Ilonggo favorites get spotlight at this degustacion dinner
During the week-long festival, a curated selection of dishes from Iloilo including La Paz batchoy, Chorizo Ilonggo Pudpud Pasta, Linutik Valenciana Ilonggo, and more will be added to the hotel’s buffet.
Savoy Hotel Manila has flown in Richmonde Hotel Iloilo’s executive chef Ariel Castañeda to curate its very first Iloilo Food Festival.
Together with Savoy Hotel Manila’s executive chef Kit Carpio, the two chefs come together to offer a taste of Ilonggo flavors and culture to the Savoy Café.
During the week-long festival, the two chefs will bring a curated selection of dishes from Iloilo including La Paz batchoy, Chorizo Ilonggo Pudpud Pasta, Linutik Valenciana Ilonggo, and more to the hotel’s buffet.
Savoy Hotel Manila general manager Den Navarro said the food fest was conceptualized as a way to bring the flavors of the southern cities to the hotel’s guests without needing to leave the premises.
“What better way to kickstart this concept than by highlighting the city of love -- Iloilo!” he said.
The highlight of the food festival is a multi-course degustation dinner on March 14 where the spotlight will be on Castañeda’s interpretations of Ilonggo favorites.
Here's a sample of what you can try.
Take the first course in one bite. This is kusahos, a 96-hour sun dried tapa on sampaguita focaccia and carabao cheese.
The kinilaw was a great combination of textures from the tender slices of mahi-mahi and crunchy fish skin chicharon with refreshing sweet notes from the Guimaras mangoes and brightness from the calamansi caviar and tuba vinegar.
This taco was a clever way of compressing a plate of inasal into one bite -- slivers of chicken inasal, pickles, and calamansi-soy pearls in a crispy garlic rice shell.
Lechon and diced shrimp hid below this salty thickened linutik or Ilonggo squash soup.
Spoon the pinaksiw na linugaw from the bottom to get the paksiw na crispy pata, smoked pork, lugaw made with arborio rice, fried banana blossoms, and rice crispies in one bite. The savory notes paired surprisingly well with the fruity Zinfandel.
A not-so-traditional prawn thermidor with spicy pinangat puree made with udag (young gabi leaves) topped with cheese and toasted coconut.
Batuan is a souring agent mainly used in savory soups and stews. For this palate cleanser, the tart and sour batuan is turned into a dessert-like granita.
The degustacion’s main course is a modernized version of Karne Frita, the Ilonggo version of bistek, using sous-vide ribeye with a poached egg and potato pave.
Ask for a cup of coffee brewed with red cherry fine robusta from Sitio Buyuan-Baras roasted by Kape Iloilo before dessert.
Dense hand-churned sampaguita ice cream on calamansi curd with sampaguita polvoron was the first of the fantastic desserts.
This tablea Basque cheesecake with fresh coffee and grated tultul salt added tableside ended the dinner with a salty dark chocolate bang.
