Airline executive is a foodie

We sat beside Avelino Zapanta, president of Philippine Airlines, at the recent launch of the national carrier’s "Second Food Festival in the Sky" and discovered a happy foodie, who inspite of the varied cuisines he is exposed to still relishes home cooked dishes, specially those from his native town, Taytay, Rizal.

We found much in common with him, like our delight in the lowly ayungin and the treasures of the Laguna waters, the tigite (small kandule) and the now getting-to-be rare biya. Taytay, blessed with the bounty of the bay surrounding it, had until this day been known to us only via the small restaurant called Pawid to which we drove in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s for their fresh water fish dishes. From Mr. Zapanta, we discovered more of its indigenous cuisine that includes the bererengket, the tinadtad and the pinugutan, all still being cooked in homes like that of Mr. Zapanta. Bererengket is a dish made of small ayungin (the really tiny ones like dilis), dried (on rooftops, mostly), then cooked in sampaloc blossoms. The tinadtad is chopped shrimps done with the juice of kamias and onions. The pinugutan is likewise shrimps whose heads have been cut and pounded for its juice then combined with guava, much like the binayabasan (crabs) of Biñan. There was talk as well of more local food and drinks, like the ukaw, which is suman from Kalibo, made of ubod and panocha, the banana and mango (leaves) tea.

Which brings us to the food in focus, the menu which is now being served on selected international flights of PAL. We have always looked forward to their breakfast fare, our favorite daing na bangus with sinangag. Today, passengers are likely to be served suam na hipon with corn kernels and noodles, crispy steak with adobo sauce, stuffed ampalaya, bistek tanguingue and chicken arroz caldo. Plus frutas and an assortment of himagas (desserts), all during the 2nd Food Festival in the Sky, which the airline is undertaking in cooperation with the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (citem).

Now why would citem be involved in in-flight food? We welcome this joint project, because like many culinary folk in the country, we have lamented the fact that against Japanese and Thai food, Filipino cuisine has not quite ‘arrived’ internationally. With this project, an awareness of our food would be created among passengers/visitors to the country, which might lead to bigger endeavors in the area of food.

The festival is on its second year. The successful first had Glenda Barretto as guest chef and this year, PAL Executive Chef John Hollands and his crew of Filipinos, working with popular Gene Gonzales, produced an extensive menu that will certainly whet the appetite of the traveling public. Chef Gene has worked for what he terms Alta Cucina Filipina for the last 18 years, courting the international palette. He might just place the Philippines prominently on the world culinary map with this present undertaking.

Our crusade to promote less-known regional food will be given a boost when we conduct a series of cooking demonstrations at Nestle’s Julius Maggi kitchen at the Rockwell Center. This starts on Tuesday, 17th July and will go on for two weeks, every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 2 pm. Biñan cooking will be given a new dimension with the use of products like the Maggi shrimp cubes for Laguna lumpia, Maggi classic seasoning for the sauce and Carnation milk for the afritada and matamis na saging. We will also be giving away some ‘secrets’.

Another friend from the hotel industry, Ed Valenciano, called us not so long ago and gave us a recipe native to the Ilocanos, his own version of dinengdeng. He uses a particular shell called tulemem cooked with fronds of sili leaves, native shallots and young corn, sauted with onions after cooking the shells to which the broth is added. You can use olive oil, if you want an international flavor to it.

We plan to visit the Super Tiangge which opened recently at the Livelihood Arcade and Food Court on East Avenue in Quezon City. We gather the food merchants include those selling the original Dagupan bangus from Bonoan, ulo-ulo, Tin-tin Hong Kong style chicken, Chinese and German (?) pizzas.