Southern Living: 2017 October by Hinge Inquirer Publications

October 2017 Volume 12 | Issue 02

ESSENTIALS

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16 COVER STORY Josh Boutwood takes on a culinary challenge

FEATURE

The basics of beer from a craft brewer

Cover photo by Sonny Thakur 22 EATS The Pinoy salad bowl is set to conquer lunch

OCTOBER 2017 04 FIXTURE Local lore’s lesser-known monsters

26 RECIPE Low-carb pasta assembled from two ingredients

08 HEALTH Gemstones for spiritual healing

28 THE GET Additive-free cheese spreads

EDITOR’S NOTE Chaos Whenever there’s chaos, we miss the semblance of order. Yet it is also through chaos that man often finds himself at his most creative, most resilient, and most resourceful; Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom The Bells Toll, for example, stemmed from his own experiences during the anarchy of the Spanish Civil War. Chaos leads us to realize deep-seeded issues that were right under our noses, but veiled by the mask of the mainstream. Look at the

hostility of the New People’s Army, which opened our eyes to the peasant revolution against abusive landlords. Chaos is an essential trigger, first, to emotions, then to critical thinking. In this issue, we discover sensibilities: what it takes to make us feel. For some, it is rebellion in the kitchen, translated into something for the palate. To others, it is the monster figures from our past. And to a few, it is the riot of brewing liquid gold.

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ONLINE

SOUTHERN living

A SEAT AT THE TABLE

GROUP PUBLISHER BEA J. LEDESMA ASSOCIATE MANAGING EDITOR BEA CELDRAN ASSOCIATE EDITOR ALYOSHA J. ROBILLOS ONLINE ASSOCIATE EDITOR PAULINE MIRANDA EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS OLIVER EMOCLING, BEA LLAGAS, YAZHMIN MALAJITO, ANTHEA REYES CREATIVE DIRECTOR NIMU MUALLAM ART DIRECTOR EDRIC DELA ROSA ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR DANICA CONDEZ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER AND VIDEOGRAPHER PATRICK SEGOVIA, NICCOLLO SANTOS INTERN JV DELA CRUZ, LEAH MARCELO

Set your table like there’s always a feast

CONTRIBUTORS WRITERS SARAH ARROGANTE, JACQUE DE BORJA, BELLE O. MAPA PHOTOGRAPHERS SARAH ARROGANTE, SONNY THAKUR ILLUSTRATOR JP PINING STYLIST SARAH ARROGANTE HAIR AND MAKEUP CATS DEL ROSARIO COPY EDITOR SEPTEMBER GRACE MAHINO PROOFREADER TISHA RAMIREZ EDITORIAL CONSULTANT RIA FRANCISCO-PRIETO BOARD CHAIRPERSON ALEXANDRA PRIETO-ROMUALDEZ FINANCE ADVISOR AND TREASURER J. FERDINAND DE LUZURIAGA LEGAL ADVISOR ATTY. RUDYARD ARBOLADO HR STRATEGY HEAD RAYMUND SOBERANO VP AND CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER IMELDA ALCANTARA SVP AND GROUP SALES HEAD FELIPE R. OLARTE AVP FOR SALES MA. KATRINA MAE GARCIA-DALUSONG HEAD OF OPERATIONS AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT LURISA VILLANUEVA KEY ACCOUNTS SUPERVISOR ANGELITA TAN-IBAÑEZ SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES CHARM BANZUELO, ABBY GINAGA, LIZA JISON, THEA ORDIALES ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE ANDIE ZUÑIGA SALES SUPPORT ASSISTANTS RECHELLE ENDOZO, MANILYN ILUMIN ASSOCIATE MANAGING EDITOR PAM BROOKE CASIN EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS SHARM DE SAN JOSE, KRYZETTE PAPAGAYO, CHRISTELLE TOLISORA SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES SHANNA MALING, SARAH CABALATUNGAN ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE INA MATEO SENIOR GRAPHIC ARTIST JAYCELINE SORIANO GRAPHIC ARTISTS CHEE FLORES, NICO ORTIGOZA, KRISTINE PAZ PRODUCTION MANAGER JAN CARIQUITAN PRODUCTION ASSISTANT MARICEL GAVINO FINAL ART SUPERVISOR DENNIS CRUZ FA ARTIST ARGYL LEONES MARKETING AND EVENTS MANAGER JELLIC TAPIA TRADE MARKETING SUPERVISOR BIANCA DALUMPINES BRAND MARKETING SUPERVISOR MA. INA RODRIGUEZ BRAND MARKETING ASSISTANT NICOLE USON EVENTS ASSISTANT MERJORIE YOUNG SENIOR GRAPHIC ARTIST ROI DE CASTRO

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FIND SOUTHERN LIVING AT STARBUCKS COFFEE, THE MANILA PENINSULA, ALABANG COUNTRY CLUB, HEIMA, DUSIT THANI HOTEL, AYALA MUSEUM, AND FULLY BOOKED.

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NEIGHBORHOO The forgotten creatures of Philippine mythology TEXT ANTHEA REYES ILLUSTRATION JP PINING

Before Shake, Rattle & Roll and La Luna Sangre, before Jessica Soho and Noli de Castro’s Halloween specials, before Buzzfeed listicles and the carefully crafted creature profiles on The Aswang Project website, stories of the odd and the terrible creatures of midnight were passed on through word of mouth. Their tales weren’t exclusively told during Halloween, either. Before mainstream media adopted the kapre, the tikbalang, and the manananggal for their annual Halloween scare fix, stories about them have been told by parents to simultaneously incite fear and wonder in their kids: passed on by fathers to their sons, carried on like heirloom pieces, a sliver of the mystical to spice up otherwise ordinary lives. For example, in my home province of Batangas, I would watch the storytelling of these myths in person.

My father and his childhood friends would sit on makeshift benches, armed with plastic drinking glasses and several bottles of Ginebra, and retell tall tales of their grandfather’s father seeing a man transform into a wolf while perched on a tree during a late night game of hide and seek. They’d share stories heard from the friend of a neighbor of a family friend about that old house along that street where skeletons would dance at midnight. These are the kinds of setups that brought to life the much more colorful, feral, terrifying, and morbidly imaginative creatures of Filipino mythology that mainstream media has neglected. Here are a handful of the ones that have somehow slipped through popular culture’s radar.

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HOOD FIENDS Danag Contrary to popular belief, there is a Filipino counterpart to vampires, and it’s not the popular manananggal or the widely misinterpreted aswang. Before Dracula and Lestat, the Isneg people of the Apayao province were already telling tales of the Danag folk. The Danag were believed to be almostgods who once lived in harmony with humans. They helped the Isneg plant their crops, until an accident happened one day. A local cut their finger on a sharp object and one of the Danag politely offered to suck on the wound to ease the pain. But the Danag found the taste of the blood so sweet that he drained the local dry. After the incident, the Danag folk stopped planting crops with humans and began hunting them instead. Dalakitnon The name Dalakitnon means “those who live in the Balete tree” in Waray. It’s believed that these enchanted folk look like beautiful men and women with their great height, fair skin, and brown fine hair, but minus the philtrum. They seduce people into their

home with treasures, delicious food, and all the finest things in life. In some versions of the folktale, those who ask to leave are offered a meal of black rice that will trap them in the Dalakitnon’s abode forever. In other versions, they will entertain and play house with their visitors until they get bored of them, then cast them out with no means of returning home or being found ever again. Victims end up going mad trying to return to their paradise. Bungisngis The Bungisngis is essentially the Filipino Cyclops counterpart. A giant known for its appetite for human flesh, its name derives from the Tagalog word ngisi which means “to show the teeth” or “to grin.” The story of the Bungisngis originates from Batangas. According to the tale, a monkey, a carabao, and a dog once went to hunt for food. When the carabao stopped to rest and cook his catch, the Bungisngis saw the smoke from the carabao’s fire pit and attacked the animal to get to the food. The giant was so strong, he picked up the carabao and threw it into the ground, where it sunk knee-deep.

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Aside from its singular eye, the Bungisngis is said to have an upper lip so wide that it hangs over two fangs as big as an elephant’s tusk. They say it could even cover the monster’s entire face when stretched. Mantiw The Mantiw of Iloilo, Panay isn’t as malicious as the rest of the creatures in this roster. They’re 30-foot forest spirits described as having fair skin, broad shoulders, and hooked noses. They’re also known for their uncanny likeness to the coconut tree and their habit of whistling while walking through the forest. Most of the time, an encounter with this forest spirit is harmless. If you try to whistle or sing along with it though, it will get offended, pick you up from the ground, and leave you atop a coconut tree with no means of descent.

Thalon The Thalon is best described as a backwards humanoid dog that originated from Zamboanga del Sur. Its body is distorted-looking—like a man on all fours, except its stomach is facing up, its backside in the front, and its four feet facing backwards. There are two variations to this creature, depending on its sex. A male Thalon, called the Mhenamad Thalon, creeps up on foreigners and non-locals only to scare them, without doing any further harm. As it is a cowardly creature, one only has to shout or taunt the Mhenamad Thalon into a fight to scare it off. Its female counterpart, however, isn’t as harmless. The Thamad Thalon actually hunts to eat. When it’s on your trail, you will hear a woman’s screech as if from afar, as a warning. By the time you hear it, you can only try to outrun the she-beast in hopes of surviving.

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LOVE STONED The life-changing magic of healing crystals TEXT BELLE O. MAPA PHOTOGRAPHY LEAH MARCELO

Formed by the earth millions of years ago, crystals have an extraordinary ability to absorb, emit, and amplify the energies around us, making them powerful tools in the pursuit of health and wellness. Healing stones are where geology and mysticism intersect, and it was this almost empirical grounding that drew me, an analytic Virgo, towards them. During a day trip to the Dandenong Ranges in Australia one summer, I happened by a quaint mystic shop just around the corner of the town square. Mahogany tables were scattered around the room, cluttered with bowls of stones in every color imaginable. Some seemed to call out to me, feeling warmer or cooler than the rest. Those were the ones I

picked out, the first in my growing collection. I’ve always believed in energies guiding us throughout our paths in life. At the time, I was desperately looking to treat an artist’s block that had been plaguing me for the past year. The heavily shawled lady at the counter said my aura was blocked by so many negative energies. She said carrying the stones in a little pouch with me everywhere I go would help. True enough, though my pockets are weighed with tiny crystals, I feel lighter than when I’m without them. Their colors inspire me not only to believe I am worthy of good energy but also to strive toward enlightenment and creativity.

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HEALT H What I have Lava. This porous stone is cool to the touch, with little specks that sparkle sometimes in the light. Its texture calms me whenever I feel fidgety. As it was forged by the very fires of the earth, it symbolizes raw creativity and letting go of the past. Black obsidian. Most dark stones are good guardians against depression. Black obsidian is also formed from lava, a kind of volcanic glass. It’s the stone of truth, impenetrable by light, that brings mysteries to the surface. It emits a soft, warm pull of energy that gives me clarity. Pyrite. Pyrite shines almost like metal and is the heaviest stone in my collection so far. Many stones aren’t refined but rather found in clusters, which are powerful emitters of prosperous energy. It’s a masculine stone that relieves pressure by deflecting negative energy. Orange calcite. I love how playful this stone feels. Orange calcite is translucent but gives off a warm glow and reflects so beautifully in the sunlight. I use this when I feel my anxiety rising. It’s a happy crystal that balances Good stones for starters emotions and, most importantly, overcomes fear. There are hundreds of beautiful stones and crystals out Dragon’s blood jasper. Exquisitely colored green and there, each with unique mineral and energetic properties burnt brown by nature, this stone was believed in the that align with certain aspects of your mind, body, and ancient times to be a fossil of deceased dragons. It spirit. It all depends on your personal intentions, but stands for rebirth and transformation, for giving up old there are common stones that are good for both your budget and your well-being. and dated ways of doing and being. Amethyst and rose quartz are good for starters. Black tourmaline, one of the most powerful Amethyst. Amethyst isn’t just calming to the sight; it also rids a room of negative energy. This crystal is protective stones, transforms dense, negative energy connected to the chakra of the third eye, so it’s a spiritual into a lighter vibration. Labradorite, also protective of negative energy, healer, good for meditation and treating addictions and insomnia. I keep it under my pillow sometimes at night. stimulates the imagination and enhances intuition. Another is citrine, associated with creativity and Rose quartz. The stone of love gives off a charming and wealth that boosts self-esteem. Finally, clear quartz, an amplifier of energy, can affectionate energy. Its baby pink glow tells me I am worthy of love. The pendulum helps me re-center my enhance your stones and grant you clarity. It’s also important to cleanse your stones; think of mind; I hold it in front of me until it stops swinging. it as recharging their batteries. There are different methods but the most common are bathing your stones in incense smoke, sunlight, moonlight, or rainwater. I would, however, avoid the rain bath in Metro Manila, as there could be acids that will damage your stones. The simplest approach, though, is to soak the stones in a clear glass bowl filled with water and sea salt. Where to get your stones Accessory Lab. 2F Power Plant Mall, Makati City. shopaccessorylab.com Indigo Crystals. Commerce Ave., Alabang, Muntinlupa City. Facebook.com/indigocrystalsph World of Feng Shui. GF Serendra Piazza, McKinley Parkway, Fort Bonifacio, BGC

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FEAT URE

BREWMASTER Engkanto Brewery gives a crash course on making beer TEXT BEA CELDRAN PHOTOGRAPHY PATRICK SEGOVIA

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FEAT URE “It’s actually not a skull. It’s a death’s-head moth and has what looks like a skull on its body,” Ian Paradies, owner and founder of Engkanto Brewery, tells us of his company’s moth logo that sports a cranium-like symbol on its posterior. For what seems to be the drink of choice of many Filipinos, a beer that uses a moth as a symbol can be confusing. So let’s elaborate. Hailing from Cebu, Paradies grew up hearing about local folklore and mysticism, and early on, he became fascinated with the idea of superstition as a culture. “[It’s] kind of bringing Filipinos back to that idea: the mysticism, the folklore, the superstition, [and] the fact that those beliefs change over generations. With millennials, they may not be as familiar with those beliefs from a national standpoint as the older generations are. How those beliefs evolved is kind of similar to what we’re trying to do with beer: to take Filipinos from what beer was—mainly commercial beer—to what beer can and should be, which is what craft beer is.” And with moths and even butterflies serving as superstitious symbols in local culture, Paradies put two and two together and created a label that not only had countless marketing opportunities, but also became a relatable allusion to the craft beer industry. “With the life cycle of the moth and butterfly, the transformation is so clear; we felt it matched what Engkanto represents. Engkanto is a mythical creature, almost a fairy-type, that casts enchantment and is protective over nature. Even from a marketing standpoint, there’s so much

you can do with local folklore. We wanted to give it a modern spin.” With October being embraced worldwide as an unapologetic month-long ode to beer, Engkanto Brewery shows us the gist of brewing the golden ale. Ingredients and types: There are essentially four ingredients in brewing beer: water, grains (barley, oats, wheat, etc.), hops, and yeast. Engkanto has four flagship brews that revolve around these ingredients in varying levels and strains. With four ales and one lager, the brewery is continuously experimenting on creating new variants, such as stouts and more seasonal beers. Lager. Has an alcohol by volume (ABV) of 4.5 percent and is the lightest and crispest of them all. A crowd favorite. Blond Ale. Has an ABV of 5 percent and surprisingly has bitter notes that reveal itself after the initial sweetness. Pale Ale. Has an ABV of 6 percent and is in the middle ground of bitterness and sweetness. A bit heavier on the stomach. IPA. Has an ABV of 7 percent and is quite bitter on the palate. An acquired taste for those used to local commercial beer. Double IPA. Has a whopping ABV of 8.5 percent and is very bitter. Has a dry mouth feel so be ready with your water.

Ian Paradies inspects one of the vats along the brewing process.

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Procedure While most beer lovers are better at consuming the product, Paradies expanded his devotion to beer by venturing into creating his own brew. “I had two conditions [for my beer]: One, it was going to be a local brand and come from a local brewery. I wasn’t willing to bring a foreign brand in. Two, we were going to create recipes from scratch to cater to the Filipino palate. I’ve learned to appreciate bitterness in beers over the years, but Filipinos in general don’t like bitter. We like sweet and we like sour.”

aside from the bitterness they provide, also give the beer its aroma, taste, and foam. 3. Cooling Pipes of rushing, freezing water run adjacent the pipes of the brew, cooling the solution down. During the cooling process, the solution goes through a whirlpool, much like an underwater centrifuge, which drops any particulates.

4. Fermentation Yeast is pitched into the tank, which then starts to eat the sugars to create the alcohol. Different beers have varying Pre-brewing: fermentation periods: ales take two to three weeks while In a “dry room,” grains are milled or ground fresh before lagers take four to six weeks. they’re sent off to be used in the brew. 5. Conditioning The brewing process: Also known as the “finishing” part of the process, carbon 1. Mashing and lautering dioxide is injected into the solution, which is then crashMilled grains are introduced to hot water (at a cooled then left to rest. temperature of 67 degrees Celsius) where the starch gets converted into sugar. 6. Packaging and storage After the beers are placed in their respective kegs, they are 2. Boiling brought into a cold room with a temperature between 10 The liquid extracted from the mashing process is called and 15 degrees Celsius, where they can last for three to wort and is then mixed with hops then boiled. The hops, four months.

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“How those beliefs evolved is kind of similar to what we’re trying to do with beer: to take Filipinos from what beer was—mainly commercial beer—to what beer can and should be, which is what craft beer is.”

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DETERMINATION

#NBSat75

75 Years of Inspiring Passions

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COV ER STORY

MAN FEEDS WORLD

Chef Josh Boutwood is ready to face new culinary challenges TEXT JACQUE DE BORJA PHOTOGRAPHY SONNY THAKUR

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“It’s so easy for us cooks and chefs to replicate our own flavors [under] another name or another restaurant. It’s too simple.” It was a gloomy Monday morning when we met up with chef Josh Boutwood. Our destination? Farmer’s Market, to procure the ingredients he needed for the dishes he was about to prepare. At his reservations-only restaurant The Test Kitchen, market days don’t happen every single day; usually, it falls on a Monday or even a Thursday, when stocks need to be replenished. This day, though, was a little more relaxed than usual. “Oh, I have the steaks. We don’t need a lot,” the chef reassured us. We wove in and out of the market aisles as he picked up fresh maya-maya and tuna loin as well as mustasa and cauliflower. At one point, Boutwood pinched the tip off of a produce that looked like spring onions but with a sampaguita bud on top, then passed it on to me. “Here, taste it.” With hesitation, my tongue touched the open bud and was pleasantly surprised by the faint taste of onion. “These are chai flowers, they’re a bit pungent. The tops, I add to beef or fish, while we cut the stem in half and use them to flavor oil.” For Boutwood, dishes are sometimes created sporadically, based on how inspiration comes along, but often, they’re dictated by what produce is available. For him, cooking involves understanding an ingredient’s strengths and weaknesses in order for it to be combined well with others. He follows the triangle

as his blueprint: to make use of only three ingredients per dish to avoid overcomplicating it. To layer different flavor profiles and make them more interesting, each produce is subjected to various processes: salted, roasted, cooled, creamed, and so on. “[It takes] a lot of foundation and flavor to make the dishes how they are, to make them look simple.” Back at The Test Kitchen, as he took us through the dishes, it was hard to picture him having a moment of zero creativity and enthusiasm—which did happen not too long ago. “My day job is being the executive chef of the Bistro Group, and currently we have about 70 restaurants spread across 16 brands,” he revealed. This means he has to handle the administrative side, such as training and checking service, on top of overseeing the creative side, which involves developing and conceptualizing new dishes for all 16 brands. One of them is Denny’s, the 24-hour diner that encountered issues when it first opened in Uptown Mall. There, Boutwood had picked the graveyard shift after deciding to subject himself and his team to cover shifts so that services at the newly opened restaurant would go smoothly. “I would come in at six in the evening and leave at seven the following day, and that killed me. I still had to come in at 9 a.m. for meetings.” This cycle sucked the energy out of him,

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Chef Josh Boutwoodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grilled maya-maya with mustasa

COV ER STORY

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Tenderloin, mustard leaf, and sunchoke Tenderloin 800 g. beef tenderloin 100 g. rendered beef fat Salt and pepper

along with his creativity and inspiration, and he soon realized that he needed to do something else to bring them back. What came after was actually the very spot we dined in: The Test Kitchen. Now, he’s challenging himself again as he develops a new dining concept that’s the polar opposite of The Test Kitchen, something he calls Savage. “It’s so easy for us cooks and chefs to replicate our own flavors [under] another name or another restaurant. It’s too simple,” he said. “I like to challenge myself more than anything else, and if I can create two restaurants, simultaneously run them, and [offer] two completely different flavor profiles and different service set-ups, then I get pleasure to see that challenge being done.” The new concept will be more straightforward when it comes to food preparation and presentation. “The grill in Savage is massive,” he explained. It uses two kinds of fuel: coconut husk charcoal and wood, with the former able to withstand the high heat required by some produce and the latter having the ability to impart flavor through smoke. It will be a simple, almost primitive way of cooking, as Boutwood wants the customers to enjoy food for what it really is—maybe additional garnish to top it off once it’s done, then it goes directly onto the plate, ready to be devoured. “And of course, the bar menu is going to be interesting, I think,” he said, laughing. “I’m shit at making drinks, but I’ll figure it out.” Nine hours and six dishes later, we were all sated and relaxed, yet Boutwood was still urging us to eat more. Given what he already has on his plate, what’s up his sleeve next? His response? “World domination!”

1. Clean any silver skin away from the tenderloin. 2. Season both sides with salt and pepper. 3. Place in a vacuum bag along with rendered beef fat and cook at 54⁰ C for 2 hours. 4. Once cooked, shock in ice water and rest. 5. Remove from the vacuum bag and cook on hot charcoals until a perfect crust forms. Reserve for plating. Sunchoke 300 g. fresh sunchokes 50 g. butter 120 g. cream Salt 1. Peel the sunchokes; reserve the skins for stocks. 2. In a heavy-bottomed pan, add butter and sunchokes and cook until golden. Add water just to cover and cook until tender (10 to 15 minutes). 3. Add cream and blend on high speed until silky smooth. 4. Season with salt and reserve for plating. Mustard Leaf 100 g. butter 100 g. water 3 g. salt 1. Blend water, butter, and salt together. 2. Place in a small pan. Cook mustard leaves until tender. Sauce 600 g. fresh veal stock 100 g. butter Salt 1. Reduce veal stock by 3/4. 2. Emulsify butter slowly and season to taste.

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COV ER STORY

GROOMING CATS DEL ROSARIO

“Cooking involves understanding an ingredient’s strengths and weaknesses in order for it to be combined well with others.”

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EATS

PICK AND PLAY A typical Berde bowl features a mix of rice, salad greens, a protein (in this case, pork karnitas), and several veggie sides.

Like your neighborhood carinderia, you choose the components of your meal from a row of silver trays TEXT PAULINE MIRANDA PHOTOGRAPHY DANICA CONDEZ

If you work in one of the busiest business districts in the country’s capital, you know exactly what it feels like to go out for lunch and be faced with the usual red-and-yellow flurry of fast food chains. While they’re good for those really stressful days, sometimes, you’re just craving for something a little more substantial and healthy. At Berde, aside from five signature bowls you can easily order from in a snap, you can create your own bowl and fill it with anything you want. Just choose from their four bases (white rice, red rice, salad, and salad and rice), five protein sources, six vegetable sides, and 12 toppings, and you can probably come up with 17,550 combinations. (Disclaimer: Math is not my

forte, so I used an online calculator for this.) That’s enough to cover almost 50 years’ worth of lunches. For a concept so simple, that is a lot of variety. But the variety is understandable as Berde partners with local farms and growers for their ingredients. Their chicken, for example, is from the Batangas Free Range Chicken farm, while their rice comes from the Rice Terraces Farm Co-op. Down to Earth, on the other hand, supplies them with grass-fed beef. For others, they use whatever is seasonally available; on the day of our visit, it was tuna. Getting your own bowl is pretty straightforward. Like any carinderia, just head to the counter where the menu hangs overhead, and all of the day’s fare

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EATS

are lined up in silver trays behind a clear glass. If you’re in a hurry, as midweek lunches often are, just choose one of their five signature bowls, where the combination of base, protein, veggies, and toppings are already set. It’s also unintimidating, as all the ingredients used are local and carry flavors that are distinctly Filipino. The Baboy Oh Boy is my personal favorite, and meatand rice-lovers looking for a healthier but equally tasty alternative might like it, too. It is composed of white rice and pork carnitas, both already good together on their own, but made even better with the Berde salad mix of the day, calamansi singkamas slaw, and crunchy garlic. It also has cucumber and dill pickle on the side, adding a tart bite to each spoonful. There’s also a generous drizzle of green sauce—a mix of basil, parsley, and cilantro—that surprisingly blends well with all the elements of the bowl. You might want to try getting an additional order of some oven-roasted kamote for this, too. There’s also something for vegetarians in the form of their mushroom monggo kare-kare; although nothing beats the real thing, this might be the next best choice if you’re avoiding meat. The nutty flavor of kare-kare is a little more subdued because of the choice of protein, but it’s not bad. After all, it’s not every day you see a meatless adaptation of this dish. If you feel like you still need a stronger kick of flavor, Berde has homemade hot sauces. One’s a vinegar-based sauce with chilies, while the other is a 12-day fermented sriracha. If it gets too spicy, you can down a refreshing glass of Minty Melon, a summery red juice made of watermelon with a hint of calamansi and mint, or the Blueko, which is coconut juice tinged with the essence of blue ternate flowers. Berde’s not just meant for lunch or an after-work dinner. Since its aim is to help people switch to healthier eating habits, they also have chips you can munch on at your desk. Made of saba, they can be eaten on their own or dipped in Berde’s signature red sauce.

“It’s also unintimidating, as all the ingredients used are local and carry flavors that are distinctly Filipino.”

Berde Bowls. Ayala Triangle Gardens, Makati Ave., Makati City. 728-5046

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PRESENT

EAT, DRINK & GIVE BACK

A PORTION OF THE PROCEEDS WILL GO TO MBY PET RESCUE AND SANCTUARY

OCT 22, SUN, 11AM-9PM

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RECIPE

CHEESY STRINGS

An ingenious low-carb version of pasta crafted from cheese TEXT, STYLING, AND PHOTOGRAPHY SARAH ARROGANTE

HERBED LOW-CARB PASTA INGREDIENTS

2 cups mozzarella cheese 2 egg yolks 1 tbsp. freshly chopped parsley 1/2 tbsp. dried thyme 1 tsp. olive oil PREPARATION

1. Slice mozzarella cheese and place herbs in between the slices. Microwave for 2 minutes or just until it melts. Let it cool for half a minute. 2. Using a spatula, while mozzarella is still soft, fold egg yolks into it. Make sure it’s mixed well. (If the mozzarella starts to

break, it means it’s getting too cool. Reheat again, if needed.) 3. Transfer mixture onto parchment paper. Place another film of parchment paper on top of the mozzadough and press until thin. 4. Once thin, remove the parchment paper on top and cut the dough into strips. 5. Lay strips on a tray lined with parchment paper and refrigerate for 4 to 5 hours (or overnight). 6. Cook dried/frozen “pasta” in boiling water with olive oil for a minute or less. 7. Enjoy with your sauce of choice.

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T HE GET

LOVE IN A JAR

These delicious spreads are mom-tested and kid-approved TEXT OLIVER EMOCLING PHOTOGRAPHY PATRICK SEGOVIA

Maternal instinct shaped Taste, entrepreneur Grace Barbers-Baja’s fine food line. For this latest addition to Grace Home, Barbers-Baja concocts additive-free cheese spreads, with ingredients sourced from a local farm or found during her trips abroad. The seal of approval comes from Barbers-Baja’s own children. “During the taste-testing process, I let my kids taste all these, and they finally gave

me two thumbs-up signs after the nth trial and revision. That’s when I knew I got the approval of my harshest critics,” she says. Revel in the taste of these cheesespreads with some fine sourdough bread or classic crackers, though Barbers-Baja also urges you to veer away from that usual route. If you must, don’t be afraid to eat a spoonful, too; after all, they were made with care and a mother’s love.

Quattro formaggio spread with pink peppercorns has four cheeses with local grass-fed butter and truffle honey.

Manchego curado with almond olive tapenade features Manchego cheese from Spain and French butter.

Taste by Grace Home. grace@gracehomemanila.com. 0906-3618374

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