Houston, we have liftoff!

In town last week was chef Grant Gordon of Houston, Texas, as a guest of the US Embassy in Manila. The 27-year-old award-winning chef was brought in as a culinary ambassador to promote US produce, one of many components of the embassy’s “America in 3D,” its signature public diplomacy program. 

“America in 3D” consists of several outreach trips throughout the Philippines that include a full schedule of performances, exhibits and presentations in mall venues, which served as the main hub and other community service events throughout the city or province.  This program not only involves the Public Affairs Section of the embassy, but all agencies of the US government in the Philippines such as USAID, Veteran Affairs, Peace Corps plus Embassy departments such as consular, political, economic, and others.  It was created to make the embassy more accessible as it is often viewed as aloof and barricaded.  No less than US Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg and his officers were at the several events, interacting and meeting with people from all walks of life. Cooking demos and lectures were slated for chef Grant at the Diamond Hotel, where he was billeted during his weeklong stay, Enderun Colleges at Fort Bonifacio, and Mall of Asia in Pasay City.

Kicking off the weeklong series of activities was a day trip to my hometown Angeles City, culminating in a dinner chef Grant and I prepared at Bale Dutung, our home/restaurant last Monday, Feb. 24. Still reeling from the jetlag of the 15-hour time difference between Manila and Houston, the young chef arrived promptly at 10 a.m. accompanied by Pong Aureus, Angie Cabahug and Erwin Medina, all from the Public Affairs section of the US Embassy. To give the guests an introduction to Pampango culture and history, they were given a quick tour of Kuliat Foundation’s Museo Ning Angeles and the Center for Kapampangan Studies at the Holy Angel University.

Lunch was at our three-month-old restaurant Downtown Café, located at nearby Nepo Quad, a restaurant strip developed in the heart of Nepo Mart’s bustling business center. It was chef Grant’s first taste ever of Filipino cuisine, and he relished Downtown’s take on spinach samosas flavored with tinapa, kesong puti and pili nuts (smoked fish, carabao milk cheese and pili nuts from Bicol), crispy crablets with talangkâ rice, pancit pata humba (rice noodles with stewed pork trotters), pork belly adobo confit, oxtail kare-kare (with peanut sauce; the chef loved our bagoong or shrimp paste), and halo-halo with crema de pastillas.

By 3 p.m., we were at Bale Dutung to start with the food prep for an early dinner to be hosted by the US ambassador. The menu was planned weeks ahead to make the American guests have a taste of Pampango cuisine (for my part) while highlighting American beef (chef Grant’s) for the main course. Kathy Yao Santos of Happy Living Wines was constantly in touch with us as for the choice of American wines to pair with the five-course dinner.

Here’s the final menu for the evening: pass-around pan de sal toasts with chicken liver adobo and chicharon with atsara; ensaladang pakô (fiddlehead fern); fried tilapia fillet served with burong hipon (fermented rice with shrimp paste) and fresh mustard leaves; shrimps cooked with taba ng talangka (crab fat, cooked by Miniang Pamintuan), chef Grant’s USDA Super Prime Strip Loin, and Bale Dutung’s signature dessert  Paradiso, a medley of macapuno, ube and yema (egg yolk candy) on a bed of carabao pastillas cream, served with a chilled bottle of Beringer Moscato.

As Ambassador Goldberg has noted in welcoming the guests, the Philippines and the United States enjoy a robust trade relationship. But statistics aside, the company, the food and wines served that evening just prove once more the longstanding and lasting friendship of our two nations. After all, it was but fitting that chef Grant’s liftoff as culinary ambassador was held in Angeles City, host to the former Clark Air Base (the largest American military installation outside mainland USA at that time).  It was like a homecoming dinner for the American guest. Text and photos Claude Tayag