What’s new?

The business of operating a restaurant in Cebu has become highly competitive. Accessibility is a big problem that faces many establishments along the Banilad-Talamban area. Those giant signboards announcing difficult traffic situations in that area are enough annoyance for a hungry patron. And with oil prices at US$ 118 a barrel compounding the problem, vehicles seem to have a mind of their own in looking for alternative destinations.

Parking space is another problem that confronts restaurant entrepreneurs long before a new establishment is even inaugurated.  Some business permits were even revoked because these businessmen had imagined that Cebu City streets were part of their parking lot.  The number of vehicles in Cebu also seems to increase in direct proportion to the increase in gasoline prices! Gone are the days of one family, one car; for the economically advantaged, murag one car for each member of the family.

Slight advantage, excuse me, for PINO, the latest addition to Cebu’s fine dining establishments, Wilson St., Lahug. Phone 2320939 and a 60-car parking lot.  Last November 2007, your favorite food columnist had featured this restaurant that specializes in Filipino cuisine, when select members of Cebu’s media were invited to a dinner hosted by Michel and Amparito Lhuillier.

Since then, new recipes have been added to the menu because regular Cebu patrons to the restaurant kept asking, “What’s new?”

We can start with the salad and there are two new dishes: Pino’s Fiesta Salad and the Puso sa Saging. The former consists of green mangoes, fresh tomatoes, salted ducks eggs and uyap or ginamos nga hipon.

While Cebuanos do eat a side dish of green mangoes, serving fresh tomatoes are never part of tradition and when we see a group of people eating it, taga Luzon gyud na!  And my loyal readers know that eating ginamos nga hipon, most especially the commercial types (very bright red), is taboo from my diet because of an incidence of food poisoning in the past. An exception was made that day because it was home-made but it was a bit on the sweet side. 

Cooked rice has taken a new form, Java Fried Rice, with a touch of both hotness (from chili peppers) and spiciness. The recipe for this dish is a closely guarded secret of Chef Brando Perez. However, hints on how to make this delicious rice dish can be found with a recipe to make Nasi Goreng and from the website, http://www.pinoycook.net/java-rice/2/. PINO has also conjured their version of a Paella Valenciana to satisfy customers with a taste for Spanish dishes.

More work was scheduled for your favourite food columnist, tasting the Baby back ribs, Crispy Tadyang, etc., but I did have my favorite during that lunch, the 600-grams, USDA prime rib eye steak and Portobello mushrooms served with black risotto, veggies and plantain. It draws inspiration from the Peter Luger Steak House in Brooklyn, New York and satisfied customers say Peter Luger is a place that all steak lovers must visit once in their lifetime.

The only problem is that this wonderful dish was served while the sun was up and my loyal followers know that I cannot drink any alcoholic beverage before 6:00 pm (Philippine time, no excuses) and my favorite drink, Pino’s very best red wine, Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1999 merely, ouch, inches away.

Filipino cuisine draws its inspirations from the Malaysian, Indonesian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and lately American cuisines. All these foreign influences were not adopted outright, but adopted and later adjusted to fit to the native taste. And it was not only their cuisine we assimilated; look at the number of intermarriages occurring and we have American -Filipino, British-Filipino, German-Filipino, Japanese-Filipino, Korean-Filipino (and add the Filipino-Filipino, so many Filipinos, 88 million gyud ta!)

Dessert was Maja Blanca con Mais and Biko with Latik but I would rather indulge on my old favorite, Pino’s Fiesta sa Barrio (Leche Flan, Ube Halaya, and Macapuno Balls).

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