Too Early for Independence: Filipino Food Cooking Class in MOA's Sarsa

- June 6, 2015, Saturday.

- As the Philippine Independence Day approaches (in case you're not Filipino, it's on June 12th,) a one-afternoon Filipino-food cooking class was organized in SM Mall of Asia's Sarsa restaurant at 2pm. The event was organized by ABS-CBN's Food Magazine, and is the second cooking-demo class  in the series of demo cooking classes called "Food Tastings." The first cooking class was a pizza-and-pasta cooking class held in Project Pie just this March (click here to read about it.) 

- One of the perks of being close friends with a known food blogger is the opportunity to tag along when the food-blogger friend is invited to events. My friend Clarisse, a.k.a. "The Tummy Train" (click here for her food blog) asked me to accompany her for the fifth time to yet another one of her food-blogger invites-only events (these events usually allow the blogger to tag along one or two companions.) This time, we were able to attend the event with her equally talented blogger brother, Jason, a.k.a. "The Dapper Drone" (click here for his fashion blog.)

This says it all.

The Tummy Train: one of the official media partners of Food Tastings.

They really are siblings.

- The cooking demo class started promptly, after a short introduction by Abby Pel, associate publisher of ABS-CBN Publihing, Inc. Afterwards, celebrity chef Sharwin Tee was introduced. Chef Sharwin was the winner of the Lifestyle Channel show "Clash of the Toquen Ones" in 2010; runner-up Portia Baluyut was our celebrity chef "teacher" during the first Food Tastings event in Project Pie (link found in the first paragraph.) Chef Sharwin has his own show called "Curiosity Got the Chef," and has his own restaurant in San Juan called "The Quirky Bacon." This well-humored Canada-trained chef is known for reinventing, reinterpreting, and (sometimes) deconstructing the usual dishes. His style is very much apparent in the food he prepares in his show, or in his restaurant. For the demo class, Chef Sharwin prepared a dish called "BB," which he states, is subject to our own interpretation. BB is a burger with a binagoongang baboy patty. (For those not familiar, binagoongang baboy is a type of Filipino dish made from pork and the local fish sauce called "bagoong.") The binagoongang baboy patty is complemented by the subtle sweetness of the roasted eggplant mash, and the sour-spicy picked peppers. Everything is assembled inside two halves of pan de sal (typical Philippine bread, literally "bread of salt.")

Abby Pel, from ABS-CBN Publishing, Inc.

Hello Chef Sharwin!!

Mixing ingredients.

This is one awesome burger.

See my face?? 

And yes, Chef Sharwin personally prepared all the burgers distributed to us. Fortunately, I was one of the first people served.

And this was the only reason why I hung out near the kitchen. Haha. Patience is a virtue.

- After eating the umami-filled BBs, Pepper.ph chef and food stylist Katherine Jao gave some pointers on how to style Filipino dishes. She noted that while Filipino dishes are delicious and packed with flavor, Filipino dishes are usually full of sauce or gravy, and so the dishes may not look appetizing at first glance. Chef Katherine said that adding color to the dishes such as vegetable garnishes, or playing with texture are basic tips in styling Filipino dishes. (While she was teaching us, I was enjoying a plate of Sarsa's crispy buko pie a la mode. I ordered this separately; this was not part of the free samples in the cooking class.)

Chef Katherine and her nice apron.

She kinda looks like a Fil-Chi version of Anna Kendrick, no?? Haha.

Sarsa's crispy buko pie with vanilla ice cream.

Chef Anna Kendrick, I mean, Chef Katherine's styled Filipino food.

During the open forum.

- Finally, Sarsa's very own Chef JP Anglo cooked the last three dishes of the cooking class. Chef JP first made pancit canton with pork leg (stir-fried noodles.) The ingredients were mostly similar to the typical pancit canton, only that the noodles were cooked with coconut milk (gata,) making the noodle dish more aromatic and richer.

Chef JP.

My super selfie skills. My 2 companions were shy to take a photo with Chef Sharwin. This one's blurred though, but I kept it since Chef Sharwin is smiling in this photo.

Here's a clearer photo, but no smiling chef.

With Chef JP's pancit canton.

- The next dish he cooked was baked lapu-lapu with Pinoy sambal. To be honest, I did not find the dish unique, although it tasted good, and was very moist and aromatic. I initially thought that the samples were going to be served to us as with the other dishes, but in this case, the one plate that the chef prepared was meant to be shared by all the participants. That, of course, meant not having enough fish for everyone. By the time I realized that we had to go to the counter and serve ourselves, The other participants seemed to be having a fork war over the fish, and I was left with a microscopic piece of fish, and a cherry tomato and some sambal on the side. I tried to pretend it was a molecular-gastonomic dish, as my plate seemed to look like one.

Fork wars of other participants. I just stood and took a photo.

This is all I'm left with. A morsel.

- For Chef JP's last dish, he made sinuglaw, a two-component dish comprised of sinugba (grilled seasoned pork belly) and the kinilaw (Filipino marinated sashimi.) While the sinugba was not out of the ordinary (yummy though,) Chef JP noted that the real way of eating kinilaw is not to marinade the fish in the vinegar, like what most do, but the "right" way was to serve the fish raw, and use the vinegar as a sauce on the side (like how sashimi and soy sauce go together in Japanese cuisine.) As I learned my lesson from the previous dish, I was the first in line to get my fish and pork, Since I was a very good friend, I got fish pieces and pork slices for both Clarisse and Jason as well. I left all the other participants to have another round of fork wars after my victorious exit from the counter.

Chef JP's sinuglaw. Took a photo and prepared my fork. *Victory laugh.*

- After eating and the thank-yous from the organizers, Datu Puti, a sponsor, was kind enough to give each of the participants a bag of full-sized Datu-Puti goods (vinegar, soy sauce, fish sauce, you name it; it was a heavy heavy bag.) Since we finished earlier than scheduled, the three of us were able to walk around MOA before going home. I had another tummy-filled afternoon, thanks to Clarisse (visit her food blog, click here.)

Thank you Food Magazine (and Sarsa)!!

And thank youuuuuuuuuuu Datu Puti!! :D:D:D:D