Jeep thrills at Intercon's Cebu fest
The Queen City of the South has laid out a feast fit for a king — or is it the Queen of Sheba? — at Café Jeepney, InterContinental Manila until Jan. 31. With Café Jeepney in Makati on an 18-day Cebu stopover, we’re thrilled to hop aboard this iconic native-themed coffee shop one fine Wednesday lunch. We’ve always loved Cebu — sea and sand, sights and sounds, and food, but of course! And now, while it can’t bring its breathtaking blue waters to Manila, Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort has flown in its seasoned, London’s Le Cordon Bleu School-trained executive chef Gilbert Alan Mathay who’s now making waves at Intercon.
The jolly good chef comes with a palate-tickling array of specialties with a Cebuano accent. Over Day 1 Cebuano culinary masterpieces (from appetizer to soup, salad, main course, sugba or grilled station, carving station, and dessert), he unravels the sizzling secrets of the Cebuano kitchen.
“Cebuano cooking uses a lot of lemongrass (tanglad),” chef Alan names one secret. “The taste of Cebuano food is really defined. We use the freshest of fresh ingredients.”
Being a flourishing trading port for centuries, Cebu is home to a cuisine that’s an intriguing mix of flavors and textures. There are traces of Indo-Malay, Chinese, Spanish, Mexican, American, and Thai influences.”
We ask Chef Alan what makes adobong Cebu so deliciously — and deliriously — different from the many adobos we’ve tasted in our lives. He tells us, “Our adobong Cebu is pork belly tenderized in vinegar (Datu Puti), patis, star anise, garlic, bay leaf, peppercorn. It’s boiled in that mixture for two hours over low heat for the taste to penetrate, and then fried. We have two kinds of adobo: One’s got vinegar while the other has soy sauce and sugar, which makes it somewhat sweet.”
Of course, who hasn’t heard of (or, yes, tried) lechon de Cebu, which is as legendary as Magellan’s Cross? “We stuff our lechon with tanglad, garlic, and spring onions, and rub the inside with salt and pepper,” Chef Alan reveals. “Its skin is thin, we rub it with salt and let it dry, and then we cook it over charcoal. Instead of the usual liver sauce, we use the native Cebu sauce made of soy sauce, vinegar, onions, chili, a bit of ginger, salt, and pepper.”
Guests agree this lechon is worth pigging out for. “It’s a staple on the Cebuano table in many a celebration,” notes Alan.
In fast-food outlets at malls in Cebu, people line up for their sinful share of this delicacy whose popularity has spread by word of mouth (contented mouths, we’re sure).
Care for Cebu’s kare-kare? It’s quite ox-kay! Chef Alan shares, “We do use oxtail, too, but our Cebu kare-kare has no ground rice; instead, we use bread crumbs as well as crushed peanuts and annatto oil.”
The Cebuanos’ kare-kare is quite light (and just right), unlike the rich kare-kare our jaded taste buds have grown accustomed to.
Quite a meaty treat is Cebu’s version of the paella valenciano. It’s a whole heap of pork, chicken, liver, and chorizo. A drizzle of soy sauce gives the sticky rice its brownish color.
Name that tuna? Yes, Cebu’s kinilaw na tanigue or tuna, which is sliced on the spot or a la minute, comes with a choice of condiments — three kinds of vinegar, coconut cream, ginger, tomatoes, red onions, silispada, chopped sili — and is eaten with boiled kamote and boiled banana.
Savor a bit of history with Cebu’s chorizo, which has a sweet Spanish heritage.
Have you tried Cebu’s dinuguan? It’s got coconut milk, and you just might go loco over the coco twist.
Chef Alan tells us the tale of Cebu’s oxtail stew. It’s called balbacua, oxtail boiled in star anise, soy sauce, beef stock. It’s slow cooked for four to five hours.
Now, this one rocks — Cebu’s steamed rock lobsters (hanlilitik)!
And what’s a Cebuano feast without the sinugba? The sugba station offers a lot of grilled faves guaranteed to thrill (chicken, pork, liver, fish, chorizo, squid). They’re cooked on the spot and you can enjoy ’em with your choice of sauce.
Relish your salad days, too, with the many Cebuano salads, like the green mango salad, ensaladang kamatis ug kesong puti (tomato salad with cottage cheese), grilled eggplant salad, sweet potato tops salad, fried dilis salad, ensaladang chicharon (pork crackling salad), banana blossom salad.
Each day offers something different on the buffet table. So expect a different gustatory adventure each time you visit.
To end a most memorable food trip on a sweet note, try Cebu’s many pastries and rice cakes, like the budbud kabog (millet and coconut milk rolls), otap (flaky, crispy pastry), and the really sweet Cebuano mangoes.
Now, here’s another sweet offer: To celebrate InterContinental Manila’s 40th anniversary, guests get a chance to win trips to dream destinations. Every P4,000 in a single receipt at restaurant and bar outlets earns a raffle ticket. Prices include a Princess Cruise trip for two to either the Caribbean or Alaska or the Mexican Riviera, and a trip to a European destination of one’s choice on board KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Raffle period runs until April 16, 2010.
So, all aboard now for Cebu’s jeep thrills!
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Café Jeepney’s buffet spread is available for lunch 12 noon to 2:30 p.m., Monday to Sunday, and dinner 7 to 10:30 p.m., Monday to Saturday. For every group of four buffet-paying adults on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, the fifth person gets a free buffet meal. For reservations, call 793-7000.
