A whimsical celebration of Pinoy fare
Gourdo's introduces its Pistahang Pinoy menu, a reinterpretation of Filipino dishes fit for celebrating 10 years of good food.
Ten years is not a very long time. It's good enough for a gift of tin or aluminum, but not enough time to merit a silver present. It's also enough time to finally see one's old high school classmates without cringing. In the notoriously fickle food business, though, 10 years is an eternity. That's why Gourdo's 10th anniversary is certainly something to celebrate.
It's easy to think of food when you think of Gourdo's and why not? They sell some of the most interesting kitchenware in the Metro. However, a lot of people do forget that they also have a restaurant at the Fort. They are doing something special to remind foodies of their 10th anniversary.
This time, they are aiming closer to home rather than traveling all over the world as they are wont to do.
To celebrate their first decade, Gourdo's is introducing their Pistahang Pinoy menu, a reinterpretation (or reimagining, if you will) of Filipino dishes by their newly-minted executive chef, Tristan Encarnacion. Yes, “reinterpretation”, “any cuisine with a twist” and “fusion” are buzzwords that are being thrown around carelessly these days, but in the hands of someone who is truly passionate about flavor and technique, the results could be astounding.
We start the meal with something that could either whet your appetite or make you tend to hesitate: Mustasa Leaves, Buro and Spicy Tuyo. Let's admit it, tuyo and buro are “love it or hate it” dishes and in the case of the latter, the two can be considered “an acquired taste” at its best.
If the smell is the problem, then Gourdo's tuyo and buro would help remove that aversion.
Surprisingly, the buro doesn't smell or doesn’t have that fermented and fishy odor at all.
This is also helped by the fact that the dish is eaten by rolling up the buro and tuyo in a peppery mustasa leaf. The flavors are dynamite, with the sour buro and spicy tuyo's bold flavors being tempered by the mustasa leaf. Sour and salty flavors can really get the appetite going and it's no different here.
The Filipino Pizza arrives and as its name suggests, the toppings are familiar Filipino ingredients. The combination of Gourdo's longganisa, farmer's cheese, salted egg, green mango, and adobo sauce will surprise you if you give it a try. Anyone with an appetite for adventure and adores deli sandwiches would appreciate the flavor combination and the ingenuity.
And there’s the Tinolang Sinigang na Manok. Yes, you read that right. Wrap your mind around that concept for a while. How does one create tinolang sinigang, you ask? No, not by combining the two broths. First of all, it's not even a broth. It's a convivial platter of chicken thighs on a thick gravy surrounded by banana chips and taro. Yes, you may want to look at the menu again, but taste the sauce and there it is: tinolang sinigang! The tangy flavor of sinigang is the first one to hit the taste buds, but then you get a hint of ginger and the unmistakable chicken flavor.
The banana chips look out of place, but they actually deserve to be there like the tamarind that straddles the chicken pieces. You see, this sinigang was not soured by tamarind. The souring agent used was raw saba! In fact, Chef Tristan says that the tamarind is there to sweeten the dish.
We can only guess whether or not alcohol was involved in the creation of this dish, but it is certainly unique and as far as the flavors go, they are both familiar and startling enough to make it absolutely different from your typical fiesta fare. That it comes with rice served in a dish mimicking a piece of banana leaf (also available at Gourdo's) only adds to the whimsy.
Of course, no fiesta is complete without pork, arguably the favorite meat of Filipinos.
Today, we try the Grilled Smoke Infused Pork Chops. The low and slow cooking method is evident in the tenderness of the pork and how far the flavors have permeated the meat. It's a very luxurious version of the barbecue that we are so used to eating at festive occasions.
For dessert, the surprises continue with the Deep Fried Halo-Halo. We Pinoys undoubtedly love to eat sugary treats, but sometimes, it's just so hard to decide which dessert to get.
How about a mix of turon and halo-halo, in this case? One gets the variety of halo-halo ingredients, deep-fried in a lumpia wrapper. The words “deep-fried” should be enough to pique the interest, but it's also fun picking out the flavors of saba, monggo and ube in the mix.
It's not your average pista fare, but it's certainly fitting for celebrating 10 years of good food and infinitely more appetizing than tin! – Article courtesy of Manila Bulletin
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