlehead fern or pako in Filipino), that’s got a good bite to it, dressed with sweet soy vinaigrette, drizzled with reduced balsamic vinegar (that’s almost like a syrup with amazing depth) and garnished with shrimps, red egg, tomatoes, and onions. The saltiness of the eggs contrasts nicely with the plump, juicy tomatoes, which come in the form of cherry tomatoes when in season (farmed from the Pangilinans‘ backyard in Pampanga, along with the pako), and the bite of the zesty raw onions only adds to an amalgam of flavors to what could be Sticks’ masterpiece.
For entrees, they have broiled prawns topped with their signature dynamite sauce (P280), a Japanese mayo-based sauce that’s seasoned with spices to give it a tang, grilled salmon belly teriyaki (P145), a scrumptious affair of perfectly juicy pink Norwegian salmon served with mixed vegetable teppanyaki.
Bento meals are available for diners on a budget or in a hurry. Served with California maki, Japanese white rice, sautéed vegetable and dessert, these meals run from the Sticks Sampler (P235), variations on the yakitori theme, to modern ebi tempura (P225), prawn tempura glazed with their dynamite sauce.
Other crowd-pleasers include tempura maki (P110), prawn tempura wrapped in a roll of rice with Japanese mayo, ebiko and toasted sesame seeds, and spicy tuna maki (P77), fresh yellow fin tuna covered with the spicy dynamite mayo.
The piece de resistance, of course, is the yakitori section, quaintly labeled "Sticks" in their menu. It consists of chicken, pork belly, squid, salmon belly, bacon asparagus and more, all glazed in their teriyaki sauce. While Gilbert has found license to add a few twists to signature Japanese dishes, he’d rather not mess with some things. "I would never change the teriyaki sauce," Gilbert says with a laugh, "that would be sacrilege." Little bite-size pieces of the meat (chicken or pork or whatever you choose) are marinated in the traditional teriyaki sauce, skewered then grilled to perfection, leaving every morsel tender, juicy, and flavorful. The chicken skin yakitori (P85), not for those looking for cholesterol-free dishes, consists of three sticks of yummy, high-fat, crisp skin. It’s unbelievably sinful but definitely worth the waist-adding inches. The Sticks Sampler (P185), which has seven yakitori sticks, is perfect for a group lunch or even for one if you’re feeling decadent.
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