MANILA, Philippines - In Carl Honore’s In Praise of Slow, he tackles how society has become obsessed with speed. In an age of instant this, instant that, everything from the way we process ideas to the way we enjoy our meals is compromised, which in turn affects how we digest things –– edible and conceptual. In the same book, he cites the Slow Food Movement, an Italy-based international movement that advocates taking time to cook a meal, using slow-grown organic ingredients, and at the top of the list, savoring all the flavor, aroma and overall experience of every meal.
The idea does not stray too far from how we Filipinos prepare our dishes. Coming from the food-crazed province of Pampanga, I grew up watching my grandparents cook everything from ube halaya to boboto using good old muscle-power, cook’s instinct and a quality-control team of miniature human beings (me and my cousins) to make each dish a winner. Kapampangan roots is something I share with the founder of Herb’s Best Philippines, healthy eating advocate and food lover, Fannie Guanzon.
A lifestyle company that manufactures all-natural food and beverages grown by organic farmers in Butuan, Herb’s Best promotes healthy eating through a range of products that were manufactured using organically grown ingredients that people at home can use as a substitute for commonly used ingredients. Fannie, who is also part Cebuana, makes these otherwise difficult-to-come-by alternatives through Herb’s Best Healthy Pantry, sending the message that eating healthy and enjoying food should not be a luxury.
Slow Food Demands Relishing
At Bistro Filipino by Chef Laudico, we were served one-of-a-kind dishes created using Herb’s Best products and other organically grown ingredients. Bistro Filipino, located in Bonifacio Global City, recently tweaked their menu to accommodate more healthy Filipino dishes that are still in the spirit of the restaurant’s innovation-meets-tradition approach to cooking. The new menu will also be more transparent, revealing the ingredients used in every dish.
We were offered a taste of three of their signature dishes: Seafood Palabok, Wagyu Sinigang and the infinitely interesting Prawn Sinigang Martini. Let’s start with the least traditional: the sinigang gel in a martini glass. To enjoy it, you must pour the warm coconut milk into the chilled glass, spoon the gel and milk together and feel the alchemy of sweet and salty, hot and cold, as it melts in your mouth. Imagine the chemistry, the artistry that went into this –– this is something that chef Roland and Jackie Laudico infuse into every Bistro Filipino dish. Don’t forget about the grilled prawn wedged on the glass; it’s not just for decoration. Every element contributes to the party that happens in your mouth when you take a bite of this savory cocktail.
For this, chef Roland used Herb’s Best sinigang mix, which he also used for the sauce of the succulent Wagyu Sinigang. For the Seafood Palabok –– one of the restaurant’s bestselling dishes, they used Herb’s Best Amori pasta, the line’s low-carb vegetable pasta noodles. We ended our meal with a delicious chocolate dessert by chef Jackie, of course, with Herb’s Best Chococao.
These are not the kind of dishes you scarf down –– how sacrilegious would it be to eat healthy and still not take the time to enjoy it? This is what Herb’s Best Healthy Pantry aims to do: make eating healthy an experience pleasant enough for Filipinos to choose to make it a way of life.
Eating And Cooking Healthy Made Easy
That healthy alternatives to our favorite dishes are inaccessible to the average consumer is not a completely false notion. Fannie, who herself does not adhere only to a certain food group, says this is why she’s made Herb’s Best products available at major supermarkets. These organic alternatives to commonly used ingredients have their own gondolas in groceries, she says, “To advise the public that there are Filipino-made, well-processed, scientifically-proven healthy and safe products available to them.” You don’t have to be a skilled chef to make your signature sinigang recipe healthier, too. Use Herb’s Best products as you would traditional ingredients and you’re good to go.
Herb’s Best products are made in processing facilities across the country, and the produce used are sourced from partner-farmers that the company constantly coordinates with to make sure that crops are always organically or naturally-farmed. Moringa is used in almost all the products, along with a cocktail of herbs that include dahon ng sili (chili leaves), talbos ng kamote (sweet potato leaves), spinach and lemongrass. The mix is further infused with more healthy elements like turmeric (one of nature’s most powerful healers), and FG Phytofood, the extract of 15 fruits and 21 vegetables. All these are in Herb’s Best Healthy Pantry’s sinigang mix, ginisa mix, dalandan and chocolate drink.
“Herb’s Best is a lifestyle company leaning towards health and wellness. We make products that can be part of your daily routine,” Fannie shares. “I didn’t want to be lecturing or sounding healthier than thou; the intention when I started out was, ‘How can I indulge, still eat well and not feel guilty?’”
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Herb’s Best Healthy Pantry products are available at Rustan’s Supermarket, Shopwise, Robinsons Supermarket, Landmark Supermarket, South Supermarket, Makati Supermart, Pioneer Supermarket, NCCC in Davao City; Sonya’s Garden, Echo Store in Podium and Serendra, Market on 5th at St. Luke’s The Fort, DEC Wilson, Kids Klub at Zentrym 500 Shaw, Legazpi Sunday Market, and Sugarleaf in Greenhills and Makati.
For more information, visit www.herbsbest.com.