Going Places

taro leaves and molten-yellow turmeric rice. The Manila nouveau cuisine hot spot Bistro Filipino, where I am eating dinner, is only one day and a few hundred kilometres away from the simple stewed pork I had in Buhi, but the contrast couldn't be starker. Unlike the majority of the country, where Filipino food is largely a domestic enterprise, the capital city, a crush of 19 million people surging inexorably outward across the marshy lowlands, nurtures a healthy indigenous restaurant scene. Young chefs trained in classical cooking techniques, like Rolando Laudico of the Bistro Filipino, are pushing the boundaries of the country's fare. "After training at the Culinary Institute of America and working in France, I thought, 'Why can't our food be as beautiful and appealing?'" he recalls while hosting me at his trendy Makati address. We're already on dessert, Belgian-style truffles infused with mango and kalamansí, a small citrus fruit. Having already tasted his gorgeous prawns, I know precisely what he is talking about. Glenda Rosales Barretto, widely considered the doyenne of food in the Philippines, has been doing just that for more than three p28-33_Phillipines.indd 33 decades. Her interest in cultivating her country's cuisine winds back to one of the Philippines' most influential characters, Imelda Marcos, who challenged the rising chef to revamp traditional dishes with modern presentations for state dinners in the 1980s. Since then, Barretto has been working to strengthen the country's food traditions from her powerhouse Manila restaurant, Via Mare. One of her recent attempts was a 2008 cookbook called Kulinarya, for which she brought together a team of six all-star Manila chefs (including Claude Tayag) to argue over and arrive at the 60 most quintessential Filipino dishes and then standardize a way of cooking them. Barretto invites me to Via Mare one evening for a private dinner prepared by and shared with the chefs of Kulinarya. With Barretto at the head of a long table in a sleek, private dining room, we sit for hours as waiters parade out plate after plate of deconstructed, reimagined Filipino classics. Slabs of snowy mackerel and giant flaming prawns swim in a clear, sour tamarind broth called sinigang. Shredded crab and coconut comes packed into tablespoon-size crab shells and swaddled in banana leaves. And the lechon, a spit-roasted whole suckling pig with crackling skin redolent of lemongrass, rests like a prince on its centrepiece throne. Two hours into the meal, I am satiated, and not only from the banquet. By distilling the country's vast and delicious menu into a digestible and appealing package, these chefs have helped me to understand Filipino cuisine – not to mention going out of their way to make me feel at ease in their company. As I'm thinking this over, Barretto leans toward me. "We love our food. And we believe others will love it, too," she says. Then she flicks her hand and the waiters scurry in with yet another round of plates. GO WITH CAA more dining destinations: send your palate to Portugal with fellow culinary cruiser and gourmet adventurer Bob Blumer. The Douro Valley Gourmet Cruise includes: three nights' deluxe hotel accommodation in Lisbon, seven nights' deluxe cruise accommodations, cooking demonstrations by Blumer and more. October 18-29, 2013; priced from $4,625. 13-04-12 1:09 PM

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