Valentine’s Day at Chef Laudico’s Bistro Saturday, Feb 23 2008

Almost all occassions and celebrations such as Father’s and Mother’s Day, birthdays,  New Year and Christmas, my family would always troop down to either Circles Cafe in Makati Shangrila or in Spirals in Hotel Sofitel Philippine Plaza and be guilty of one of the seven deadly sins, “gluttony”.  This may sound a cliche but I want this Valentine’s day to be different (and also, I can’t go to a buffet restaurant because I have to watch my weight for my March 1 muay thai fight).  Knowing my family, any celebration is incomplete without good food.   I have a scheduled conference call with my boss that evening of February 14 but I mustered enough courage to ask my boss to cancel it.  Perhaps its a good thing that she’s Italian and so the romantic person in her prevailed and agreed to have it rescheduled.  So nothings stands in the way of a wonderful dinner at Chef Laudico.

The dinner isn’t really spectacular, in fact Beck and I are somehow disappointed.  It took a long time for us to be seated despite the reservation that I made.  When we were seated, it took a longer time for us to be given a menu.  When we were given a menu, only one copy was given.    Maybe because its Valentine’s day and its understandably a peak day,  which resulted to these lapses.   But I really have to give credit the very accomodating maitre d’.   But I just overlooked these things as this evening must be enjoyed with my loved ones.      

It’s a good thing that Chef Roland Laudico went out of the kitchen and greeted some of the guests.    And we even have a chance for a photo op with him.   When I told him that RP wanted to become a chef, he said that the best advice he can give is, “Don’t be afraid to experiment with the flavors.”

And being true to his words, his dishes gave a  fabulous twist to common Filipino cuisine.

Bistro Filipino is located at the ground floor of Net 2 Building, 3rd Avenue, Fort Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. 

RP with Chef Laudico

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Valentine’s Day Preparation Wednesday, Feb 6 2008

It’s still 8 days from the day when people suddenly turn into romantic zombies and already, most uppity restaurants are fully booked.  I want to prevent the mistake I had last year when I tried to make a reservation for a Valentine’s day dinner, 3 days before the date.    I called up almost every restaurant and hotel based restaurants I know and they are all fully booked.   Luckily, Chef Chris Romine, the Executive Chef of Shangrila-Hotel Manila is a good friend and he was able to reserve a table for me and my family at Circles Cafe under his name.  

So to avoid asking for another favor (and Chef Chris wouldn’t be able to help me this time as he was reassigned to Shangrila in Singapore) I decided to make an early reservation.    And it really pays to be early and so I was able to book for three persons (my wife, daughter and I) at Chef Laudico’s Bistro Filipino at The Fort.    Chef Laudico is one of the well-known chefs in the country and I’ve been reading a lot of favorable reviews about his cuisine, needless to say,  I’ve always wanted to sample it.  I was surprised that his Bistro Filipino is in existence since September 2006, how did it pass my radar is beyond me, specially that I frequent that area.   I wouldn’t have known about this restaurant if not for the banners they posted near Bonifacio High Street.    

Being a chef is one of my daughter’s dream, and I’ve been introducing her to almost every chefs (sous chefs and chef de partie included) that I know.   I hope to meet Chef Laudico on the 14th  and introduce him to my daughter.   Its my way of inspiring my daughter to work for her dream. 

I’ll be making a review about this restaurant after the St. Valentine’s day. 

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Acquired Taste Friday, Nov 23 2007

Law of Parsimony (Ockham’s Razor)- the least complex explanation for an observation is the best explanation.

Whenever I try to explain something, I always follow Ockham’s Razor, that is I always prefer to explain things at the least complex way.     And each time a foreigner would ask me why I like certain Filipino dishes that are considered revolting for them, I apply the law of parsimony and my response would only consist of two words… Acquired Taste.

Last night is the first episode of Season 2 of Amazing Race Asia.  The contestants landed in the Philippines for the first leg of the race and one of the challenges they must do is to go to Plaza Miranda and eat 8 pieces of balut.   My daughter couldn’t understand why these grown ups are undergoing pure agony just trying to gulp down balut, which is one of her favorite food.   I told her that balut is an acquired taste.  But I ended up explaining to her what acquired taste is… I’ve made a remarkable scientific discovery, Ockham’s Razor doesn’t apply to kids. 

A long list of Filipino common foods wil be considered abominable by western standards.  Aside from the much maligned balut,  my foreign friends cringe when I describe dinuguan, a dish of pig entrails sauteed in pig’s blood and vinegar or when I tell them about Kare-kare, a dish of ox entrails, vegetables, peanut sauce flavored with fermented shrimp.     I remember one time that I tricked a Japanese in sampling dinuguan by telling him that its chocolate soup flavored with vinegar.   One evening, an Irish-American business associate invited me for dinner at Pier One and we ordered the now famous sisig.  He’s singing the praises of that dish and he says that it goes well with beer.   “Take it from me, I’m Irish”, he said.   That is until I told him that its made from pig ears.    At a business dinner, my Italian -American boss commented that my “beef roast” looks yummy.   I told her that its lengua, ox tongue.    Her jaws dropped.   Out of curiousity, she sampled a bite but has to gulp down a glass of cola to wash it down.  I just told her that perhaps, its an acquired taste from the Spanish who colonized us.     A Filipino colleague once said to my Jamaican and Trinidad colleague that you’ll find it hard to eat ampalaya if you’re not pinoy.   And even every pinoy’s favorite sinigang is an acquired taste. 

But if we have these exotic foods, so are the other countries.   Bugs, worms, maggots, crickets and the madagascar hissing coackroach are just street foods in Thailand.  They are being sold anywhere in sidestreets, in the same manner we have fried peanut vendors here.    Persian cuisine  serve oxbrains, Koreans have kimchi, the Chinese have century eggs, the Scots have haggis (sheeps’ internal organs boiled and stuffed in sheep’s stomach) and the Indian have kutti pi, a dish made from goat fetus.   If westerners find dinuguan barbaric then what would they say to Germans, Spanish and residents of Louisiana for having their own version of blood sausage- which are made of cow’s blood or pig’s blood.   

Fortunately, me and my wife are blessed with adventurous taste buds that we are game to sample exotic foods, local or foreign, that nobody has to explain to us that its an acquired taste.    After watching Amazing Race Asia, I went out to buy some balut for my family to enjoy. 

Off Topic:  I have confirmed what my friends in the fitness industry are saying, that Marc Nelson’s cardio sucks, despite his awesome physique.   In last night’s episode of Amazing Race, Marc Nelson choosed to ride a pedicab while his partner push the said cab because he doesn’t like to run and is already gassing out when he reached the pit stop.   I was rooting for them but chances are, they might prioritize their glamor boy images rather than win the game.     

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