Hapag is one of the hottest Filipino restaurants in Manila. Hapag chefs Thirdy Dolatre and John Kevin Navoa have been cooking in their Quezon City restaurant and making their countless customers very happy. Chef Don Baldosano has been doing the same for his Parañaque restaurant, Linamnam.
These three young, talented chefs represent the future Filipino superstar chefs and have collaborated for a six-hands, one-night-only Hapag x Linamnam dinner at Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar in Quezon City.
The dinner was expected to have the elements these chefs are known for: fermented, aged, and foraged ingredients. It was a Filipino dinner like no other, where they brainstormed to create a memorable meal.
Not your go-to Filipino dishes were served but unique, imaginative, and well-thought-out Filipino cuisine was prepared. We began the meal with Pan de Kalinga and Gamet (Ilocos seaweed) pandesal where the breads served with Calumpit Longganisa cream and miso brown butter, followed by a snack box filled with Nilupak na Kalabasa at Alimasag (pumpkin and blue crab), Binuro na Maya Maya sa Asin (pickled red snapper in salt), and Silog, or fried rice with egg.
These were followed by starters that included “Pansit” Pusit sa Gata, which were thin, sliced squid in the shape of noodles with coconut milk; Sinaing na Talakitok at Burong Mustasa or trevally fish with aged fat, lacto-fermented mustard-leaf wrap, reduced fish sauce and kamias (called Bilimbi in English) consommé; and Kinalas, which was beef tongue tocino with bouncy egg noodles and pork-brain gravy.
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dishes were plated individually but the main course of Esguerra Kurobuta pork (locally raised in Batangas) in mango Muscovado glaze and Tagilo (a dipping sauce made from fermented rice and freshwater fish or shrimp) with wok-fried patani (lima bean) were served at the center of the table.
Desserts included Sutukil, which is a portmanteau for sugba, or grilled; tuwa, or boil; and kil for kilaw — pickled or cooked in vinegar or citrus. The sugba was grilled banana tibok-tibok, cashew miso fudge, and cashew latik crumble; the tuwa (or tinuwa, Cebuano for tinola) was pineapple coconut water and seaweed stew, pineapple coconut scoby “nata,” and the kilaw was pickled summer melon.
Also served were Tisa, or eggfruit, a seasonal local fruit that usually is available during summer, and Batirol at Gatas, a dark-chocolate dessert infused with cacao nibs and red bean miso.
It was an incredible meal by these three talented men. Take note of their names or better yet, go to their restaurants and see what their food is all about. The hype is real!
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Hapag is located at 201 Katipunan Avenue, Project 4, Quezon City. Email hello@hapagmn.com or call (0919) 4306144 for inquiries or reservations. Linamnam is located at 31 Greenvale 2, Parañaque City. Call (0917) 5730246 for inquiries or reservations.
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