A tasty, fat-free dish to help you fit into your party outfit for the holidays

In between swilling cocktails at the odd holiday party and stuffing yourself with puff pastry and cocktail wieners during office festivities, remind yourself that while the holidays are a great time to celebrate it’s also often the cause of most post-New Year diet resolutions.

Those three oversized servings of lechon at your Aunt’s dinner will come to haunt you come January.

Chef Him Uy de Baron cautions folks to think — and eat — healthy. Whether it’s ingesting fast food in between tightly-packed errands or munching on junk when you’re just vegging out in front of the TV, he underscores the importance of eating right.

The key, according to de Baron, is to shop right. As consultant for East Cafe at Rustan’s Makati, he understands that the main elements of healthy and tasty dish is in its ingredients. “Use fresh, natural ingredients,” de Baron explains, “and cook it with respect. That’s all you need, really.”

As a family man, he makes sure that his kids eat right, making sure they avoid high-sugar, high-fat meals whether they’re snacking at home or eating out. “I make sure that my kids get to try different things, so they’ve had lots of Thai, Chinese and Japanese food growing up. They just love sushi,” he says.

When he cooks for customers, he keeps that same open-mindedness at the restaurant. “We like to have a good variety of food for our dinners; we believe that it’s a moral responsibility to have healthy options in the menu,” he says. “Our diners are mostly women who shop at Rustan’s; we’d like to help them get into their size four couture.”

At East Cafe, he keeps the cuisine new and fresh. “The concept remains the same, traditional asian food executed with more refinement — all the elements that make Asian cuisine, the brash and up front flavours, the multi textural and sensory layers, the simplicity are kept in our dishes. We just try and refine the cooking, taking a bit more time in making sauces and presenting the dishes. But deep inside of it is the true flavors of the original dish. We present our dishes the way we feel that complements the ambiance of East and as well as the discerning taste and sensibilities of our guests.”

For the holidays, it’s important to remember that while the super fatty, yummy foods are a staple of the holidays (and you mustn’t deny yourself the joys of prichon or cuchinollo or anything else fantastically fattening), those aren’t the only things that should comprise your meals.

Take time to munch on a salad or two. De Baron recommends fresh seafood for main meals. He’s put together a new spin on kilawin for readers who’d like a palate cleanser of sorts between the tireless party food menu. Cooked only with acid — in this case, plenty of citrus — he makes this tasty offering a meal that requires little to no cooking (who has the time to cook any way?) and is sure to impress any guest with your culinary prowess.

Kilawin Ala Japonaise

Chef Him Uy de Baron puts a new spin on a local favorite. Infused with Japanese flavors, he fuses pan-Asian techniques with a Filipino dish. The kilawin takes on a mildly tart, spicy element that makes it a great — and easy — addition to dinner. This recipe, which serves 4, is simple to recreate for lunch, dinner or a midday snack.

Dressing

Ingredients:

3 tbs sesame oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tbs honey

2 tbs calamansi juice

1/4 cup ginger water (juiced ginger)

1 tbs Japanese chili oil

1/4 cup coconut milk

Procedure:

For the dressing, mix in a bowl to emulsify.

Plating the main dish:

Ingredients:

100 g fresh salmon diced

100 g fresh tuna diced

100 g ebi sashimi diced

100 g quartered cherry tomato

1 tbs chopped green onions

1/2 cup alfalfa sprouts

1/2 cup tam yao

Procedure:

Toss the tuna, salmon, ebi and dress with dressing.Garnish with vegetables.