These restaurants are quickly stepping up as the region’s next hottest dining destinations
Gaggan may have taken the crown again at the 2018 edition of Asia’s 50 Best awards ceremony, making it the fourth year running the Bangkok restaurant is at the top of the list. But the restaurant and chef that was at the centre of media attention was Toyo Eatery in Manila, helmed by chef-owner Jordy Navarra, who bagged the ‘Miele One To Watch Award’ for Asia.
Although barely two years old, the 50-seat establishment, tucked in a corner of Chino Roces Avenue in Makati, has quickly become one of Manila’s top favourite restaurants, serving refined Filipino dishes prepared with local ingredients and traditional cooking methods. For the longest time, Filipino food has been described as comfort fare that is best appreciated in people’s houses, cooked by a loving grandmother, but chef Navarra, who cut his teeth at top restaurants like Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck, UK, and Alvin Leung’s three-starred Bo Innovation in Hong Kong, has showed that it could be that and more—that Filipino food, like French or Japanese cuisine, is capable of abstraction and complexity.
One of his signature dishes is pork barbecue, a popular street food that practically every Filipino has grown up with. At Toyo, he elevates the dish by using three cuts of pork (shoulder, belly and butt), layered together to play on flavours and textures before skewering and cooking the meat over charcoal and wood, finishing it in pork bone broth in a process that takes about 12 hours. The end result is refined and spectacular.
Now, with the award under his belt, chef Navarra is set to fly the flag for Filipino cuisine on the international stage.
Denne historien er fra July/August 2018-utgaven av WINE&DINE.
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Denne historien er fra July/August 2018-utgaven av WINE&DINE.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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New Blood
The next-generation is breathing new life into the forgotten art of spice-mixing, peppering the traditional trade with renewed ideas and fresh perspectives.
Sharing Is Caring
Compared to its flagship at Serene Centre, Fat Belly Social at Boon Tat Street is a classier and bolder affair, in more than one sense.
Nutmeg's Role In Singapore's History
From tales of it being used to ward off the plague in mid-1300s Europe to one of the ingredients in dessert, we have all known, tasted, or at least heard of nutmeg. But not many know of the spice’s role in Singapore’s history.
New And Improved
The ever-profound chef-owner Kenjiro ‘Hatch’ Hashida finds more room, three to be exact, to express a Ha Ri philosophy at Hashida Singapore’s new location at Amoy Street.
Pairing Spice-Driven Cuisines With Wine
Pairing spice-driven cuisines with wine has long been a challenge but with a little imagination, it doesn’t have to be.
Let Land Grow Wild
Niew Tai-Ran has worn many hats: aeronautical engineering major, investment banker, avid surfer, and, for the last 14 years, winemaker. Discover how this Malaysia-born, Singapore-native is championing the “do-nothing farming” philosophy at his vineyard in Oregon.
The South Asian Misnomer
Incredibly diverse and varied than most know, Indian food is far more intriguing than butter chicken or thosai. Here is a crash course on the extensive cuisine from region to region, recognisable for the seemingly infinite ways of using spices.
Keepers Of The Spice Trade
From its glory days along trade routes to pantry staples all over the world, spices have become so commonplace that we’ve taken them for granted. For these three trailblazers, however, spice is their livelihood and motivation: Langit Collective working with indigenous rural farming communities in Malaysia; IDH’s Sustainable Spice Initiative; and chef Nak’s one-woman mission to share forgotten Khmer cuisine.
Sugar, Spice And Everything Nice
Like food, spices bring vibrancy and variety to alcoholic beverages. Surfacing in unexpected ways on the palate, find everything from cumin to tamarind, cloves to cardamom enriching these drinks.
Building Blocks From The Archipelago
For the smorgasbord of dishes found in Indonesian cuisine, it is a little known secret that the modest bumbu, in all its variants, is the bedrock of such flavourful fare.
