Ilonggo flavors at Mandarin Oriental

MANILA, Philippines - It’s time for the shellfish diwal to take center stage. Fresh from the waters of the Visayan region, the angel wing clam whets the appetite of diners at Mandarin Oriental Manila’s Paseo Uno.

Chef Pauline Banusing, renowned for representing Iloilo’s famous culinary scene, revisits Paseo Uno once again for a 10-day fete, highlighting the island’s seafood delicacies, particularly the famed diwal. The food festival celebrates ties between Makati City, which is celebrating its 342nd founding anniversary, and its sister city, Iloilo. Diwal and Other Ilonggo Flavors, which offers lunch and dinner, opens today until June 3.

Diners can look forward to lining up at the grilling station for the succulent diwal, managat (mangrove jack),  and talaba (large oysters from Aklan). Other Ilonggo specialties in the menu are chicken inasal, chicken tinuom (steamed chicken cooked in banana leaves), uhong na may gata (oyster mushrooms from San Miguel, Iloilo with grilled pork cooked in coconut cream), adobado na alimusan (cultured mudfish from Guimaras), kinilawin na tanigue na may tuba (slices of tanigue fish marinated in a special native vinegar from the mountains of Leon, Iloilo), lukon na may aligue (fresh prawns from Roxas City with crab fat sauce) and sinugba na lokos (grilled squid stuffed with lemongrass, cilantro, ginger and tomatoes).

Chef Pauline studied at the Culinary Institute of America, the New School and the Institute of Culinary Education. In May 2006, she had her  Mandarin Oriental debut as a featured chef at an Ilonggo food festival dubbed Manamit! at what was then the Captain’s Bar (now the MO Lounge). She had two more successful food festivals at the hotel, her most recent one being the Diwal-icious Visayas: Bounties of the Sea held in September last year.

Executive chef Rene Ottlik remarked, “We look forward to working with chef Pauline again and presenting to our diners her divine recipes of Iloilo’s prized delicacies. Having had already three successful promotions in the hotel in the past, she is no stranger to Mandarin Oriental and we are confident that she will bring excitement to Paseo Uno when she unveils the distinctive flavors of her native Visayas.”

(For reservations, call Paseo Uno at 750-8888or e-mail [email protected].)