Mealtime in Manila

Creative young chefs are making the Philippine capital Asia's new culinary hot spot.

- Chadner Navarro

ON MY FIRST VISIT to Toyo Eatery (tasting menu $95), the fine-dining restaurant in Makatione of the 16 cities that make up Manila's larger metro area-it had just been recognized on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list. I'd heard of chef Jordy Navarra's whimsical takes on classic Filipino dishes, and it didn't take long for him to make good on this reputation and transport me to my childhood in Manila.

For the salad course, Navarra created a dish in which dehydrated eggplant "ash," meant to mimic soil, was crowned with layers of 18 different farm-fresh plants, including peanuts, ginger, tomatoes, and green beans. These were the very same ingredients that I, along with all Filipino children, sang about in the folk song "Bahay Kubo," which means "stilt house" in the Tagalog language and describes a modest home surrounded by a fertile garden in which anything can grow. I almost asked my server to join me in singing a few lines. But while this reference point is familiar to every Filipino, the dish itself was entirely new. A mosaic of textures created by an unexpected mix of ingredients, the Bahay Kubo salad has become a Navarra trademark.

That was 2018. "No one was really doing what we were doing here in Manila," Navarra said of the dining scene six years ago. A lot has changed since then, both for Toyo Eatery and the Philippine capital overall. The Bahay Kubo salad is no longer available, but another signature dish on Navarra's ever-evolving menu is sabaw at mais (broth and corn), which combines a rich, plant-based stock made mostly from vegetable trimmings, subtly sweet corn from the Quezon province, and asin tultul, an unusual rock salt seasoned with coconut milk from Guimaras Island. This is Navarra's more focused vision for Toyo Eatery: dishes that "introduce the different farmers we work with, along with a flavor profile of the Philippine terroir."