What do you miss most on the food/drink front when you are away from the Philippines or haven’t been back for a while?

I miss being able to prepare daily meals directly from the palengke to our kusina. Whenever we go home to the Philippines, part of that time is always spent in my parents’ home province of Bataan. My dad is from Orion, while my mum grew up in Balanga, the provincial capital city. 

I guess my appreciation for food and fare that comes straight from the paddock to plate, and sea to servings originate from my parents’ upbringing. My mum’s youthful stint at the butcher shop meant that she enjoyed cooking all things pork, while dad’s youthful fishing endeavours explains his love for all things seafood. Their relationship was the classic pairing of surf and turf. It was a marriage between the “boy from Orion” and the “girl from Balanga”. So our family feasts, both now and in the past, always aim to have a sari-sari of fresh produce from both land and sea. 

What is the first dish you want to eat when you return, and where do you go for it?

I can’t wait to visit the Balanga Public Market and purchase a selection of the tinapa and tuyo. I just recently found out that Bataan has one of the best tinapa varieties in the country, and is always requested by my hubby’s Manila-based relatives to bring back to them as pasalubong when we head back from the probinsya to the city.

I swear, whilst Australians love their avo on toast, nothing beats a Filipino breakfast of sinangag, kamatis with itlog na maalat and tinapa. Eating a big breakfast like this back in the Motherland is like getting a warm hug from my Mama, the Bataeño I miss most, where I always feel extra close to her memories when we are “home”.

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Do you have a favourite restaurant in the Philippines? For fine dining and for more casual experiences?

The last time I was in the Philippines, I had the pleasure of dining out at Toyo Eatery, under the creative helm of Chef Jordy Navarra and Chef JP Cruz. Their ability to recreate Filipino comfort food staples like silog and offer it in a creative, yet familiar fashion, was an absolute treat. So much so that we invited both Chef Jordy and Chef JP to be part of The Entree.Pinays’ Barrio, our debut event series for Melbourne Food and Wine 2019, which was a sold-out success. A Filipino food celebration on a scale unseen in the festival’s 26-year history. 

During lockdowns, we also invited Chef Jordy and Chef JP to be part of our In my Kusina cooking show, a segment focused on celebrating Filipino cuisine and cooking techniques across our global diaspora. We were lucky enough to have the Toyo team showcase how to make their BBQ-silog, a bilao meal of pork BBQ, sinangag (garlic fried rice), prawn spring rolls, and atchara (pickled green papaya).

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Do you have a favourite bar and/or café in the Philippines?

I absolutely love Wildflour Café and Bakery. I have such a culinary crush on Margarita Lorenzana-Manzke, who is also the James Beard-shortlisted baker behind the buzzy brunch-to-dinner L.A. concept République, also a paborito of mine. Los Angeles is the other city that I call home, having spent 10 years of my formative years as a young professional in Los Angeles—the city I fell in love with, met my husband Rodney, had our first child Julian and where we bought our first home together.

As an Aussie-Filipino-American, I always feel like I am home when I step into either Wildflour in Manila, or République in Los Angeles. Their bakery bench never disappoints and is a beautiful display of the delicious abundance of what it means to grow up as a third culture kid. Where else would you find classics like chocolate chip cookies and the almond brown butter cake, and see bakes thrown in as a tribute or two to Philippine cuisine, most notably Wildflour’s amazing buko pie? But the best culinary find for me at Wildflour was the polvoron-in-a-jar. It has since inspired me to package my Sweet Cora’s cornflake polvorón in that way. Whether you are a traditionalist or modernist in the packaging options, when I make polvoron, I always remember what my Mama said, “It’s what’s on the inside that counts.”

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Any other must-visit food/drink spots when you are back?

Next time I am back in the Philippines, I cannot wait to go on a market tour with Chef Isi Laureano and kaibigan, Cathie Carpio, who are both Philippines-based advocates of culture and food. Most notably, Cathie has been an amazing ally and supporter of our efforts as The Entree.Pinays, and continuously challenges us to not over generalise Filipino cuisine. In Cathie’s words: “Our diversity must be celebrated, and reductionist attempts will get in the way of that.”

Also, one of the many reasons to hang out with these two is that both are renowned to be great drinkers and friends of the hospitality industry in Manila. I’m sure that it won’t take long for me to be well acquainted with the must-visit drink spots in Manila with these two showing me around (hopefully, sans the kids).

Do you take any food or treats back home with you from the Philippines?

I definitely love bringing home lots of vacuumed sealed bags of tinapa and tuyo from Balanga Public Market. Enough to fill our freezer for at least a month’s worth of traditional Filipino breakfasts and any leftovers being added to my palabok espeysal recipe. Tuyo and tinapa are such a favourite pasalubong for many of those who come to visit Bataan, that there are stallholders in the market who are dedicated to the packing and vacuum sealing services. The stallholders know when you are a balikbayan when you visit their stall with at least 10 kilograms worth of these seafood delicacies. Of course, since I am a sweet tooth, I also love bringing back packages of boat tarts and pastillas from Michell’s Cakes & Pastries.

Where do you go to find authentic flavours of home where you live?

The Filipino food movement has gained a lot of traction [in Melbourne], empowered by our advocacy and community work, and the pawis equity that these Australian-Filipinos operators—both old and new—have put into celebrating the authentic flavours of home. We’re seeing seasoned chefs like Ross Magnaye, Migo Razon, and Rosheen Kaul featuring Filipino flavours on menus, exciting popups like Lutong Lupa, 23 John Street, and Boba Bar Melbourne, and the opening of new establishments by a wave of next-gen enterprising Filipino-Australians like the Lawang brothers of Pecks Road, Melo Malazarte of Migrant Coffee and Janine Barican-Le of Chibog. Both Migrant Coffee and Chibog are located on Barkly St, West Footscray, which represents two great reasons to visit this restaurant row on the westside!

Being a lover of all things baked, I also love knowing that the western suburbs of Melbourne continue to be the hub for Filipino baked treats. And there's one suburb in Melbourne that's consistently mentioned: Braybrook. It is home to two of my paboritong pananderyas, Masarap Bakery and PapaBear BakeHouse. Both are tucked into a strip of shops in Braybrook, busily operating seven days a week, filling paper bags with hot pan de sal, the sweet, salty and fluffy rolls that signal the start of the day, or perhaps a couple of ensaymada, coils of cheese-topped bread that are brushed with a sweet glaze. Violet-coloured ube cakes and steamed siopao (pork buns) round things out.

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