RM Ph 04/2017 by Rinzon

I S S U E 1 0 8 ———— C O V E R S T O R Y

CONTENTS April 2017

“It punches you right in the mouth and you’re addicted to it! I assume it’s the same feeling that Sergio had when he saw Marimar the ﬁrst time...” CHEF BRUCE RICKETTS

A Marian Feast The story of Marian Rivera—queen of primetime, mother of one, the face that launched a thousand ad campaigns—has been told a thousand times, but not like this. Celebrating her fourth time on the cover, Rogue teams up with kitchen maverick Bruce Ricketts to conjure dishes inspired by the actress’ illustrious career.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY BJ PASCUAL

Greenbelt 4, Ayala Center - Tel. +63 2 7576292 • Rustan’s Shan gri-La, Shangri-La Plaza - Tel. +63 2 6342517

I S S U E 1 0 8 ———— F E A T U R E S

CONTENTS April 2017

HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW?

Bruce Lim was one of Manila’s most highproﬁle chefs until a slew of bad breaks and closures led to his exit from the city’s insatiable food scene. Yvette Tan discovers that what many thought as the end of a career proved to be the start of an unexpected journey.

WISH YOU WERE HERE

What many have called the Surﬁng Capital of North Luzon is slowly becoming the country’s next culinary paradise. JJ Yulo drives up to La Union to meet the chefs who’ve packed their bags and escaped the bustle of Manila.

THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL

Baguio-based photographer Tommy Hafalla has been documenting the lives of groups in the Cordillera for over three decades. Padmapani Perez introduces us to the rarely documented realities captured through his respectful lens in the photo compendium Ili.

IN FOCUS: DAVID LAI

From the kitchens of the Ritz Carlton to Alain Ducasse’s Spoon, David Lai has made a place for himself in Hong Kong’s culinary scene with his restaurant The Neighborhood. Rogue talks to the chef about his artful beginnings and his home city.

THE UNITED TASTES OF AMERICA

With the United States more divided than ever, hope has been harder to come by. But as JJ Yulo discovers on a culinary trip through its states and cities, there is still a bright spark to be found in the country’s cuisine and in the people behind it.

100

SHABUSERS

that I sold out, I don’t care.

Users, pushers, the righteous, the damned— all of them are lighting up in an age where drugs have never been more controversial and more accessible. R. Zamora Linmark pens a new story of a nation struggling with addiction and all the drugs in between.

It’s because I had to do what I

108

“So even if people think

had to do to survive.” CHEF BRUCE LIM

PORTRAIT BY JL JAVIER

I S S U E 1 0 8 ———— S E C T I O N S

CONTENTS April 2017

“I don’t ﬁnd my pictures so sexual... I just ﬁnd them strong, playful, powerful women having fun.” ELLEN VON UNWERTH

AGENDA

SPACE

THE EYE

THE S LANT

C. B. Cebulski lists the best izakayass off Tokyo’s beaten path; after changing members and losing its recording studio, Ang Bandang Shirley returns with its biggest album to date; Khavn de la Cruz ambushinterviews Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul at his solo exhibition The Serenity of Madness.

Singapore’s heritage sites breathe new life as the city melds together dining and design; from furniture and upholstery to luminaires and tableware, the Maison & Objet Fair in Paris brings together the best in all things decorative; dualities mark the hybrid furnishings in Poltrona Frau’s latest designer collaborations.

Inspired by Miami summer’s bright prints and neon lights, Diesel’s Spring/Summer 2017 collection is a spin on luxury street wear; Maurice Lacroix’s latest skeleton watches stun with their precise movements and ﬁne ﬁnishes; Givenchy’s iconic Rottweiler print returns to commemorate Riccardo Tisci’s recreation of an aesthetic.

Jose Dalisay, Jr. sneaks us into the sacred spaces of the best (and most difficult to ﬁnd) steak room in the city; Jose Victor Z. Torres traces the history of Manila’s mami of choice as a cultural icon and a straight up tasty eatery; Miguel Jaime G. Ongpin revisits his favorite haunt in Little Tokyo as rumors of the compound’s end break out.

IMAGE COURTESY OF TASCHEN

Executive Editor JEROME GOMEZ Deputy Editor JONTY CRUZ Managing Editor JACS T. SAMPAYAN Associate Editor PAOLO ENRICO MELENDEZ Contributing Editor DEVI DE VEYRA Founding Editor JOSE MARI UGARTE Editorial Assistant PATRICIA CHONG Online Editor PHILBERT DY Editor at Large TEODORO LOCSIN, JR.

ART Senior Art Director KARL CASTRO Junior Designer MARK SANTIAGO Photographer at Large MARK NICDAO Photographer STEVE TIRONA

ON THE COVER Photographed by BJ Pascual Styled by Pam Quiñones, Maita Baello and Mel Sy of Qurator Makeup by Cristine Duque Hair by Suyen Salazar Set Design by Martina Bautista Stylists Assisted by Shark Tanael and Alex Castillo Marian Rivera wears a Beetroot bra and romper, a Miss Selfridge skirt, and Nami accessories Photographed at Raﬃ’s Way, Tagaytay City. Special thanks to Nino Zulueta.

Contributing Writers C.B. CEBULSKI, JOSE DALISAY JR, RAMON DE VEYRA, MARIE ANNABELLE MARQUEZ, MIGUEL JAIME J. ONGPIN, JAM PASCUAL, PADMAPANI PEREZ, BLAKE SAMSON, YVETTE TAN, JOSE VICTOR Z. TORRES, JJ YULO, R. ZAMORA LINMARK Contributing Photographers & Artists JETHER AMAR, AARON ASIS, JOHANN BONA, TOMMY HAFALLA, DAVID HARTUNG, JL JAVIER, RALPH MENDOZA, BJ PASCUAL Interns BEA DEL RIO, SAM FABIAN, EUSELA LANDRITO

PUBLISHING Publisher VICKY MONTENEGRO / vicky.montenegro@roguemedia.ph Associate Publisher ANI A. HILA / ani.hila@roguemedia.ph Publishing Assistant MADS TEOTICO / mads.teotico@roguemedia.ph Senior Advertising Sales Director MINA GARA / mina.gara@roguemedia.ph

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For subscriptions, back issues, bulk orders, and other circulation concerns please contact: Rainier S. Baria (+632) 729-7747 rainier.baria@roguemedia.ph ROGUE MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED MONTHLY, ELEVEN TIMES PER YEAR. THE EDITORS AND PUBLISHERS OF THE MAGAZINE MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES IN RELATION TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THE ADVERTISEMENTS, PRODUCTS, AND SERVICES ADVERTISED IN THIS EDITION. OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS MAGAZINE ARE SOLELY THOSE OF THE AUTHORS AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF ROGUE MAGAZINE. THIS MAGAZINE IS FULLY PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT, AND NO PART OF THIS MAGAZINE MAY BE USED OR REPRODUCED IN ANY MANNER WHATSOEVER WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE EDITORS AND PUBLISHERS.

ISSUE 108

THE EDITORS’ NOTE April 2017

1 4

The Last Supper

n the middle of making this issue, news broke that Lucky Peach1, the critical darling and cult favorite food magazine, was ending later this year. While the reasons for its closing haven’t been fully revealed, its legacy, while brief, will live on in the hearts and future works of its readers. Lucky Peach made food exciting again, to say the very least. It went beyond the norm and pushed the boundaries of what a culinary lifestyle magazine could be. And it’s evident that the brand had set a new precedent, with numerous competitors trying to capture that vibrant and energetic design, as well as the wit that was in every word of its pages. The magazine looked outward and sought to go where their wildest imaginations called them. Its very ﬁrst issue back in 2011 (The Ramen Issue) was met with instant curiousity. And in that debut, The New York Times called it a “glorious, improbable artifact” and “a reminder of print’s true wingspan.” Lucky Peach then went on

to tackle issues that were off the menu so to speak, from travel, gender, to the apocalypse. Its inspired editorial content took shape thanks to its larger-than-life staff such as Momofuku’s David Chang, editor-writers Chris Ying and Peter Meehan. Lucky Peach went beyond where the typical food magazine could go and through sheer force of will gave new life to an already reeling publishing industry. For the last decade, that same spirit was what guided Rogue in its annual appetite issues. Perhaps never more so than in the last few years thanks to the capable hands of editor Michelle Ayuyao and company. It was arguably always the most exciting and inventive issue of the year, where all aspects of society could be discussed under the prism of food. The passion was never more clear, and the hunger to know more never more exciting than in those issues’ very pages. And it is now with the same curiosity that we’ve challenged ourselves to look outward and discover the truth and stories

THE ROGUE TEAM

behind the industry’s whispers and rumblings. Our search took us to the coastal province of La Union2 where more and more of the city’s top chefs have found a new home as well as a second coming. Through the captivating images of photographer Tommy Hafalla3, we discovered the tribal communities in Sagada where histories of tradition live on in their cooking. JJ Yulo meanwhile traveled to the United States4—a country then on the verge of Trump’s administration—and learned that despite social tensions, it was in food where varied cultures came together and brought out the best in diversity. There are more than a few heartbreaks with the end of Lucky Peach and the struggles of creating something new in an industry still reeling from society’s changes. But as with food, Lucky Peach was able to build not only a readership but a community that saw what they eat as the ﬁrst step into uncharted territories. And with its end, we offer this issue as one ﬁnal toast to one of the industry’s best.

ISSUE 108

THE GUEST LIST April 2017

KHAVN DELA CRUZ is best known as the experimental ﬁlmmaker behind Ruined Heart and Alipato: The Very Brief Life of an Ember— though he is also a poet, songwriter, and festival founder. In this issue, he catches up with Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

JJ YULO is a blogger, food writer, and full time observer of the Philippine food scene. He also does events, conducts food tours, and even consultation work for restaurateurs. In between meals, he loves kicking back, traveling, and fantasizing that he’s in a band.

PADMAPANI PEREZ is a poet, anthropologist, and party animal currently living in Baguio. She takes on other roles and titles such as overseer of the Mt. Cloud Bookshop, keeper of the spoken word, and mountain biker.

YVETTE TAN is best known for her work in fantasy and horror, for which she has won numerous awards. She also writes nonﬁction, focusing on food, travel, and personality proﬁles. In this issue, she sits down for an interview with chef Bruce Lim.

JOSE VICTOR Z. TORRES is a historian, essayist, and an award-winning playwright—though he currently works as an associate professor at De La Salle University’s History Department.

JOSE DALISAY, JR. has authored over 30 books since 1984, winning numerous honors and prizes (including 16 Palanca Awards) for his writing. He also collects old fountain pens, disused PowerBooks, ‘50s Hamiltons, poker bad beats, and desktop lint.

RALPH MENDOZA was born and raised in Manila, where he currently works as a photographer. He’s experienced in portraiture, fashion, commercial, and street photography, his ﬁrst love.

R. ZAMORA LINMARK was born in Manila, educated in Honolulu, and has lived in Madrid and Tokyo. He is a poet, novelist, and playwright known for the novels Leche and Rolling the R’s. He recently completed his ﬁrst young adult novel, These Books Belong to Ken Z.

C.B. CEBULSKI is the talent scout for Marvel Comics and a food writer for Lucky Peach. He travels for work (a lot); eats and cooks for fun (a lot). In this issue, he dishes on the 11 best izakayas that you won’t ﬁnd on Tokyo’s beaten path.

MIGUEL JAIME J. ONGPIN used to work with newspapers like Today, The Manila Standard, and Manila Bulletin. Having always been a gourmand, he’s gone on to open Raﬁk Shawarma. In this issue, he reacts to rumors of Little Tokyo’s impending closure.

April 2017

Edited by

JONTY CRUZ

AGENDA

Issue

108

F O O D + E N T E RTA I N M E N T + C U LT U R E + T R AV E L

ATYPICAL TOKYO That you can’t book a table in the buzziest gastropubs in Tokyo shouldn’t mean ending up in a second-rate izakaya. International food writer and Lucky Peach contributor C.B. Cebulski serves up 11 of the city’s best-kept secrets ILLUSTRATIONS BY AARON ASIS

AGENDA FOOD

KADOYA

Whenever someone I know is traveling to Tokyo to eat, I advise him to keep these two words in mind: “Don’t panic.” You see, no matter how early you try and make reservations, there are just some restaurants you won’t be able to get into. Ishikawa. Kyoaji. Amamoto. Many such establishments even have actual barriers in place that even the most experienced concierges can’t get around. Twitter, Instagram, Tabelog, and other internet sites have created such a buzz on certain

This is my go-to izakaya in Tokyo, located in Nishi Azabu, just blocks away from the hustle and bustle of Roppongi. In this small 15-seat casual corner restaurant, a talented two-man team treats its guests to elevated Japanese comfort food and a rotating selection of seasonal sake. Tachan handles most of the cooking— slicing, dicing, grilling, and frying almost every ingredient from scratch; guests seated before the open kitchen can only watch in amazement as he prepares orders with such efficiency. Taka, meanwhile, is a sake sommelier who knows his rice wine inside and out; expect him to quench your thirst with rare bottles he gets from brewers around Japan. On any given day, he’ll most likely serve something you’ve never even heard of, so simply tell him what you like to drink and he’ll recommend some selections. Tasting is encouraged here! The duo’s food ranges from small snacks to pair with your sake, to hearty plates of deep-fried fare, featuring izakaya classics like karaage (fried) chicken, beef tongue, and skewers, to upscale options like roast duck and marinated cod milt. Don’t miss the potato salad and grilled mentaiko (cod roe). Open until 3 a.m., Kadoya is great for a quick bite, a full meal, or a late-night drink. No matter what time you show up, Taka and Tachan will make sure you’re well fed and liquored up! 4-2-15 Nishi Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo +81-3-6427-5771

restaurants, it’s become harder than ever to book a table. But Tokyo is a restaurant mecca and there’s no city I know where it’s easier to eat an amazing meal with no prior plans. So for every door you ﬁnd closed, there are hundreds of others open and waiting for you to walk in and enjoy a good, or in many cases, an even better eating experience. The following is a list of 11 low-key izakaya (casual Japanese gastropubs) that I always eat at when

BUCHI The great thing about Tokyo is that you don’t have to leave the city to explore all of Japan’s amazing regional cuisines. Anything you want from anywhere else in the country can be found right in the capital. If you’re looking to try some local dishes of Hiroshima, head to Buchi in Ebisu. Everything there—from the meats and vegetables used in its dishes, to the members of its staff, its glassware, and coasters—is from Hiroshima. It’s as authentic as it gets. A night at Buchi is an education in Japanese “southern hospitality.” Open the menu and you’ll instantly find some famous food from that area, like Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki (savory pancake) and grilled renkon (lotus root). And then there are the unexpected regional oddities. Locally produced caciocavallo cheese? Hiroshima walnuts? Tart lemons? They’re all used as ingredients in a number of inventive dishes cooked by the chef on an open flat top grill. Many of the preparations also include the option of being finished “Buchi-style,” where Kewpie mayonnaise is squeezed on the dish and singed with a blowtorch. Buchi is simply full of surprises. 1-7-8 Ebisu Minami, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo +81-3-3790-0555

I’m in Tokyo, ones where you only need to book a day or two in advance, or better yet, just walk in. Fantastic food, serious sake selections, and most important, no panicking.

KAGARIYA This is not the kind of restaurant you’d expect to ﬁnd in upscale Akasaka. Walk down a steep ﬂight of stairs that leads to the basement eatery and you could have sworn you’d entered a sports bar. But don’t let the decorations deceive you: Kagariya’s owner, Takada-san, is one of the city’s biggest baseball fans and his collection of memorabilia is displayed here.

The cooking is anything but kitschy, though. Kagariya is billed as a yakitori restaurant, but it is so much more. Everything on its extensive menu is organic and sourced from a farmer, butcher, or producer whom Takada-san knows personally. Japanese farm to grill to table at its best. The platter of raw vegetables from Kochi prefecture I had on my last visit made me think that I never need to eat meat again. The house specialty is a chicken liver tataki—smoky on the outside and still raw in the middle, it is one of the best dishes I’ve ever tasted. The same principles hold true with its sake selection; Kagariya offers seven different sake menus, each focusing on a speciﬁc sake brewery. And each brewer offers exclusive blends and vintages produced for Takada-san that you cannot drink anywhere else in the world. Kagariya is always a home run. 4−34 Akasaka Minato-ku, Tokyo +81-3-6459-1205

PESHI An evening at Peshi is always an adventure. It’s where you go when you want to eat and drink things you’ve never tried before. Did you know that artist H.R. Giger based his design of the creature from the movie Alien on a scarylooking deep sea fish with no eyes? I didn’t, until Peshi brought it to my table one night, one part of the fish served in hot sake. The chef, Kishimoto-san, is a mad genius who thrives in surprising and delighting his diners in unexpected ways and with unique flavors. Case in point: his fermented chinmi—pungent, briny bites of aged seafood made to pair with sake. I once had the salted stomach of a sea cucumber and the dried ink sacs of squid, all paired perfectly with an amazing array of sake selected by bar manager and sake samurai Nori Nakamura. Nakamura works closely with small craft distillers as well as big brewers to secure interesting styles of sake that no other izakaya may have. But he’ll only put bottles on his menu if Kishimoto-san can create food with flavor profiles that fit them. Enter Peshi with an open mind, leave with a high level of blood alcohol content and food memories you’ll never forget. 1-8-7 Nihonbashi Horidome-cho, Swan Building, 1F, Chuoku, Tokyo +81-3-3663-1061

HI IZURU I’m warning you right off the bat: if you go to Hi Izuru, you’re going to get drunk. Very drunk. As soon as you sit down, you’ll notice there are large bottles of ukon, the Japanese hangover medicine, on every table. Take some. Yes, they’ll start you off slow, with a dainty glass of beer. But when you order a second, that glass gets bigger. Your third beer might not be a glass at all, but a ﬁsh bowl. Then a boot. Before you know it, you’re chugging beer out of a four-liter vase. And then when the glasses can’t get any bigger, they switch you over to sake. But don’t worry, you’ll never be drinking on any empty stomach at Hi Izuru. Chef Maeda and his team will ﬁll your belly with plenty of Japanese delicacies—what they are you’ll never know as there is no menu at Hi Izuru. The food

I’m warning you right off the bat: if you go to Hi Iziru, you’re going to get drunk. Very drunk. As soon you sit down, there are large bottles of ukon, the Japanese hangover medicine on every table. Take some.

APRIL 2017

AGENDA FOOD

here is all omakase; the chef decides what to serve. It could be teriyaki tuna collar and foie gras stuffed meatballs one day, leg of lamb and marinated blue shrimp the next. The chef cooks what he ﬁnds in the markets each morning. Except for the pillowy Parker House rolls, which are baked fresh for each guest to help soak up all the alcohol in his system, I’ve never had the same dish twice here. 7-1-11 Roppongi, Nikura Building B1, Minato-ku, Tokyo +81-3-3403-0607

MOTSUYAKI BAN Tell a Tokyoite you’ve been to Motsuyaki Ban and he’ll be impressed. This is the kind of place that not many foreigners frequent; English isn’t spoken here, and many people find its menu hard to stomach. You see, Ban is famous for serving skewers of grilled pigs’ intestines, which even the Japanese won’t eat. And because each pork part is named in a unique way, it’s hard to tell exactly what you’re ordering, much less eating, once the dish arrives. So on a first visit, it’s best to go with a local. Another thing Ban is notorious for is its invention of a cocktail called lemon sour. It’s still served the same way: a mug filled halfway with shochu (a Japanese distilled spirit), a bottle of Hi-Sour soda, a whole lemon cut in half, and a lemon squeezer. It’s DIY from there; you squeeze the lemon yourself and add the juice and soda to the booze in the amounts that suit your taste. A few hints on a couple of no-grilled dishes you should order: the deep-fried liver, the chicken meatballs and raw peppers, and the macaroni salad. Be brave, try Ban! 2-8-17 Yutenji, Meguro, Tokyo +81-90-4706-0650

SAIKI Located just two blocks from Ebisu Station, Saiki is one of the oldest izakaya in Tokyo. You can feel the history as you enter the quaint, cramped restaurant now run by fifthgeneration members of the family. A few years ago, Saiki was featured on the popular Japanese food show Koduko no Gourmet (The Solitary Gourmet). Soon, lines of people waiting to get in stretched the block. Thankfully, the buzz has since died down, making it easier to get a seat at the counter or a table by just walking in; I’ve only ever had to wait about 15 minutes. One good thing that came out of the added media exposure was that Saiki created an English menu for foreign fans of the show, so ordering dishes isn’t difficult. However, I highly recommend starting with the daily specials listed on the chalkboard. If it’s there, definitely try the sampler of whale meat, prepared three ways (raw, fried, and bacon) and whatever seasonal deep-fried fish it has that day. Another popular dish at Saiki is its motsu nikomi or intestine stew, which can sell out as the night goes on. Meals start with a serving of three small plates of daily amuse bouche, including a salad and sashimi of some sort. On the drinks side, Saiki is known for its frozen sake, a slushie of biting booze which I personally prefer as an after-dinner drink. 1-7-12 Ebisu Nishi , Shibuya, Tokyo +81-3-3461-3367

ASADACHI Most foreign foodies may already be familiar with Omoide Yokocho (Memory Lane) in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward, a narrow alley of shops specializing in classic Japanese street food, from yakitori to ramen and offal. It’s also often referred to as Shonben Alley or Piss Alley, due to the lack of toilets and the not-so-pleasant smell of the place. But odors aside, Omoide Yokocho is where you still ﬁnd some of the city’s more interesting underground eats, if you know where to look. Asadachi, a narrow, blink-and-you’llmiss-it eight-seater eatery at the entrance of the alley, is worth visiting if you’re looking for an eye-opening evening. “Morning wood” in English, Asadachi specializes in animal parts known to enhance virility. The small counter is run by Onichan (older brother), who now runs the business with his mother after his dad passed away. Handwritten every morning, the restaurant’s menu changes daily, but there are a few specialties that are always available and worth exploring— frog’s legs, turtle and notorious tama-chan (raw pigs’ testicles), served with raw egg and scallions. Asadachi is not for the faint of heart… or stomach. Omoide Yokocho, 1-2-14 Nishi Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo +81-3-3342-1083

KUDAN Located near the tongue-twisting Gakugeidaigaku train station, Kudan is a bit off the beaten path, but worth the quick train ride if you like oden and seasonal sake. Situated in a college area populated by students, Kudan caters to a much younger clientele, so a lot of its dishes are modern takes on Japanese classics. While the winter stew oden is traditionally prepared with different proteins and vegetables boiled in dashi, Kudan serves its version year round and uses a lighter, less salty broth, organic meats, and seasonal vegetables. Meanwhile, its meatballs wrapped in pork belly are grilled using a stalk of myoga (ginger) rather than a skewer. Kudan’s sake selection is equally eclectic, as it chooses to work with brewers who don’t make the same sake our dads drink. Teru-san, who runs Kudan, wants his izakaya to have a hip, energetic vibe, where people can come in, feel comfortable, and hang out as long as they want. In this fast-paced world where many restaurants aim for a frequent table turnover, it’s refreshing to ﬁnd an izakaya that encourages its patrons to stay and simply chill. Regular customers are even given their own sake cup, cleaned and kept after each visit, waiting for their return. 3-7-4 Takaban Meguro, Tokyo +81-3-3794-6007

NIHONSHUYA Here, sake is taken very seriously; in fact, its name literally means “sake house.” Guests are also treated like family, and the restaurant’s owners only ask that they give their outstanding food and sake the same respect. Located in Kichijoji, Nihonshuya focuses on the culture of sake, and tries its best to educate patrons who pop in for a drink about the proper ways to enjoy Japan’s most popular alcoholic beverage.

It starts as soon as you sit down. After you pick your own sake cup, place it on the traditional stand provided. Here, sake, whether hot or cold, is never poured directly in your cup. It’s presented to you in small carafes, which you use to serve yourself. You’ll never look at sake the same way again. For all its ritual and respect for sake, Nihonshuya is run by a fun-loving group of guys and gals who just want their customers to slow down and enjoy the efforts that have gone into the production of the drinks and food. Speaking of which, the menu is mainly vegetables and seafood, all prepared in-house. One reason I recommend visiting this place early is so you can get your hands on one of Nihonshuya’s homemade sausages. Only a limited amount is grilled each day, and it’s to die for. 2-7-13 Kichijoji, Ladybird Building 101, Musashino, Tokyo +81-422-20-1722

SAKE BOZU Sakeria Sake Bozu looks and feels like a modern izakaya in the heart of downtown Tokyo. But when the food hits the table, you begin to question where you are. “I thought I

ordered seafood fried rice? Why did I get a plate of basmati rice with cumin-dusted fish heads?” Or “Why is my pork shabu shabu already boiled and smothered in tamarind curry?” Quickly you discover that while the sake selection is strictly Japanese, Sake Bozu’s cuisine is Middle Easterninfluenced Japanese food. After having worked at a number of other izakaya, owner Tomo Maeda wanted to open a place of his own, but one with an interesting niche. Recognizing that many of the stronger, sharper Japanese sakes stand up well against spice-heavy cuisine, he came up with this concept for Sake Bozu and created an outpost for alcohol unlike any other in this major metropolis. Chefs around the world are now embracing all sorts of Japanese spirits and trying to find ways to pair them with the food on their international menus, but here in the Aoyama area of Tokyo, Tomo-san uses his years of experience to expertly pair sake with these intense, aromatic flavors that makes for a dining experience unlike any other. 1-37-1 Tomigaya, Rona YS Building, 2/F, Shibuya, Tokyo +81-3-3466-1311

It’s often referred to as Piss Alley, due to the lack of toilets. But odors aside, Omoido Yokocho is where you still find some of the city’s more interesting underground eats.

APRIL 2017

AGENDA BOOKS

Pastoral Bavaria serves as the setting of Ellen von Unwerth’s provocative pictures WORDS BY JAM PASCUAL

“

don’t find my pictures so sexual,” Ellen von Unwerth said in an interview with FLARE magazine. “I just find them strong, playful, powerful women having fun.” Let this serve as the thesis statement—the lens, if you will— through which we view Von Unwerth’s aesthetic approach and come to understand the photos collected in her latest book Heimat (taschen.com). Before she became the authority on feminine erotic photography, Von Unwerth was on the other side of the lens, working as a model. In interviews and profiles, she recounts that chapter

of her life with a sense of distaste. Told to behave and keep still, she felt the orders clashed with a personality that preferred to play and jump around. Von Unwerth spent her comingof-age years in Oberstdorf, Munich, where she and her friends started a hippie commune. Creative vagabonds of all kinds passed through the old farmhouse where the commune was located, and it was right there and then that Von Unwerth imbibed the free-spirited nature that continues to inﬂuence her imagery. While her time as a model allows her to empathize with her subjects, her old life as a hippie can be summed up in this axiom: loosen up. Thus we come to Heimat, in which Von Unwerth portrays beautiful women as their uninhibited selves in the countryside of Bavaria. There’s

an unmistakable farmer’s daughter’s charm to the book—you’ve got your dirndls, your lederhosen, and your glamorous milkmaids. Cliche imagery employed in service of cheekiness, the pictures achieve a certain kind of sexy one can only ﬁnd in the realm of the bucolic. Imagine a soft-core Hansel and Gretel. But Heimat (which roughly translates to “homeland” in English) is also about nostalgia for Von Unwerth, who spent her teens in rural Bavaria. An homage to her roots, the book captures the world-famous fashion and music photographer shooting her old home with fresh, new eyes. Other photographers might yield sleazy shots of this provocative subject matter; not Von Unwerth, who doesn’t do sleazy. For this fotograf extraordinaire, there’s a way to do sexy right.

IMAGES COURTESY OF TASCHEN

FARMLAND FANTASIES

AGENDA MUSIC

TRULY, MADLY, SHIRLEY With their latest album, Favorite, the critically acclaimed Ang Bandang Shirley talks about losing its recording home—and rediscovering itself in the process WORDS BY RAMON DE VEYRA

ast month, Ang Bandang Shirley released its much-awaited third album Favorite amid the high expectations of a very devoted fanbase whose growth picked up after 2012’s Tama Na Ang Drama. Things changed since that second album. Vocalist/songwriter Selena Salang’s other band Slow Hello released its debut album Audio Baby. Bassist Jing Gaddi left, and Enzo Zulueta stepped in. Their favored studio Love One Another where they recorded all their music closed shop. Given these changes, it’s only natural for people to wonder if the band’s sound, song content, and playing style have changed. But we needn’t worry: the album meets fans’ expectations, and whatever changes they hear are a result of growth rather than a deviation from the familiar style the band’s followers have come to love. Still, the loss of a home studio might be responsible for the most noticeable

difference in Favorite: several producers are credited on this album, which was mixed, recorded, and engineered in various locations, including Jakarta, Indonesia, and Houston, Texas. Some of the producers on the album’s 14 tracks include Modulogeek, Hannah+Gabi’s Mikey Amistoso, and Sleepwalk Circus’ Francis Lorenzo; while audible on their respective tracks, their inputs stay true to the Shirley spirit. “We had to ﬁgure out our whole process again,” says songwriter/vocalist/guitarist Owel Alvero of the experience. There are new textures in play, elements that one can describe as “electronic” and “rock.” Note the prominent synths on the title track and “Relihiyoso,” and the drum tracking on “Karagatan” and “Karamay” (the latter recalling +/-). Yet, the album sounds pretty tight; the songs are cohesive, and not at all like a compilation of tunes written in a limited time. This is due largely to Ang Bandang Shirley’s stock in trade—heartfelt, emotional songs. Playful yet sad, these songs ebb and ﬂow; they build to a crescendo, then come crashing down. They are also catchy as hell. Two songs from the album, “Umaapaw” (whose music video was the best Pinoy music video of 2016) and “Siberia,” are good examples. The push and pull of guitar riffs and shifting speeds of the singing

in “Umaapaw” evoke the delirium of young love. Meanwhile, “Siberia”’s steady rhythm with dual guitars seemingly chasing each other around a playground anchors an anthem to selfdetermination. “I think the album feels like an old band writing songs about being young,” says Alvero. This explains why so many young people can relate to Ang Bandang Shirley’s catalog. They recognize themselves in lyrics like “Ono’s” “Nagliliyab na ba ang mundo?” and “Makahiya’s” “Iniisip kung paano napili / ng tadhana / ang tinatangi / mong kauri.” The intensity of emotions and feelings when you’re young and especially sensitive to new things is something this band has always been adept at translating to song. “Huhu” is an actual lyric from “Favorite.” “Maningning” and “Maginhawa” weave English and Tagalog lyrics together, and even reference Drama’s “Iyong.” Ang Bandang Shirley may not be an “old” band, but in its decade-long existence, its members have grown up; some have gotten married, others have become parents and are seeing their kids enter school. With these milestones come an unmistakable conﬁdence and maturity, and with the loss of Love One Another, an opportunity to grow and try a few new things, to exemplary results.

IMAGE COURTESY OF WIDE EYED RECORDS MANILA

THEMESONGS

From left: The members of Ang Bandang Shirley: Owel Alvero, Zig Rabara, Ean Aguila, Selena Davis, Joe Fontanilla, Kathy Gener, and Enzo Zulueta.

APRIL 2017

AGENDA FILM

QUIET STORM

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s solo exhibition, The Serenity of Madness, brings the Thai filmmaker to Manila—and to a surprise interview with experimental director Khavn INTRODUCTION BY PATRICIA CHONG

e aren’t supposed to be here. This we are told as soon as we arrive one day early for Khavn’s interview with Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The gallery is dark, its space bare but for the projectors, casting grainy footage of soldiers marching, skeletons embracing, upon the screens set up. Khavn—the most prolific filmmaker on the fringes of Philippine cinema, with 51 features and 115 short films to his name—snaps a photo of a red dog fading in and out of darkness on a wall. Volunteers rush about in the eerie quiet: fitting for The Serenity of Madness, an exhibition of Weerasethakul’s rarely seen experimental shorts and videos—all of which bear the unique realistsurrealist style his feature films, such as Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Cemetery of Splendour, have used in revealing disparities of power and telling stories often excluded in and out of Thailand. We are being led out when, in an actual case of deus ex machina, Weerasethakul himself appears. “Joe!” calls the Pinoy director. Though the nickname’s origins remain unknown (we would later find out Weerasethakul is godfather of Khavn’s son), the friendship behind the two independent filmmakers—who first met in Bangkok in 2006 and have

since had run-ins and collaborations at film festivals—leads to a miracle an hour later. We are given 20 minutes. Khavn: How honest are you? Apichatpong Weerasethakul: I’m trying to, because like this, I’m very comfortable talking with you because I don’t have to lie. Before, when I was starting filmmaking, I had to justify my work, to say things to make it more interesting. But now I don’t care. And I think it applies also to the way that you start a project. You just have to be very honest. Sometimes it’s just beautiful, but that’s it. K: Do you prefer cats or dogs? AW: Difficult. If I have to choose, dogs. But Boston terriers only. K: Okay. Sing a song—or what’s a song that best describes you? AW: Crazy. This is very hard. I cannot because I stopped listening to music... for almost 10 years now. K: Like, uh, songs or instrumental music or music in general? AW: Everything. Because I appreciate this… air. Ambient sound. Yeah, but I use music [in my films]. K: So how do you deal with your soundtrack guy? AW: It has a memory—it has a certain memory with that music. Sometimes it’s not the music itself but someone I love gave it to me. Now I’m working with Ryuichi Sakamoto. But it’s like our personal thing. So I told him ahead that I don’t listen to music. But I grew up with his music, so it has this memory. K: If someone were to write a biography about you—because someone will write a biography

IMAGES COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART & DESIGN

about you—what do you think the title should be? AW: Maybe this show title, Serenity in Madness. Because people told me that I look calm, but in fact, I’m really mad inside. Inside there’s this crazy storm. K: Cool. Crazy storm! If you were a bicycle, what part would you be? AW: Oooh, a light. Headlight. K: What did you want to be when you were 10 years old? AW: Wow. Mmm… I think a dentist. An animal doctor, a vet? K: What makes you angry? AW: My own impatience. K: There’s a Filipino poet who said that the Philippines should be renamed Pasensya because it means patience. Who do you like best: your mom or your dad? AW: Oh, my mom. K: How would you describe yourself in three words? AW: Uh, unpredictable? And… it’s the same as changing my mind. K: Fickle, that’s fickle. AW: Fickle, and… spontaneous. K: Right. Do you like Jerry or Tom? AW: I like the mouse—Jerry. K: What would you do if you had a time machine? AW: Oh. I really love my house. I want to see my house in the future—see how it looks, who occupied it. K: What would you ask from God? AW: Oooh, nothing, because I don’t believe in God. K: If you were a god, what would you do to the world? AW: I would kill myself first. K: How would you react if you were transformed into a fish? AW: Oh. I don’t know. I would just enjoy it—the feeling of weightlessness, fragility in the water, fluid. K: The fluidity. Are your parents disappointed with your career? AW: I think so. K: Really? Did they want you to be a doctor or something? AW: No, no, no, no! But my mom always wanted me to be a soap opera director. K: Oh! Okay, like “when are you going to make real films?” AW: Like that! Just like that. K: My mother’s the same. If you could be any animal, what would you be and why? AW: Wow. I would like to be a jellyfish. I heard that it’s… how do you call it? It never dies. K: What gets lost in translation? AW: Love. K: If all rivers are sweet, where does the sea get its salt? AW: … Wait, wait, wait. What kind of magazine is this? Is it yours, or—? Are these your questions? K: [laughs] Yes, these are my questions. Where does the rainbow end: in your soul or on the horizon? AW: Ah, it never ends, I think.

K: In what language does rain fall over tormented cities? AW: Spanish. K: How did the abandoned bicycle win its freedom? AW: To forget that it’s a bicycle. To forget—to get rid of this idea that it is a bicycle. K: If you eat yourself, would you become twice as big, twice as small, or disappear completely? AW: I think I would transform into Boston terriers. That’s my wish.

right now wearing a sombrero. What does he say, and why is he here? AW: He would say, “I want a Green Tea KitKat. Please.” K: And for the last question. If you don’t get this job, what’s your backup plan? AW: This job? I want to be the designated designer of pants for Khavn de la Cruz. K: A designer? AW: A designer.

KC: You’ve been given an elephant, what would you do with it? AW: I would project a movie onto it. K: Is there gravity in Chiang Mai? AW: Mm, heavy. In Thailand, [there is] heavy gravity… Did you take a long time, writing these questions? K: [laughs] 15 minutes. What is the weirdest place you’ve ever vomited? AW: Ah, let’s say on a dog. On an unsuspecting dog. K: What are you known for? AW: Ah, my beauty. K: All right! How would you rate your memory? AW: How do I rate my memory? I don’t know how to say it in English… Distant. Can that be my answer? My memory is always very far from me. K: What do you think about when you’re alone? AW: My breathing. K: Describe the color yellow to someone who is blind. AW: It’s sweet and sour. K: You’ve been given an elephant, what would you do with it? AW: I would project a movie onto it. K: All right. How would you convince someone to do something he didn’t want to do? AW: Oh, I wouldn’t do such a thing. K: A penguin walks through that door

K: —of pants? AW: [gestures to the pair De la Cruz is wearing: it is at least ﬁve different colors, including a cheery orange and yellow, bright green, two shades of blue, and hot pink.] K: [laughs] Okay! AW: Only for you. K: All right! Thank you. AW: What kind of magazine is this— like pop, teen? Art? K: Ah, no, it’s a porn magazine. AW: Are you serious? Me, in a porn magazine? K: Like soft porn. Like, lots of naked ladies. AW: Really? [Turns to transcriber; the transcriber nods gravely] I thought that with Catholic culture… K: Yeah, the bestselling issue is— AW: Please give me this—kind of— yeah. I’m really curious. K: A pretentious porn magazine. AW: Ah, okay. K: Art porn. The Serenity of Madness runs until May 14 at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde SDA Campus, Dominga St., Malate, Manila.

MYSTERIOUS OBJECT AT NOON

Right: Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Opposite, from top: Stills from Weerasethakul’s Haiku, made up of three shots to mirror the Japanese poetic form, and The Palace, referring to the National Palace Museum in Taiwan.

APRIL 2017

AGENDA FOOD

BEYOND THE KITCHEN After their successful charity dinner at the first-ever UNICEF Children’s Ball, two of the event’s four female chefs, Manila’s Margarita Forés and Thailand’s Bo Songvisava, talk about their country’s respective cuisines and their newfound roles outside of the kitchen WORDS BY JONT Y CRUZ

ith society’s growing obsession with food, more attention—and responsibility—has been thrust upon chefs and the culinary industry. No longer limited to kitchen duties, a chef has become a spokesperson for sustainable farming, healthy eating, promoting his/her country’s cuisine, and other advocacies close to the heart. Call them ambassador chefs, or those who take it upon themselves to use what they’ve learned in and out of the kitchen and apply it to social causes and other pressing issues today. Last March 4, four of Asia’s best female chefs—Thailand’s Bo Songvisava, Taiwan’s Lanshu Chen, Hong Kong’s Vicky Lau, and Manila’s own Margarita Forés—participated in a charity dinner for the ﬁrst-ever UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) Philippines Children’s Ball. We sat down with Fores and Songvisava to talk about the misconceptions of Asian cuisine, their respective country’s culinary heritages, and their roles outside the kitchen.

What would you say are people’s perceptions and misconceptions about Asian cuisine? It feels like it’s been pigeon-holed into one specific style; but in Southeast Asia alone, the cuisines are so varied and complex. Margarita Forés: Exactly. They’re distinct, not just flavor profiles, but I guess the DNA of a cuisine has a lot to do with the history of its country of origin. And for us in the Philippines, it took a little bit longer because we were, I think, so stuck in trying to put [our food] in a box instead of celebrating the fact that it is influenced by so many different things. And not just from whatever was already there before the outside influences came in. I mean, that Malay [influence] is actually the part that we forgot, because what we know of our food is that it’s more Chinese, Spanish, a little bit Mexican, and a little bit American. What’s great now is the chefs in our industry have this newfound awareness. I mean, everybody’s finding the food in Mindanao so sexy, which I think is a great thing because then that’s really going back to our roots; that’s the kind of food we had before anybody came here. [Mindanao] was the part of our country that was least colonized and it’s so interesting that we’re learning that the region’s cuisine is so much more similar to other Asian cuisines that are so complex, with so many layers and flavors. Even if it’s a little bit similar to Indonesian and Malaysian food there’s also a special uniqueness to the food in Mindanao. Maybe it’s from the uniqueness of the tribes that are there and also because of the ingredients that are endemic to Mindanao. I’m really looking forward to traveling around Mindanao a little bit more and finding new things to work with, finding inspirations and influences that can make our work more interesting and yet still vibrantly Filipino.

Margarita Forés: I think it’s because food is such an integral part of our lives now. All the other chefs like Massimo Bottura—I mean, when you hear him talk, he sounds more like he’s running for office. I think [being an ambassador] isn’t just a second role for us anymore, it’s actually a responsibility for us in the industry to be spokespersons and real advocates of causes that will help preserve what’s left of our world and at the same time make a better life for those who grow and care for our food. It’s happening all over the world and it’s nice because it feels like it’s just one voice now. Bo Songvisava: I think it’s all going in a good [direction]. People [are learning about] fiber organics or sustainable types of food, they now want to know the differences and benefits of eating organic food, and how it helps the environment and local farmers. A lot more people are raising questions about what they eat nowadays, so it’s great. It starts in my kitchen. Like, I know the prawns come from our local fishermen and they’re sustainable, but I don’t know how they’re caught, and what equipment is used to catch them. Now I’ve learned that fishermen use a standing net that the prawns walk into, so it’s not like they’re pulling the poor things out of the sea. People are more and more concerned about where their food comes from, and chefs are just as concerned about the potential risks that come from the kitchen. What other causes do you champion as a chef? Bo Songvisava: I’ve been fighting for the end of plastic bags in Thailand, those single-use plastic bags and plastic bottles from the grocery or wet market. Plastic bags are already banned in supermarkets in other countries, but in Thailand it’s not happening yet and I don’t know why. And you know, so many people have come up with biodegradable alternatives, and yet the government doesn’t seem to care. I guess it has other things to worry about. But it would be cool if more say no to plastic.

Bo Songvisava 24

IMAGES COURTESY OF UNICEF CHILDREN’S BALL

Margarita Forés

It’s been said that chefs, given their popularity, need to play a greater role beyond just cooking. What are your thoughts on being an ambassador or advocate of larger causes?

AGENDA DRINKS

BOILING POINT How do you condense a country into a tiny pot? An expert makes a case for a true Philippine tea. INTERVIEW BY PHILBERT DY

or the last two decades, David de Candia has been immersed in the world of tea. As senior director of tea at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, he has traveled the world in search of the very best tea growers, looking for the right ingredients for the shop’s signature tea blends. He stopped by the Philippines in February to collaborate with local chefs in designing a Filipino tea blend. We talked to him about what goes into crafting tea, and the proper way to drink it. Have you gotten familiar with local ﬂavors and the Filipino palate? Mostly from a food perspective. I don’t remember the names of a lot of the food I’ve eaten, but my general takeaway is that you have this sweet and spicy combination going, similar to Vietnam.

DE CANDIA IMAGE COURTESY OF THE COFFEE BEAN & TEA LEAF

Does the local palate come into play when designing a tea blend? That’s if I’m going to develop a tea speciﬁc to that area. What happens is that consumers in different demographics will gravitate to whichever ones ﬁt their lifestyle. What can you tell us about the process of making these local blends? Well I’ve created the Singapore blend. We’ve just launched the Malaysia blend. The Malaysia blend was an assam black tea, lemon balm from Australia, and rose petals from Poland.

The Hipster’s Favorite Drink Why is everyone drinking horchata all of a sudden? Perhaps it’s the added consolation to the taco being Manila’s current favorite food trend or maybe we’ve all finally caught up to Vampire Weekend’s hit song of the same name, but every restaurant/ cafe/bar worth its hashtag these days is serving up the rice and cinammon drink. For one thing, it fits the Philippines seeing as we can’t have a meal without a cup (or several) of rice. It’s also a great alternative for those who can’t ride the third wave coffee bandwagon— although El Union has combined both perfectly to make its Dirty Horchata. Sadly, you have to travel all the way to La Union to get it. It’s not for everyone to be sure, but as trends go, we’ll take a glass of horchata over a gluten-free smoothie any day.

They like rose petals and lemon in Malaysia, so I made them this black tea. In Singapore, I did oolong tea roiboos, with carrots for sweetness. I also put orchid in the Singapore blend since it’s the country’s state ﬂower. So when we meet with these guys, we’ll see where they come from. I can do anything, so we just need to know what they want. What is it like, working with local chefs to create these speciﬁc regional blends? They’re chefs, so realistically, they may not know anything about tea. Some of the things they say or want may not be doable. But I’ve worked with a lot of chefs, and they have a unique ability to get tea pretty quickly. They’re not like regular people, who might say “I don’t get it,” or “I don’t taste what you’re telling me.” Chefs get it. I’m looking forward to this. We’ll have some tastings with them so that they know what to look for. They can’t just approach it from food science. You can’t take every food and bring it to a tea. The Philippines isn’t exactly a tea-drinking nation. How does that affect the kind of blend you make? It’s just a matter of education. People here are probably already drinking Lipton, or various herbals. It’s a matter of telling them what else is out there. Here’s a tea from Sri Lanka. Here’s a tea from India. Here’s lemongrass from Egypt, chamomile from Egypt. Tea drinking can give people access to a broader global perspective. So in the

same way, the key to a local blend will be to ﬁnd something speciﬁc to the region. My goal with the chef will be to identify an ingredient, and maybe he can hook me up with a supplier. And we can show the world what the Philippines has to offer. Is there a right way to drink tea? When I’m teaching, that’s just about the only time I’ll tell someone “this is the way to do it.” But other times, I have to be respectful of how other cultures can be different in their consumption of tea. For example, in Japan, they steep their tea multiple times, and they leave their teas in the pot. That’s not something I do. I’m respectful of that, because that’s how they traditionally take their tea. But there is a way that I drink tea. If you’re taking my class, though, I’ll tell you straight up, the right way and the wrong way to brew tea. And that is? I would never microwave the water. It’s just like microwaving food. Sometimes you take the food out, and you poke around, and it’s not fully hot. It’s the same thing with the water, and temperature is key when brewing tea. So get a thermometer. And always keep in under a boil. Most people boil the crap out of the water. Most people reheat their water multiple times, and every time you heat water and bring it to that point, you lose oxygen and minerals, so the water becomes tasteless. You want fresh water for every pot, and never distilled water, because it has no minerals.

APRIL 2017

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April 2017

Edited by

JEROME GOMEZ

SPACE

Issue

108

DESIGN + INTERIORS + ARCHITECTURE + TECHNOLOGY

IN WITH THE OLD

In a city where food is religion, these restaurants enhance the gastronomic experience with the storied sites they occupy WORDS BY PATRICIA CHONG

SPACE DESIGN

Odette

n Singapore, clean lines are apparent in every building and façade, and glass cityscapes follow the laws of functionality. It’s all premeditated, an urban planner’s dream come true, thanks to the high premium the government puts on design through Design Singapore Council, a committee who has been tasked since 2003 to grow this as a cultural aspect. So invested is Singapore in design, it’s set an ambitious goal: their manifesto Design 2025 will see the country as a thriving, innovationdriven economy in eight years’ time. Heritage conservation has been an initiative for years, embraced in the steadily growing trend of adaptive reuse by the country’s top restaurateurs. With Design 2025 in view, this goes full swing as more and more heritage sites are reclaimed, revamped, and repurposed into hot dining destinations. The result? A gastronomic experience that isn’t just enhanced by aesthetics, but by a building’s back story, one that whets the imagination as much as the appetite.

THE NEW VINTAGE

Previous: The Warehouse Hotel’s lobby was designed to evoke the building’s original life as a warehouse at the height of Singapore’s spice trade.

When Singapore’s National Gallery—once the Supreme Court and City Hall buildings, the latter dating back to 1929—opened late in 2015 after renovations that saw the addition of glass and metalwork to the British colonial structure, Chef Julien Royer’s Odette opened its own doors to a flood of acclaim from critics and guests alike. Nine months later, the Modern French restaurant was awarded with two Michelin stars. Inspired by Royer’s grandmother and her love of pure ingredients, Odette stays faithful to the chef’s beloved muse in almost all aspects. From the relaxed dining area filled with soft-edged furniture, curved screens, and subdued hues, diners can watch chefs in the glass-enclosed kitchen working on dishes such as Royer’s signature organic eggs, poached and pine-smoked for 55 minutes. Artist Dawn Ng’s mobile art installation, abstract collages of deconstructed food photography called “A Theory of Everything,” floats above the quadruple banquette from the high ceiling. Odette, National Gallery Singapore, 1 Saint Andrew’s Road

Botanico Originally a parking building, The Garage has been transformed into a hip food destination. Situated in the middle of Singapore’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Singapore Botanic Gardens, the white, two-story Art Deco-styled structure, with its seven bays and distinctive vaulting entrances, is home to contemporary bistro Botanico. Complete with their original dark wood rafters, wide windows on both sides of the high-ceilinged dining space open up to a lush landscape that complements a menu inspired by the elements of nature. Chef Antonio Oviedo uses only fresh, seasonal ingredients for must-tries like Botanico Salad, Lamb Tartare, and Braised Pork Belly with Sherry Sour Sauce. Enjoy your meal in the restaurant’s simple monochromatic interiors—or dine al fresco in a wooddecked terrace with a garden bar. Botanico, Level 2 of The Garage, 50 Cluny Park Road, Singapore Botanic Gardens

Whitegrass Formerly a convent and school, CHIJMES, the 19th-century NeoGothic structure with a tall spire, is now a lively lifestyle destination of eateries that includes the Modern Australian restaurant Whitegrass. Whitegrass is Sam Aisbett’s first stint as chef-owner, and its inspiration is obvious in a hand-painted mural of land and sea creatures, and plants and herbs by MessyMxi. Its three dining rooms are awash in pinks, forest green, and vibrant blue, with patterned sofas, pendant lights, and rugs adding a vintage—and homey— touch. Handmade ceramics by local artists Lee Huiwen and Kenneth Lau include vases resembling baobabs, butter and salt dishes shaped like mushrooms. This playfulness is a nod to Whitegrass’s experimental menu of Grass-Fed Beef, Slow-Cooked Mangalica Pork, and the Young Coconut Mousse rife with influences from Japanese cuisine and Aisbett’s own fascination with Australian ingredients and local produce. Whitegrass, CHIJMES, 30 Victoria Street

Pó

The Summerhouse

Tall tales of opium dens, secret societies, and underground distilleries on the banks of Robertson Quay are just that; the area was officially just part of a trade route through the Straits of Malacca. Built with a triple-pitched roof and masonry walls in 1895, a warehouse in the vicinity has since been repurposed into the Warehouse Hotel, modern-meetsindustrial 37-room accommodations that opened in the beginning of the year. A tribute to popo, Mandarin for grandmother, the boutique hotel’s flagship restaurant Pó takes nostalgia and runs with it. Curated by Mod Sin (that’s Modern Singapore) pioneer, Chef Willin Low of Wild Rocket fame, Pó piques the palate with Singaporean flavors of yesteryears; signature dishes include the Charcoal-grilled Iberico Satay and Spicy Tamarind Barramundi. Pó’s interiors combine the building’s industrial roots with the coziness of home, juxtaposing a muted palette, terrazzo flooring, and marbled tables with chic rattan chairs and warm lighting.

Located up north in Seletar, The Summerhouse is situated in a rolling landscape reminiscent of an English countryside. The area that was once an airbase for the Royal Air Force is now a dining destination set in a colonial-style, two-story structure built in the 1930s, its sprawling verandas and original timberwork and fretwork kept intact. Occupying the second floor, The Summerhouse Dining Room and Balcony Bar boasts open spaces enhanced with the addition of a mirrored ceiling, and tapered panes echoing the geometric patterns of the windows. The dining area’s furniture is done in dark wood punctuated by floral upholstery—all of it kept light to reflect the natureinspired, farm-to-table menu by Chef Florian Ridder. Order Beetroot, a whole raspberry-pickled beetroot with a surprise center, and the Panzanella, eggplant “caviar” served in a local tomato broth.

Pó, Warehouse Hotel, 320 Havelock Road, Robertson Quay

The Summerhouse, 3 Park Lane, The Oval @ Seletar Aerospace Park, Seletar

APRIL 2017

SPACE DESIGN

THE SHOW OF ALL SHOWS

For Manila’s design tastemakers, the Maison & Objet is an opportunity to see the best of what the world has to offer in furniture and all things decorative. That it is situated in Paris all the more heightens the experience WORDS BY JEROME GOMEZ

t’s not easy pinning Ito Kish down when he is in Manila, so imagine setting up a last-minute catch-up with him in Paris. “Where are you staying? Let’s get a meal!” he messaged. “I am staying near Gare de l’Est.” I have no idea where that is, and there is no time to find out. The designer and home store owner is in the City of Lights for a mere three days, two of which are dedicated to exploring the offerings at Maison & Objet Paris, one of the biggest design fairs in the world, if not the most respected. Kish and I keep making plans to meet, but alas, our schedules wouldn’t allow it. It would’ve been great to explore the exhibition halls with him, I thought, but I was busy with interviews and he was busy with buying. It’s not easy making last-minute plans during M&O season. The twice-yearly fair is such a huge event that one can be in the exhibition area in its entire six-day run and not see everything. If you’ve been going to our own Manila FAME, multiply the size of that by eight and you have an idea of the amount of furniture, home décor, lighting fixtures, even fashion accessories, that awaits. With 3,000 brands on show, and 2,000 exhibitors divided into eight gigantic halls, it can be a lot, with each exhibitor trying to take your eye away from the next booth. There’s the Ritz mimicking its own hotel lobby and façade. There’s a multi-label company that set up an entire barn-like atmosphere complete with an acoustic performer crooning something out of Joni Mitchell. There are walls of Slim Aarons’ luscious photographs of poolside holidays, courtesy of the Getty Images booth. There are the fantastically furnished showrooms of luxury houses like Ungaro, Missoni and Cavalli. An assault to the senses, if you don’t come prepared, or if you’re unsure of what you’re after. “Follow the red carpet,” Regina Chan, director of Maison & Objet Asia Pacific, tells me as we stride inward to Hall 7 under whose roof is a mix of established upscale brands—situated on the right—and innovative design labels—which are on the left. “But more interesting is going into the small lanes in the middle,” Chan continues. “All those small companies in the middle, they are really exclusive ateliers, like maybe

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

Clockwise from top left: The Molo booth was made entirely of Kraft paper; the Molo ottomans made of wool and paper; Molo’s lamps and tables; part of the circusinspired collection at the Alessi booth; Philippinemanufactured lamps from a Thai designer; the VIP lounge Le Club where the design world’s movers and shakers network over tea and champagne; a living room vignette at Missoni; the selections at Imperfettolab.

a marble sculptor from France or Geneva.” The booths are thoughtfully zoned, so that one isn’t looking at, say, upholstery and carpets for the length of an aisle. Everything is carefully mixed. “And there’s no one like the French to mix things together,” says Chan. “They just know how to mix and match, how to pick, it’s in their DNA.” To be in Paris for the sole reason of attending a design show in the vastness that is the Paris Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center, a 45-minute drive away from the city proper, posts a dilemma whether you’re a reporter like me or a buyer like Kish. How do you dedicate one or two days to looking at chairs and lamps, without feeling like you’re missing some of the action in the central (It’s also Fashion Week!), or the opportunity of seeing the Versailles? We are in the most beautiful city in the world, for heaven’s sake. But the 20-year-old event didn’t land its present stature as one of the most important design destinations if it didn’t have the goods to offer. Many of the biggest entities in interiors and architecture make it a point to be part of the biannual show. Names like Frank Gehry (did you know he’s put his name on tufted rugs?), Lladro, Lalique, and Alessi grace the occasion, and so do up-and-coming brands that are increasingly being talked about in the design universe. Some of Manila’s tastemakers make it a part of their yearly itinerary, finding in the fair an incredible source of home accoutrements that would suit their abodes, their hotel projects, their stores. Ben Chan was there last January, buyers from Rustan’s, W17’s Andy Vazquez Prada. Bianca Zobel, who I met at the fair’s VIP lounge Le Club, unmade up and with her luggage still in tow, was looking for tableware to add to her merchandise in Lanai. “I always look forward to seeing the new styles,” she tells me in Manila. “Although I didn’t see that many new things in this last M&O. Maybe I’ll check out the September one and see if there’s a difference.” Being at M&O affords a greater chance of bringing home objects that are less likely to show up in other residential projects or competing establishments. And I imagine it should be worth the trip even if one’s only desire is to find inspiration.With its lineup of discussions, Maison & Objet is also where one keeps abreast of what’s happening in the world of industrial design. Eric Paras makes it a point to visit every so often. “Maison & Objet has more flair, and is a good source for inspiration and trend-spotting,” says the designer. “It is the great influencer in global trends in design and lifestyle.”

Ricky Toledo and Chito Vijandre of the stores Firma and ac+632 have been going once or twice a year for the past 15 years. “We like this show more than others because the exhibitors are carefully chosen and they make an effort to have special exhibits of upcoming talents from around the world as well as from established design icons,” Toledo says. He makes special mention of the M&O trend observatory, which this year heralds the concept of silence as a major inﬂuencer in design in the months and years to come, a reaction to a continuously noisy global atmosphere. “It’s always spot on in capturing the zeitgeist, providing trend inspirations without being too literal or dictatorial in its approach. Instead of just prescribing colors

“I always look forward to seeing the new styles,” says Bianca Zobel of Lanai. “It is the great influencer in global trends in design and lifestyle,” says Eric Paras or shapes for the season, it fires the imagination so as to open up a world of infinite possibilities.” To someone like me who doesn’t exactly have a house to build or a store to replenish, M&O is a great learning experience. And being able to still see the Louvre even briefly at the end of the day isn’t such a bad deal. In previous years, there have been satellite shows in Miami and Singapore but the organizers decided to pull all of its efforts into just this one event late last year. Which for many makes the most sense. “Paris, of course, where the art and joy of living thrive, is the perfect host for this show,” says Toledo. “M&O is a good source of creativity, ideas, and the fact that it’s in Paris is a bonus,” Kish tells me when I ask him in Manila why he comes to the fair. On the afternoon of his last day in Paris, he and I continued to exchange messages. Maybe a late-night drink? Maybe very early breakfast before his flight to Copenhagen? None of these materialized. I was just glad he was able to squeeze in a visit to the Eiffel Tower, which, despite his many trips to the city, he says he has not really seen at night. He sends me a picture of it from his hotel, the structure’s lighted silhouette burning magnificently against the evening sky. I make a mental note to, like Zobel, return for the M&O in September.

APRIL 2017

SPACE DESIGN

DUAL NATURE

From light and shade to public and private, Poltrona Frau’s latest hybrid furnishings are an exploration of contrasts WORDS BY MARIE ANNABELLE MARQUEZ

T WOFOLD

Clockwise, from top: Shi-Chieh Lu’s Ming’s Heart chair, which balances Eastern and Western elements; JeanMarie Massaud’s Lloyd bookcase; a console from the Ren Collection, which resembes the Chinese character for “person” from its side.

houghtful studies on dualities mark Italian furniture maker Poltrona Frau’s recent collaborations with designers. In the Ren collection, Shanghaibased design studio Neri & Hu explores the home’s entryway as a combination of thoroughfare and space, private and public, glimpse and introduction. This series of tables, racks, and stands serves as both decor and storage, structured upon shapes and lines in a game of suspension and balance. Shelves sit at various heights, and round mirrors and trays hang from upper crosspieces alongside reﬁned hooks. Each product is crafted in wood and accented with brass and leather, but most noticeable is their rounded wooden frame, which forms a distinct silhouette. It’s a reference to the Chinese ideogram ren (which means “person”) from which the collection takes its name. Each piece sits comfortably in any space, making a discreet companion to larger furniture pieces. The theme of duality continues in Ming’s Heart by architect and designer Shi-Chieh Lu of Taiwan. His version

of the historic Ming chair is a quiet dialogue between Eastern purity and Western geometry, resulting in a piece both ﬂuid and graphic. A thin steel sheet padded with polyurethane foam hangs on a frame of tubular steel. Armrest, seat, and back meld into a continuous line. The shell is upholstered in leather and features contrasting hand stitching. French designer Jean-Marie Massaud’s Lloyd applies chiaroscuro in a deft, precise system of storage units and bookcases. Solid wooden rods cut in varying degrees of thickness and glued individually by hand form vertical grids that rest on invisible horizontal rails. As the collection’s key element, the grids can be moved to curate sequences of light and shade, exposure and cover, solid and void. Structures combine technology, wood, and leather, including accented vertical uprights placed in rhythmic intervals across each piece. In its display of dual natures, Poltrona Frau also presents a ﬁnal, simple statement: when carefully designed, a piece that was meant to blend in can ultimately stand out.

POLTRONA FRAU CAN BE FOUND AT FURNITALIA, CRESCENT PARK WEST, 30TH STREET COR RIZAL DRIVE, BONIFACIO GLOBAL CITY, TAGUIG; 819-1887.

APRIL 2017

T H E

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A R E N A

Promotions and relevant items, direct from our partners

Discreet Design Gruppo Treesse’s Ghost System boasts of invisible technology

DESIGNER MARC SADLER’S trademark is actually invisible. The Austrian-born creative has always believed that the presence of technology ruins the experience of serenity in a home. His designs—whether they’re furniture, lighting ﬁxtures, or spa systems— are streamlined, devoid of distractions with wirings and supports cleverly concealed. He brings that ethos to a line of bath tubs, shower cubicles, mini swimming pools and spas called the Ghost System. Through his meticulous design, Sadler creates the ideal products for a space for relaxation. The Ghost System features ﬂuid lines and calm colors. Most of all, there are no unsightly details to interfere with your luxurious meditations. —DEVI DE VEYRA Ghost System by Marc Sadler is available at Dexterton, 38th Street, BGC, Taguig; 772-7029; dexterton.com

APRIL 2017

T H E

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Promotions and relevant items, direct from our partners

Dream Ride Luxury car company BMW drives social change as the mobility partner of the country’s first UNICEF Children’s Ball

BMW RECENTLY SERVED as a premium mobility partner

at the inaugural UNICEF (United Nationals International Children’s Emergency Fund) Children’s Ball, held last March at the Rigodon Ballroom of the Peninsula Hotel Manila with the theme as “Dreams.” UNICEF, together with LAJ Philippines-LEGO, presented a charity dinner that brought awareness to the plight of children with disabilities, and raised funds for the establishment of national centers for children with disabilities across the country. The centers will address different forms of disabilities through tailored medical services that include diagnosis, medication, therapies, and others.

For its part, BMW transported an elite group of chefs and restaurateurs across the metro to events that culminated in the momentous one-night fundraiser. Over 300 guests were treated to an exclusive culinary experience prepared by four of Asia’s best female chefs: Margarita Forés (Grace Park, Philippines), Vicky Lau (Tate Dining Room, Hong Kong), Lanshu Chen (Le Môut Restaurant, Taiwan), and Bo Songvisava (Bo. Ian, Thailand). The charity event also included a special welcome dinner for UNICEF Country Representative Lotta Sylwander, and a visit to the Philippine General Hospital, where the ﬁrst of four centers is already underway. —BEA DEL RIO

April 2017

Edited by

JACS SAMPAYAN

THE EYE FA S H I O N + S T Y L E + G R O O M I N G

DEVIL IN THE DETAILS In a post-minimalist world, random embellishments—from staple wires and ribbons to prints and tattoos—figure in all things fashion

Issue

108

SEE SHOPLIST (PAGE 110) FOR STORE INFORMATION

DIOR HOMME SHIRT, DRIES VAN NOTEN TROUSERS AND SHOES. PREVIOUS PAGE: THE ARTISAN JACKET, AMI PARIS SHIRT.

LEFT: DRIES VAN NOTEN SHOES. BELOW: AMI PARIS SHIRT, GOSHA RUBCHINSKIY JACKET.

ABOVE: FUCT SHIRT, JIL SANDER TROUSERS, BALENCIAGA SHOES. RIGHT: DIOR HOMME SHOES.

SEE SHOPLIST (PAGE 110) FOR STORE INFORMATION

CHRISTOPHER RÃ&#x2020;BURN JACKET, AMI PARIS SHIRT, YOU MUST CREATE (YMC) SHORTS, BALENCIAGA SHOES.

PHOTOGRAPHER JOHANN BONA ART DIRECTION KARL CASTRO STYLING BLAKE SAMSON GROOMING SYDNEY HELMSLEY ART AND STYLING ASSISTED BY PATRICIA CHONG, EUSELA LANDRITO, AND SAM FABIAN MODEL MARCO ARAUNTO

SEE SHOPLIST (PAGE 110) FOR STORE INFORMATION

THE ARTISAN JACKET, DIOR HOMME SHIRT, OAMC TROUSERS, ADIDAS BY RAF SIMONS SHOES.

THE EYE STYLE

SOUTH BEACH RIOT A marriage of street and luxury, Diesel’s SS17 collection is inspired by the vibrant colors and unmistakable kitsch of Miami’s summer WORDS BY BEA DEL RIO

“

iami is a place I’ve always admired for its art culture, art déco architecture, and beach lifestyle,” reveals Diesel Artistic Director Nicola Formichetti. “I’m inspired by the uplifting, 80s pop colors every time I visit. I wish the entire world was like Miami during summer.” Formichetti’s latest collection for the Italian retail clothing brand certainly captures the look and feel of this city known for its extravagance as well as its laid-back, chill vibe. Think 3D ﬂamingos on knitwear, love-hearts and polka-dots on 50s-styled skirts and shirts, and cartoon speech bubbles on pajamas and dresses. Graphic designer Yoko Honda lends her keen, retro-pop sensibilities to the collection, incorporating Miami’s ubiquitous palm trees and playful beach

A Nose for Desire

graphics, which evoke an undeniable 80s nostalgia, into a contemporary aesthetic. Playing further to the retro look with a twist, Diesel revives the 90s rainbow stripe into modern navy or black bomber jackets. This season also marks a ﬁrst for the brand: it now offers a wide array of pink shirts, jackets, and pants in its men’s line, bold statements for guys who are unafraid to include them in their wardrobe. There are also unique denim pieces with bleached-out wash that still look perfect for partying in Miami; oversized rivets, in pure metal or an array of metallic colors, complete the look. Cut-outs are apparent throughout the collection, appearing in sweatshirts, T-shirt dresses, and even high-heeled sandals and collectible bags. Flamboyant, sure, but the designs are complemented by classic cuts and silhouettes. Diesel’s (Greenbelt 3, Ayala Center, Makati; 757-4573; diesel.com) collection is all about reinvention and celebrating life unapologetically and fearlessly; a nod to contemporary Tony Montanas and Elvira Hancocks, who dare match Miami’s sun-kissed cool.

Sitting on top of a hill north of Cannes is Grasse, the center of the global perfume industry. With a history that stretches back to the 16th century, it is home to some of the biggest and oldest fragrance manufacturers and perfumeries, such as Galimard, Fragonard, and Molinard. It is also the birthplace of Michel Almairac, the creator of over 200 perfumes. Almairac, who studied perfumery at the Roure Bertrand Dupont, is known for achieving balance in his scents, as well as his use of short formulas, “in which each material has to exist in the fragrance without suffocating or being suffocated by another material,” he explains. This respected nose has concocted fine fragrances for Bottega Veneta, Gucci, Giorgio Armani, and Dior. For Dunhill, Almairac created Desire Red, an oriental-woody composition of lime, neroli, bergamot, and apple top notes; patchouli, teak, and rose heart notes; and base notes of vanilla, musk, and labdanum. Introduced in 2000, this refreshing and polished fragrance is contained in a bright red bottle shaped like a hip flask, and is now available as a body spray. Desire Red is part of the Dunhill Desire Collection, which consists of Desire Blue, Desire Black, and Desire Silver. The new body spray collection includes all variants. Dunhill Body Spray Collection is available at all leading department stores nationwide in 195 ml size for P950 per bottle. —BLAKE SAMSON

APRIL 2017

THE EYE WATCHES

OPEN-HEARTED Precision movements, stunning embellishments, and fine finishes are among the features of Maurice Lacroix’s latest skeleton watches WORDS BY BLAKE SAMSON

he ﬁrst skeleton watch was created in 1760 by André-Charles Caron, clockmaker to Louis XV. Pursuing the grand idea of displaying the inner workings of his timepieces, he trimmed the plate and bridge, thereby exposing a watch’s moving parts through the back or open work on the dial. The remaining mechanisms are often decorated with tasteful engravings or embellishments. Like Caron, luxury watchmaker Maurice Lacroix (Main Wing, Shangri-La Plaza, Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong; 634-3161; lucerneluxe.com) devotes time and attention to the art of the skeleton watch. In fact, the Swiss brand has made a name for itself with this open-faced design. Doing away with a conventional dial, the Lacroix Masterpiece Skeleton presents a main bridge that’s reminiscent of spokes on a wheel, indulging a view of the main spring, balance, winding stem, and other normally hidden parts. With its contemporary design and 43mm stainless steel case, it delivers serious wrist presence. Meanwhile, a 45 mm stainless steel case, a new automatic chronograph that includes a Côtes de Genève motif speciﬁcally produced for the house, and a revolving “M” logo—certainly a unique and playful detail—on the disc of the seconds display are among the handsome features of the Masterpiece Skeleton Chronograph.

THE EYE STYLE

ANIMAL INSTINCT

Riccardo Tisci gives a Givenchy emblem a graphic update WORDS BY BLAKE SAMSON

s the first couturier to present luxury prêt-à-porter in 1954, Hubert de Givenchy built his namesake fashion house on modern, ladylike, faultless elegance— qualities personified by Grace Kelly, Jackie Kennedy, and his iconic muse, the actress Audrey Hepburn, who immortalized his little black dress in a defining scene in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Since his retirement from fashion in 1995, his label has been helmed by equally formidable talents like John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, and Julien Mcdonald. In an attempt to revitalize the brand in 2005, its then president Marco Gobbetti made a move that left the industry dazed: he appointed Riccardo Tisci—a designer with only two collections and no experience in couture to his name. Still, this choice proved to be the perfect match as Tisci served as creative director for 12 years. With an extensive understanding of an entirely new generation, he breathed new life into the brand. Referencing religion, sensuality, romanticism,

and even melancholy, the designer bravely introduced a new approach to fashion by mixing streetwear and couture. Back then, people thought it was a trend that would last no more than a few seasons; today, the concept is still evolving as designers continue to explore more ways to interpret it in their collections. Having an eye for bold prints and an undeniable love for streetwear, Tisci introduced a new design language to the label. Who could ever forget that aggressive Rottweiler print that debuted in 2011? It was such a massive hit, it was seen all over the place, either in its original form or as an “inspired by” version. The print worn by Kanye West, P. Diddy, and Rihanna was emblazoned on sweaters, shirts, and bags. Since then, the Rottweiler has become such a brand staple, some even call it an emblem. With Tisci’s departure from the house in February 2017, Givenchy released his reinterpreted Rottweiler print in a special spring/summer capsule collection, one that sees the unforgettable image in white outline over black on clothing and accessories. Givenchy is located at Greenbelt 4, Shangri-La Plaza East Wing, and Solaire Resort and Casino.

APRIL 2017

T H E

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Promotions and relevant items, direct from our partners

Gold Standard ORO CHINA RECENTLY celebrated its 50th anniversary with a gala at Radisson Blu Cebu headlined by acclaimed names in the industry. Since opening shop in 1967, the Cebuano jewelry label has built a name for itself all over the country with its range of thoughtfully handcrafted accessories that include everything from rings and earrings to necklaces and bangles. The seven designers that headlined the big fashion presentation—Jun Escario, Arcy Gayatin, Philip Rodriguez, Cary Santiago, Rajo Laurel, Francis Libiran, and Randy Ortiz—partnered their creations with these pieces. The collections were modeled by their own muses, which included Isabelle Daza, Miss International Kylie Verzosa, and Chesca Garcia-Kramer, who carefully navigated the long runway with her voluminous Santiago ensemble. —JACS T. SAMPAYAN orochinajewelry.com

April 2017

Edited by

PAOLO ENRICO MELENDEZ

THE SLANT

Issue

108

OPINIONS + IDEAS + PERSPECTIVES

“Are we lost?” asks my wife and dinner date Beng, who doesn’t know she’s about to have the best steak of her life. 01 Elbert’s Steakeasy

02 Mami Magnate

03 Raw Power

JOSE DALISAY, JR.

JOSE VICTOR Z. TORRES

MIGUEL JAIME G. ONGPIN

From false start to successful run. A resistance to market. A downright refusal to expand. The story of Elbert’s Steak Room is the quintessential rogue story.

To call Ma Mon Luk an institution would be an understatement. Closely tied to the story of downtown Manila itself, the iconic restaurant is both actor in, and audience to, history.

No establishment represents the cultural nook that is Little Tokyo better than Izakaya Kikufuji. Word has it that it, and the rest of the compound, is set to close. A longtime regular reacts.

Jose Dalisay, y, Jr. on his top steak pick

ELBERT’S STEAKEASY Breaking every rule in the book, Elbert’s Steak Room will give you the best steaks for your money—if you can find it

A SECRET WELL KEPT

This steak room bucks the modern look for a classic feel, and hints at the sophistication of the coming meal. Opposite: A prime cut will set you back big time. But regulars swear to its value

46 A P R I L 2 0 1 7

ou won’t have a problem finding most of the steakhouses routinely rated among the world’s best. La Cabaña in Buenos Aires, for example, has a full-sized bull right at the door and a couple more in the hallway to let you know that you’ve come to the right place. The covered walk leading into Brooklyn’s Peter Luger is emblazoned with the word “Steak House” and the Peter Luger name on both sides. That’s not the case with Elbert’s Steak Room on H. V. de la Costa Street in Salcedo Village, Makati. You might have to use Waze, first of all, to locate the Sagittarius Building, on the third floor of which it’s supposed to be located, and then you have to find the restaurant itself (a small, barely readable sign downstairs does confirm that it’s upstairs somewhere) by walking up the stairs in increasing darkness. The not-inappropriate phrase “bum steer” crosses your mind. There’s a big red door that looks more like a wall. “Are we lost?” asks my wife and dinner date Beng, who doesn’t know she’s about to have the best steak of her life. No, we’re not—the door magically slides open; there are people inside—a young Pinoy millennial couple and a large round table of equally young Koreans; two more couples soon drift in, and the place is full. Elbert’s Steak Room isn’t only one of the hardest joints to find in town; it’s also one of the most compact (an extension called the Riedel Room has been added downstairs to cater to the cigar-and-single-malt crowd). Perhaps because of that, your first impression will be one of unpretentious coziness, with lots of old wood and broken leather—just a few tables spaced just far enough apart for conversations to remain private. Peter Luger famously takes only cash and debit cards; it’s so busy that its notoriously snarky waiters don’t have the time to process credit cards. If that were the policy at Elbert’s (thankfully it’s not), you’d need to bring a thick wad of pesos tied up with a rubber band, because the prices relative to your dinner of boneless banguss at Pancake House can be eye-watering, starting at P3,200 for the USDA prime-grade New York cut to P6,500 for the USDA prime-grade porterhouse for two. That’s generally an extra zero added to the usual price of what passes for steak in these cowless islands. The same porterhouse for two at PL can be had for $100 plus-plus, so it all evens out, and you’ve saved yourself the plane fare to Brooklyn. On the upside, Elbert’s prices are all-in, inclusive of salad, soup, one side dish, and coff ff e or tea, plus VAT and service charge. And on the real upside, the steak’s every bit as good, if not better than your global standard, and you don’t just have to take Elbert’s word for it. Beng orders the “Double Gold” filet mignon, I have the prime-grade rib eye. When they come about half an hour later (and there’s a good reason for the wait, apart from the appetizers and the wine), they are absolutely the best steaks we’ve ever had and

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KAI HUANG

likely ever will. Medium rare, my rib eye is a symphony of grain and flavor, and Beng’s filet mignon has a milky smoothness that turns Beng, who normally disdains beef, into a believer. I’ve known Elbert Cuenca for over 20 years. As Mac and Apple freaks, we’ve both chaired the Philippine Macintosh Users Group (PhilMUG) and I’ve followed his evolution from Mac guru to restaurateur with great interest, but it’s been a while since we’ve sat down for a conversation about anything other than OS’es and gigahertz. I’m curious as hell about how he got into steaks and why his steak room is so damn hard to find. He saunters over after dinner and, over coffee, drops a story on my lap that lifestyle editors have been chasing after for a decade. Like many success stories, Elbert’s began with a spectacular failure. “I was running Restaurant 12 in Greenbelt. I had found an investor and had plunged into my dream project of a high-concept, high-risk, highprofile restaurant. We had guest chefs rotating, and you never quite knew what was going to be on the menu. But it was a flop and we had to close down after two years. I learned that people wanted familiarity, something they could keep coming back to if they liked it.” When the place closed in 2004, the San Beda economics dropout had to scramble for a job, and it was his techie side that saved him. “I decided to market myself as a personal Mac trainer, spending two to three hours with clients who needed help in setting up their systems. This put me in touch with a lot of affluent people, and one of them was the late hotelier Archie King, who became a close friend.” At one dinner in Archie’s house in Forbes Park, Bacchus—the wine and meat importers—was treating him to steaks it had flown in from the US, and that’s when Elbert brought up his dream of opening another restaurant. “I told him that I wanted to find a small space—an apartment, or an office area— that I could turn into a private dining room. This was an idea that was trending in places like Hong Kong where the rent for restaurants was getting too high. Ben Chan had brought me to one such dining room called the Kee Club and I was wondering where we were going, up an old building in Central, until the door opened and there were these Picassos on the wall. I pitched the idea to Archie—not for him to invest, but as someone who was my ideal market. Suddenly he said, ‘I’m in!’ He didn’t even ask for a business plan. All I had was an idea for a single concept—everything that was the opposite of what I’d done before: low-concept, low-profile, not modern but conservative, and so on.” A building was soon found in Makati— hardly the most promising locale—“with vinyl floors, Styrofoam ceilings, a sewer smell somewhere, an orange glow inside the room,” Elbert recalls, “but I got goose bumps when I realized what the place could be.” A designer named Noel Bernardo, who had plotted similar single-concept theme

“Ben Chan had brought me to one such dining room called the Kee Club, and I was wondering where we were going, up an old building in Central, until the door opened and there were these Picassos on the wall”

restaurants in Hong Kong, helped realize Elbert’s understated vision, and with some help from Archie, a skeptical mom, and a group of lawyers he had Mac-tutored, Elbert’s Steak Room opened in late July 2007. “We opened with three tables, and I bought just enough cutlery and glassware for those three tables. Archie was my first customer. Some guy was selling him a plane and he invited the guy over. My first customers were my Mac students, and the word started to spread. We were full every night, and I used whatever we earned to buy more things for the place. By December we had completed the restaurant. What was a 12-seater in my head became a 30-seater.” (Today, with the additional room downstairs, Elbert’s can seat 44.) Of course, fixing up the place was one thing; cooking the right steaks was another. “I knew only what a good steak tasted like but had no idea what it took to make one,” Elbert confesses. “Bacchus had some good ideas—a Weber grill, certain temperatures. We hit a snag in the construction and I was getting worried because Bacchus had flown in P200,000 worth of steaks from Wisconsin for me, so I had to freeze them, going against conventional wisdom that steaks are best chilled, not frozen.” As it turned out, that “mistake” was the best thing that ever happened to the place and to its offerings. “I had invested in a zero-degree chiller because chilled beef supposedly trumps frozen beef. But then, through a lot of trial and error, we realized that the thing to do was to move the beef from the freezer to the chiller for a couple of days, and then to bring it up slowly to room temperature when the steak was ordered. So the trick is in the thawing. Eventually I got a broiler of the kind used by some of the world’s best steakhouses, one that allows steaks to be broiled very quickly after proper thawing, one minute per side. Then we rest the steaks for five to 10 minutes before serving it.” That, in a nutshell, is the secret to Elbert’s success, and it’s not even a real secret because he’s posted the whole process in greater detail on their website at steakroom.com. “I learned a lot of what I know from the internet, so I’m just giving it all back!” he says, laughing. Despite the near-absent advertising—

APRIL 2017

THREE IS THE CHARM

Elbert Cuenca’s first food venture went out of business in 2004. His work as a personal Macintosh trainer got him the right network to start the right restaurant

the website is all there is, apart from the have to go to Elbert’s. Now when I go back, I’ll dozens of salutary reviews on TripAdvisor tell him that he has nothing on you!’” and Zomato—it didn’t take long for Elbert’s At the heart of Elbert’s confidence is his Steak Room to become a benchmark for local conviction that the steaks, while supremely steakhouses, and to find a devoted following important, are just part of the whole dining among its clientele, about 60 percent of whom experience. “You come to my place, and I are expats. “We got on the radar of hotels, feed you right, it’s as simple as that. My staff and high-end steakhouses knows how to leave you began opening up. But alone. We won’t confuse every time a new one you with a choice of Today, phoned-in opens, our business picks eight different kinds of up, because our customers steak knives or sauces or reservations from find that they miss us. As salt. [I discovered that I Panasonic’s Matsushita could choose from three Singapore and once said, you have to sauces if I had to, but we pray for your competitors’ never did need them.] I one-year advance survival—otherwise there’s don’t turn tables. If you no way you can be on make a reservation, you reservations for top.” Today, phoned-in have your table for the reservations from whole night.” Valentine’s are Singapore and one-year And what’s with the advance reservations difficulty of finding the pretty routine. for Valentine’s are place? Elbert tells this pretty routine. story: “A girl came up one Married to the travel and day and she was fuming lifestyle editor Liza Ilarde, Elbert travels a lot, mad that we didn’t have signage and a proper and inevitably steaks have to figure on their door. Toward the end of their dinner, she menu on the road. “Our meat packers are in and her date called for me, and I thought Green Bay, Wisconsin. I went to a steakhouse she was going to tell me off some more, but in Hong Kong, which gets its meat from the what she said was, ‘Please, don’t put a sign. same place, but it wasn’t the same. I’ve tried Leave the door closed.’ And I got what she many of the world’s top steakhouses and I’ve was saying. This no-door, no-sign thing was been surprised by how poorly their steaks not a problem, but an asset. A lifestyle editor compared to ours. An American customer had been dying to tell my steak room’s story. once told me about Keens Steakhouse in New I declined the story but invited her over for York. [Keens is a four-and-a-half-stars place dinner. When she came, it turned out that in Manhattan, noted for its prime-only steaks she knew everyone at every table. That’s and single malts.] ‘I eat there a lot,’ he said, when she said, ‘You’re right, let’s not do the ‘because the chef’s a good friend and he told article. Let’s keep this nice and quiet.’” me, if you’re going to the Philippines, you Elbert is fiercely protective of that 48 A P R I L 2 0 1 7

quietude, to the point of being unwilling to branch out, as most others in his situation would have naturally done after a decade’s success. “I don’t see this branching out. Once you create two of something it’s no longer special. I have other restaurants— three ramen shops, a sandwich place. I could lose everything but this is the one I’ll protect and keep. I’ve had offers to bring it abroad but I’m not sure I can bring the same experience over,” he says. Just 49, Elbert is prematurely whitehaired—the price to pay, he acknowledges, for all the hard work he’s poured into the steak room—but he hasn’t forgotten how to have some boyish fun. In 2013 he won the BOSS Ironman Challenge (an endurance event for cars and motorcycles), completing a loop of Northern Luzon in just over 12 hours; he had won the same event the year before but now cut two hours off his own time. It’s that kind of competitiveness and consistency that ensures that Elbert’s Steak Room will be around for a much longer while in its own quiet, no-fuss way. He sweeps a hand around the room and says, “This is the antithesis of restaurants. It’s a steak house with no cowboy hats or checked shirts. We’ve broken every rule— no elevators, lousy location, and so on. It’s like a speakeasy, a secret place you’ll want to tell your friends about.” “You mean a steakeasy,” I say, and he laughs. “I like that!” he says. “A steakeasy!” Like his place, it’s something you’ll be hard put to locate in a dictionary, but will feel perfectly comfortable with once you ﬁnd it.

W 02

Jose Victor Z. Torres on Manila’s origanal mami

MAMI MAGNATE There are restaurants. And then there are institutions. Ma Mon Luk has transcended generations to remain a cultural icon, historical artifact, and straight up tasty eatery

hen Quiapo was only a 20-minute walk from my former office in Intramuros, a lunchtime ritual was eating at the Ma Mon Luk Restaurant on Quezon Boulevard. One of the waiters already knew me as a regular customer. As soon as I sat down, he approached my table with my usual order—a bowl of special beef mami and special siopao. A complimentary bowl of broth was added, which was a plus for me since it was like having two bowls of mami. It was a muchanticipated meal at the end of a noon walk through the old districts of Manila. Mamii and siopaoo are the country’s earliest fast-food snacks. We were entwining noodles on forks and munching steamed meatﬁlled bread even before fast-food burgers, spaghetti, French fries, and fried chicken became part of the Filipino everyday cuisine. One man is credited for “inventing” the mami and making it a part of today’s Filipino food lifestyle: Ma Mon Luk. Ma’s journey in starting and marketing what would become popular local food products was a long, hard one that began in Canton, China. He was a poor schoolteacher who wanted to marry his sweetheart, Ng Shih, a daughter from a rich family. When her parents turned down his proposal, he vowed that he would leave his country, make a name for himself, become rich, then come back to claim her as his bride. Ma came to the Philippines in 1918. He immediately looked for a way to make a living. Then he had an idea—he would sell noodles. But he had to add a twist to his planned food fare. Noodles were sold on the street since the Spanish colonial period by Chinese ambulant vendors called chanchauleros. The noodles were called pansit by the locals. They were made of rice and wheat ﬂour, sautéed, and served with shredded pork and vegetables.

CULINARY LANDMARKS

IMAGES COURTESY OF MA MON LUK

Ma Mon Luk’s two locations, Quiapo and Quezon City, are as much landmark as restaurant. Above: A younger Ma, who was born in Canton and moved to the Philippines to chase two dreams

APRIL 2017

ONE DOES NOT just sit down and start slurping down mami noodles and munching siopao. Each customer has his own pre-eating ritual. The sweet, brown asado siopao sauce isn’t just for the siopao. One squirts the sauce from a plastic squeeze bottle into the mami for a sweetish-tasting broth or on the noodles for a sweet, chewy bite with a tinge of saltiness. No chopsticks here. Even though the restaurant sign and the plastic signboard menu have Chinese symbols on it, it is Filipino dining with spoon and fork or the hands (if one just likes to eat siopao). My ritual consists of a squeeze of calamansi into the broth, a dash of pepper, and soy sauce into the mami. Then peeling the dry outer layer of the siopao and removing the paper stuck underneath. The tip of the plastic squeeze bottle is then poked into the soft bread and asado sauce is “injected” until it oozes out of some holes in the siopao. A customer soon offered Ma a space on Tomas Pinpin Street in Binondo. It was a two-table affair enough to accommodate only a few customers. But Ma was happy. His patrons still went to his small restaurant. By this time, gupit was known by a different name. It was said that the new name—mami— was a combination of his name Ma (which meant “horse” in Chinese) and mi, meaning

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noodles. Unfortunately, Ma did not have the word patented. Soon, imitation noodle soups sprouted with a name that was, personally, Ma’s own. Ma’s hard work and perseverance paid off. He became rich, returned to China, and claimed Ng Shih’s hand. They married in the Philippines and their union produced four children—William, Robert, Irene, and George. With his success, Ma acquired properties. He built his house along Quezon Avenue, where the restaurant’s main branch and the office of the Ma Mon Luk International Corporation Company are located today. The first Ma Mon Luk Restaurant opened on Salazar Street in Binondo. Here, Ma added siopao and siomai to the mami fare. Soon, word spread about his delicious food and diners flocked to his restaurant. In 1948, he opened another branch on Azcarraga Street (now C.M. Recto Avenue) near the corner of Avenida Rizal. Two years later, Ma moved the restaurant to Quezon Boulevard in Quiapo near the Life Theater where it still exists today. But opening restaurant branches wasn’t enough for Ma. He made sure that his mami and siopao would be famous in Manila. He literally became a one-man walking advertising firm. He gave and fed siopao to everyone, from the lowliest man on the street to the Presidents of the country. At night, he walked the streets carrying bags of siopao and offered the food from house to house, saying, “Ma Mon Luk. Just remember the name: Ma Mon Luk.” National Artist for Literature F. Sionil José remembers Ma’s visits with the bags of siopao at the pre-martial law Manila Times offices on Florentino Torres Street in Sta. Cruz. When he saw that there wasn’t enough siopao for everybody, Ma signed pieces of paper or his calling cards and distributed them, saying that his signature meant a free bowl of mami at the restaurant. This tradition of calling cards as Ma Mon Luk meal tickets is still being done by his sons today. Ma’s efforts to popularize his restaurant paid off. Ma Mon Luk soon became the word for mami and siopao in the city. I USUALLY FINISH the broth first. Then I’d pour

the complimentary broth into the half-empty bowl and treat myself to what is equivalent to another

SET TING THE STANDARD

Ma Mon Luk regulars often have a ritual of their own, reflecting the consistent quality of the food itself. Opposite: Ma straddles two cultures to establish one that is all its own

IMAGE COURTESY OF MA MON LUK

Ma continued this food tradition but experimented by serving the noodles with chicken broth. It was a one-man task. He kneaded and stretched the noodles, boiled the broth, and cut the chicken meat himself. He then loaded food, bowls, and utensils onto two large metal cans which he hung on each end of a pingga—a long bamboo pole used to carry objects on one’s shoulders. The broth was kept hot by live coals in a tiny stove placed inside one of the cans. Ma called his dish gupit because of the way he served it—he held the noodles up high over a bowl then, using a pair of scissors, cut it depending on how much his customer wanted or paid. Broth with chicken meat was ladled in. Thirty centavos worth of gupit was already a big meal. He hawked his food along the streets of Sta. Cruz and Binondo, where his customers were mostly students, office workers, and ordinary pedestrians. He easily had a clientele because his merienda was so different in taste and presentation from the popular American cuisine of that time.

restaurants. There was also the claim that a popular siopao and mami house was run by a relative of Ma’s. But this was repudiated by customers who know the family. There was one thing Ma was remembered for more than his food. It was his kindheartedness and generosity. He was always at the forefront of charities and gave immediate assistance to victims of national disasters. He donated rice, ﬂour, clothes, milk, cash and, of course, siopao. He always extended a helping hand to his employees. He treasured friendships with ordinary people and those in a position of power. F. Sionil José remembers a visit to former President Elpidio Quirino in the latter’s Novaliches resthouse where he was living after his presidency, abandoned by the “friends” he made during his term. During his visit, José was surprised to see Ma walking out of the house. When he talked to Quirino, the former president tearfully told José that Ma was the only person who continued to see him even though he was no longer in power. But Ma had a vice that eventually led to his untimely death. He was a heavy smoker, and was shown holding a cigarette in many of his pictures. A nagging cough and an itchy throat led to a diagnosis of advanced stage throat cancer. He was conﬁned at the Manila Sanitarium in Pasay for treatment but it was too late. Ma Mon Luk died on September 1, 1961 at the age of 65. After his death, his sons took over the business and expanded it. In 1988, the Ma Mon Luk Restaurant was organized into a food corporation—the Ma Mon Luk International Corporation with Robert as its president and George vice-president and general manager. Their listed food specialty? Mami and siopao. Ma’s legacy lives on.

IMAGE COURTESY OF THE LOPEZ MUSEUM AND LIBRARY

bowl of mami. Then I’d eat the noodles with a few mami. There once was an air-conditioned squirts of asado sauce on top. Then I’d bite into branch in Pasay but no customers came in. the siopao, revealing a brown cavity stuffed tightly It was only when George decided to remove with shredded meat and a salted egg. Each bite the air-conditioning that the place filled up would mean one squirt of asado sauce. Bite, squirt. with diners. Bite, squirt. Until the last bite is chewed down. My eating LOOK AT THE far wall style, of course, is just one of above the kitchen and you will He gave and fed a few that customers have see a painting of Ma. It is a adapted for Ma Mon Luk food. common fixture in the Ma Mon siopao to everyone, Some eat the siopao first. Luk branches. He is formally from the lowliest Some would eat both siopao dressed, smiling as he looks and mami at the same time. down at the dining hall where man on the street All have the same objective: to loyal customers eat his fare. finish the delicious food down There are only two menus in to the Presidents of the Quiapo branch and both of to the last bite. No customer leaves Ma Mon Luk unsatisthem are hanging on the walls the country. fied. opposite each other. Each lists What is the secret of five different kinds of mami Ma Mon Luk’s mami and (regular, special, beef, beef siopao? It is just sticking to the ingredients wonton, and wonton) and two kinds of siopao and original recipe that he brought from (regular and special). There are two kinds of filled China and eventually passed down to his bread (pao)—Sang Yuk (Bola-Bola) and Taw Sa sons. One of the “secrets” is Ma’s strict rule of (Mongo). And, of course, only one kind of siomai. cutting the chicken: No knives. Just scissors The marble-topped tables and wooden chairs so the juices of the chicken are not squeezed are considered antiques today. They have withstood out, which happens when a knife’s blade is the tests of time and thousands of customers who pushed down to slice the meat. have dined here. A high wooden counter is near A typical day of preparation at the the entrance—the kind one can only see now in the restaurant means making the noodles and old restaurants of Quiapo. The kitchen is visible siopao at night until 5 a.m. the next day. At from the dining area. A low wooden counter and around 8 a.m., the siopao are then placed in the shelf where bowl after bowl of mami noodles are bamboo streamers to cook, ready to be served served after the broth is ladled from a huge iron pot once the place opens at Nine. in one corner partially hidden from view by stacks There used to be several branches of Ma of steamer trays containing siopao. On a good Mon Luk restaurants. But the siblings decided day, half of these stacks would already be empty to migrate abroad. Some of the restaurants by lunchtime. were closed down. Only the Quiapo and There had been problems of product Quezon City branches remain. imitations. A storeowner once claimed that A Ma Mon Luk restaurant is never he was the supplier of the noodles to the Ma air-conditioned. Ceiling fans cool the place. Mon Luk restaurants. The Mas disavowed There is a reason for this: loyal customers this claim, saying that all their noodles are believe that cold air affects the taste of the made fresh by their cooks every day in their

APRIL 2017

ronically, when I did receive this upsetting news via Messenger, I was in fact on a rare, brief holiday in Tokyo, Japan. Confronted with this, a number of negative emotions began to kick in. There was a sense of numb resentment combined with a stubborn disbelief. While there were feelings of hopelessness and uncertainty, there was also a sense that things must work themselves out. Push will come to shove but something will have to give. For myself, the real reasons for the closure are moot and in a way, unimportant. Any longtime resident of Metro Manila will tell you he has seen things like this happen before. The conventional thinking on this type of matter will lead a seasoned observer to deduce that the leases of the establishments that comprise Little Tokyo are up, and that whoever might own that large property has either sold it or will redevelop it via a joint venture with some moneyed partner. As a self-styled Metro Manila diner and gourmand myself, like so many others, I took this rather unpleasant upcoming reality very personally, and very directly, simply because Little Tokyo in Makati is where we all went for sushi. Little Tokyo is, in fact, where many Manila gourmands went for quality but aff ff rdable sushi, and many other precious but monetarily and readily accessible dishes. I found myself unconsciously drawn, as if by muscle memory, to the certainly famous Izakaya Kikufuji, no less a veritable shrine of Japanese cuisine in Manila. In a recent poll conducted over Facebook, the restaurant received more votes than its smaller and marginally pricier rival, neighbor Seryna, which many gourmands also swear by. Izakaya Kikufuji is a compelling case study that merits much discussion. I can’t really remember the ﬁrst time I walked into Izakaya Kikufuji. I can only guess that it had to have been some time before the year 2000. I suppose I should ask myself now if much has changed. It’s a bit difficult for me to say whether it has, in a vast way. I should say that when I ask myself this question now, I do really think my recent trip to Tokyo has indeed put a few things into perspective. In no way had I imagined recently that I would be taking a trip to Tokyo. When I found myself there, I was in a state of fascinatingly joyful disbelief. There was so little time and yet so much to see (and taste). I found myself so exhausted at one point that I had brieﬂy fallen asleep on the train. Something I had seen many Japanese people do in photographs in the past. I discovered that my railway journeys in

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gp gpin

on Little Tokyo’s closure rumors

RAW POWER When a restaurant is rumored to close, how do the habitués react? For a patron of Izakaya Kikufuji, it is by sharing fond memories, insider observations, and uncommon hope

Tokyo were far longer and more complicated than the LRT 2 Cubao to Recto commutes that I was used to. One distant trip with shopping in mind may take 30 minutes. Furthermore, the pace of everything I found myself doing was frenzied. Sleep seemed necessary but it was often limited during my trip. I suppose my ﬁrst images of Izakaya Kikufuji then are indeed quite diff ff rent from what I see today. Nowadays I see more people like me, Manila diners and gourmands, there for the sushii and other culinary spectacles. In the past, I had the undying image of this place as the one-stop shop for the Japanese salaryman based in Manila. The kind of guy who would walk in there as a stranger in a strange land off ff Manila’s streets and ﬁnd a bit of home. Load up on some sushi, yakitori, and others, and maybe enjoy some Japanese beer, whisky, or sake before heading elsewhere or home for a nightcap. Nowadays you can imagine the dining population has exploded. One may now have to show up at 5:30 p.m. or be relegated to sharing a table in the smoking section in the rear. While it is true that the likes of my Japanese brother-in-law and many other similar experts may call it “Good but not (representatively) good enough,” I would like to argue that Izakaya Kikufuji (and Seryna, in a slightly lesser sense) is simply what is geographically and monetarily accessible to most Manila gourmands. I can easily demonstrate that I could purchase and consume a nearly excessive amount of 10 pieces of premium sushii for about P800. Closely trailing and certainly worth mentioning is Pasig’s Haru in Kapitolyo, which has the remarkable blue marlin belly sushii and

When I last departed Izakaya Kikufuji very recently, the sushi bar was almost entirely occupied and there was already a line starting for people waiting for tables.

ILLUSTRATION BY AARON ASIS

At 6:45 p.m.

sashimi. And few can afford ff Makati ShangriLa’s Inagiku, Mandaluyong’s new star Tomo, or even Fort Bonifacio’s Bonifacio s Ogawa Ogawa. Tanabe of Remedios Circle, Malate, and now Jupiter Street, Makati, I am told, appears to be one of few viable contenders. There is also one very interesting point to bring up. I have always held in much wonder restaurants with overly large menus that have the ability to execute most, if not all of their items with praiseworthy competence. For instance, a latecomer to dinner at my table during my last visit was advised to try the chicken wings (I am assuming fried and basted with some sort of sauce). I myself can vouch for the ebi tempura, wagyu yakitori, and a variety of grilled ﬁsh as well as the oysters and scallops. In a sideview glance, I observed a couple of women served what appeared to be a very well executed bowl of Japanese beef curry. The latecomer’s Japanese husband would subsequently comment that it is rare, even in Japan, to have such a restaurant with this wide a spectrum of dishes executed with such success. Here is another interesting story. When I last departed Izakaya Kikufuji very recently, the sushi bar was almost entirely occupied and there was already a line starting for people waiting for tables. At 6:45 p.m. Three visits prior, I was obliged to sit in the rear smoking section (which I did not mind) and share a table with what sounded like a Cebuano-speaking couple. I noticed that they had ordered many small dishes, none of which included any raw ﬁsh. Now perhaps you can imagine that I would order my usual 10 to 12 pieces of sushi and that these would eventually arrive. The gentleman of the couple with us

suddenly broke into English: “You sure know and enjoy your sushi, don’t don t you? you?” I sheepishly replied in the affirmative. It turned out that he, Victor, hails from Dapitan, Zamboanga Del Norte, and began his career in 1980 at (the then new) Musashi, which was once up the street from the former and original incarnations of The Oar House and The Hobbit House at the corner of Remedios and Mabini streets in Malate. Today, he is a respected and multi-awarded sushi chef working in Los Angeles, California. Hot damn. Word gets around. I can only say that the realm of my experience in Makati’s Little Tokyo is modestly conﬁned to Izakaya Kikufuji and Seryna. With the little time left, I suppose I must urge all of you to visit as soon as you can, and discover what you still can before it all disappears. But hang on. An important postscript is in order. It was profoundly difficult to substantiate the truth behind the rumor of Little Tokyo’s impending closure. I did ﬁnd one unimpeachable source who is also a disinterested party because he owns a non-Japanese restaurant nearby and is friends with one of the managers of a restaurant in Little Tokyo. His text message to me read: “Miguel, interested parties are spreading the rumor… bka tayuan condo…no deal sa owner ng Little Tokyo…yehey!...” I prodded further and he would subsequently reply: “Hehehe…the resto owners just had a meeting with the owner of the lot. No deal with the interested parties…” “Yehey,” indeed!

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PREVIOUS SPREAD: ZOO DRESS, ETRO SHOES. OPPOSITE:BEETROOT BRA AND ROMPER, MISS SELFRIDGE SKIRT, NAMI ACCESSORIES. THIS PAGE: POPO GO CUSTOM TOP AND SKIRT, LOVE ROCKS JEWELRY BY RAKEL ILUSTRE EARRINGS.

“She normally just orders from the menu,” says Bruce Ricketts, sitting on one of the bar stools at his barely three-year-old restaurant Mecha Uma, which, at this hour in the afternoon, is already being set up for the evening’s dinner. He chooses the corner seat so he can easily glance at his staff preparing the ingredients for the night while he indulges Rogue in a kind of experiment that he seems positively excited to take part in: to profile Marian Rivera. Actress, TV host, product endorser, as well as a new mother and soon-to-be-florist (via a new business venture called Flora Vida), Rivera is certainly one of the most highprofile celebrities of the moment. A staple of every magazine in the Philippines, she has had her story told many different ways. But never in this manner. Ricketts will portray the milestones in her life through food. “They seem like a lot of fun,” he says of the questions we messaged him and the idea for the five-course meal, which we asked him to develop. “I didn’t wanna build the menu when I was reading the questions, I wanted to create the dishes while we’re talking, as we’re thinking, so it’s very organic ‘di ba?” And very much Bruce Ricketts, too, if you’ve been to Mecha Uma and have been surprised by the flavors he’s served and the meals he’s come up with just playing around with ingredients he has on hand. Rivera has been to this restaurant before, a compact place in the The Fort’s RCBC tower. Quite a few times, actually. “What does she like having again?” Ricketts asks the staff, snapping his fingers to get their attention. One of the guys replies: “Yung chicken karaage.” The answer immediately brings Ricketts’ memory back to the other entrees the actress likes to order. “And then our beef dishes, which change from time to time, but she orders those, like the wagyu or the Matsusaka wagyu or the wagyu Harami, which is like a lean piece of meat that we cook. It’s still a bit medium rare, and then we just serve it with a sauce in different purees. But it changes all the time, based on what ingredients we have on the menu or what ingredients come from our suppliers.” Rivera herself, we find out, has been improving her skills in the kitchen since getting married to the actor Dingdong Dantes in 2014, enrolling in the Heny Sison Culinary

FIRST COURSE

Aguachile

Produced by Jonty Cruz Styled by Pam Quiñones, Maita Baello, and Mel Sy of Qurator Makeup by Cristine Duque Hair by Suyen Salazar Set Design by Martina Bautista Stylists Assisted by Shark Tanael and Alex Castillo Photographed at Raffi’s Way, 132 Talisay Road, Tagaytay City. Special thanks to Nino Zulueta

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The inspiration for this dish is Rivera’s breakthrough role, Marimar, the lead character in the similarly titled Filipino adaptation of a Mexican telenovela. “I’m familiar with the show because I’ve seen it when I was in the States,” he says, and proceeds to give us the gist of the heroine’s narrative, the dog Fulgoso, and the man who sweeps Marimar off her feet. The memory brightens Ricketts’ face, and his eyes light up because, as his fans know, the guy is fascinated with all things Mexican, especially the cuisine. Hence, La Chinesca, his latest taco eatery. “I imagined like when you go to the coast of Mexico, or let’s say California, or like Enseneda, the most famous thing you’ll probably hear right away is the aguachile— which is basically like a kilawin or a ceviche but hindi mo siya kinikilaw. You just pour the vinegar or the citrus, like a dressing, but you don’t cook it. I would reimagine making a ceviche in a really nice, floral-looking bowl that has the vibrant colors of a Mexican fiesta, or colors that reflect the architect Luis Barragan’s artwork, with its bright pinks, yellows, and light blues. Then you put things like white shellfish, scallops, grouper, lapu-lapu. All-white! Then you put tomatoes, maybe some cantaloupes, and some honeydew melons. So it shows this idea of Marimar being the naïve girl from the coast then she rebels, right?”

Instead of lime or lemon juice for dressing, Ricketts ups the femininity factor with something more floral in color: hibiscus, “which signifies a bit of that rebelliousness, that fiery spirit of [her character] because aguachile literally translates to chili water. So then you pour the hibiscus over and then you eat it and it’s like, oh wow, it looks so friendly and naïve, like it won’t harm you, but when you eat it, it punches you right in the mouth and you’re addicted to it! I assume it’s the same feeling that Sergio had when he saw Marimar the first time, you know. Couldn’t get her out of his head.” SECOND COURSE

Chicken McDo Taco Salad Instead of fancifying the chicken that Rivera endorses with her husband, Ricketts opts to add a little more fun to the fast-food meal— which, incidentally, is the go-to comfort food for the young chef. “For the fun of it, I would make like a fried chicken salad instead,” the chef says. The rice goes to a blender, and is then rolled, dried, and fried. “So parang rice pops na siya.” The rice pops serve as base for what Ricketts refers to as a fun version of a Waldorf salad. He will shred the chicken— after taking the crispy breaded skin first—and toss it into the rice pops, throwing in grapes, celery, and blue cheese to the mix. Then the chicken skin, cut into parts, will be the flourish. “So the skin is the final touch on top like croutons on your salad.” THIRD COURSE

Duck Menudo Ricketts snaps his ﬁngers again to raise a question to his staff: what are the usual ingredients of a menudo? After a beat, one or two members of his team enumerate them: carrots, green peas, liver. “But we won’t use pork,” the chef says. “We will do like slowcooked duck. A slow-cooked duck leg, but stewed in tomato. The potatoes, we’ll fry it, the peas, we’ll steam and keep them raw.” A beat. “Maybe we can sub the peas with a little bit of edamame, and then we’ll add like little cute pieces of smoked foie gras, and that’s how we replace the liver.” Ricketts appears really pleased with the idea; he can almost taste the dish in his head. “Something more luxurious, something more rich and really decadent.” He walks us through the experience of indulging in this imagined menudo some more. “Because when you have menudo it’s a bit sweet, but here you get a little bit of the bitterness from the liver. So of course, if you use foie gras, it won’t be as bitter, it will be fatty. But if you smoke it, then it has a bit of bitterness, it feels dark still. But when you eat it, it’s like something sweet, and then a little bit acidic. And then you bite into the foie gras. It won’t make you extremely umay because, of course, you’ll have it with rice.” He stops.

OPPOSITE: ZOO DRESS. NEXT SPREAD: AGENT PROVOCATEUR CORSET.

School, and then sharing her personal recipes in the morning show, Yan ang Morning. Before all this, of course, her ﬁrst lessons in cooking were under the watchful eye of her grandmother Francisca Rivera, with whom she grew up in Cavite. The actress’ food cravings, however, have remained simple. “Umaga pa lang tsokolate na, hanggang matulog tsokolate pa rin,” she tells us. But the food that gives her the most joy is a dish she’s had all her life: her grandmother’s classic menudo that only she has the recipe to. Nowadays, what’s gotten her attention is a case of extremes. On the one hand, it’s fast-food fried chicken from McDonald’s, which has just taken her on as an endorser. On the other, there’s Mecha Uma, easily one of the best restaurants in the country, known for its largely Japanese tasting menu served in the omakase manner. Its chef, Ricketts, is a performer like Rivera—at least when he is on the Mecha stage. “I can only cook in a kitchen that’s very tight,” Ricketts says, “in a restaurant that’s very small, because I need to feed off people’s energy.” The guy is also known to be a highly creative culinary artist—and always quick on the draw. Which makes him perfect for this dare, to whip up dishes in his head inspired by an heirloom recipe, the biggest roles Rivera has played onscreen, and a fast-food chicken. Without further ceremony, Rogue’s Appetite Issue presents Marian Rivera a la Bruce Ricketts.

Nowadays, what’s gotten her attention is a case of extremes. On the one hand, it’s fast-food fried chicken from McDonald’s, which has just taken her on as an endorser. On the other, there’s Mecha Uma.

—BRUCE RICKETTS

“I could just imagine, foie gras fat in rice is really good. And then like some tomatobased sauce to amp it up—best especially for a Filipino palate like mine. I think she would enjoy that.” FOURTH COURSE

Toro “Tonkotsu” with Polenta Truffle Puree and Seaweed In 2008, Rivera played the famed Mars Ravelo character, Dyesebel, which teamed her up with her now husband Dantes. Here’s Ricketts’ take on it: “It can go so many directions,” he says. “It could be something based on the visual aspect, like playing with seafood, fish tail, like surf’n’turf, lobster and meat. If I were to do a Dyesebel-inspired dish—playing on the idea of half-human and half-fish—I would do a dish that’s something a little more provocative. Like how the people were affected around Dyesebel. ‘Di ba parang they were not ready to accept her for what she was? I would want to show off her dark side.” Ricketts proposes a sashimi but presented like a steak, or a beef dish. “A fatty tuna belly like a toro and then I would serve it with a nice puree of potatoes and nori blended together so it’s black.” As a side dish for the blended potatoes and nori are different kinds of local seaweed fresh from the market, like sea lettuce and sea grapes. “You have this tuna that gets crusted with something that’s reminiscent of scales. Like cornflakes! We fry it, make it crispy, cut it. Then when you cut it, people will think it looks like beef but then when they eat it, it’s lighter than what it is.” He changes his mind about the potato, and thinks of something lighter. “Like puree of corn. Or even further, we can do a blended polenta truffle.” FIFTH COURSE

Little Rock Ice Cream and Custard “She is the one that takes the stone right? She takes a small rock, and becomes Darna?” Ricketts asks, confirming his concept of the other Mars Ravelo creation that has been played by almost every other bombshelltype actress in local showbiz. The “bato” in the chef’s imagination will be embodied by—guess what—Dippin’ Dots, in different flavors. “It can be in a bowl that looks just like plain Dippin’ Dots, but when you scoop all the way to the center, you have something very custardy, very sticky…” He lets the idea simmer a little and then blurts it out, “Something like white chocolate. Something very warm in your mouth. From cold to warm, that’s the idea. A rock that transforms you. You know, when you eat Dippin’ Dots, of course it’s cold, but imagine if you scoop all the way to the center and you bite it and it’s cold, bright fruity flavors, tapos biglang pag-kagat mo sa middle, there is this effect of eating a banoffee pie, creamy but sticky in the center. It’ll transform you!”

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THIS PAGE: JAZ CEREZO CUSTOM DRESS. OPPOSITE: POPO GO CUSTOM TOP AND SKIRT, LOVE ROCKS JEWELRY BY RAKEL ILUSTRE EARRINGS.

I would do a dish that’s something a little more provocative. Like how the people were affected around Dyesebel. ‘Di ba parang they were not ready to accept her for what she was? I would want to show off her dark side.

HOW DO

YOU LIKE ME NOW? After closing several high-profile restaurants, Bruce Lim took a break from Manila’s dog-eat-dog food landscape. But while many thought he had quit the game, the candid chef changed it from behind the scenes. Yvette Tan digs into Lim’s secret success PORTRAITS BY JL JAVIER

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Some people

say I sold out.” Chef Bruce Lim sits behind his desk in his office on the second floor of one of two warehouses that contain the operations of Mise en Plus Foods Inc., a food manufacturing company that provides, among other things, frozen and ready-to-eat meals for convenience stores, bread and pastries for hotels and restaurants, and in-flight catering. The name is a direct pronunciation of mise en place, the French culinary term for “everything in its place.” Lim’s office is small and neat, filled with an equal amount of paperwork and figurines from pop culture and anime. It’s been about five years since he closed his last restaurant, five years since he packed up his chef’s whites, disappeared from the dining scene, and moved into the mass production of food. Lim hasn’t changed. He’s still bald, still hefty, and still swears like, well, a chef. He doesn’t see his career shift as selling out. “I try to uplift the standard of food that’s being sold in convenience stores and in-flight catering. For the longest time, a lot of them have been given shit,” he says. “I make sure I know that if my kids go to any convenience store or whatnot, they’re getting good food. It’s not 100 percent processed, it’s not bits and pieces of meat that have been glued together.” Lim’s story is dramatic, with enough ups and downs to make a compelling novel. Raised in the US, Lim graduated from Le Cordon Bleu, worked his way up the ranks in some of America’s finest restaurants—at one point working under Gordon Ramsay— before deciding to take a break in Manila. “I got burned out. I’d be lucky if I got a day off in two weeks. And you’re working at minimum, 16 hours a day… I got into a big fight with the GM at the time and he told me, ‘If you don’t do what I tell you to do, you might as well resign.’ So I said, ‘Okay. Fuck you. I’m going to do what you told me to do. I’m going to resign.’ So I resign. I call my parents, ‘I’m going to take a few days off, come home for a bit.’ So I come here. I was here for about a month or two months, then I got into TV.” His first stint was a cooking segment for Umagang Kay Ganda. Later, he co-produced Tablescapes, a food magazine show on cable that he co-hosted with Angel Aquino. He lost money on the venture (“The first partner ran off with the money so I had to pay for everything, and then the second one, instead of getting money in, it was all done in x-deal so I wasn’t earning anything”) and decided to go

back to his roots, cooking. He started hiring himself out as a chef for private dinners. His success led to the opening of modern Filipino restaurant Chef’s Table in the then barely populated Bonifacio Global City. Chef’s Table was a hit at ﬁrst, a destination restaurant that reached at least 80 percent capacity every night. In hindsight, Lim says that he stretched himself too thin, that he was juggling a TV show and couldn’t be at the restaurant as much as he wanted to. Running a restaurant isn’t easy, and there are less who make it than those who don’t. There’s more to a restaurant than its chef, even if he’s a well-known one. You have to match the menu to the market, and you have to match the market to the location, and you have to match everything to the price point. Everything is a delicate balance, down to the management of egos—the chef’s, his partners’ (if any), the staff’s, and most of all, the clientele’s. In the end, it took just one bad night to send everything crashing. “One of my cooks didn’t do a line check correctly. He didn’t taste a piece of tuna and it went to somebody who started tweeting and bitching about it. Then this chef jumped on the bandwagon and started blasting me with tweets. It’s like, ‘Okay, you haven’t been to my restaurant, you haven’t even tried my food, and now you’re going to blast me with tweets because he’s your friend?’ That entire circle of friends just stopped coming. It was just done.” It didn’t help that the restaurant was basically in the middle of nowhere. The boycott, plus the lack of foot traffic, meant he had to close. “My biggest mistake on that one was the location was too big for the capacity that I needed to operate. Operating expenses were too high.” In what he admits was a newbie move, Lim opened another restaurant to compensate for his loss. “It’s the worst thing you could possibly do,” he says. He opened Hyphy’s, which served SanFo-Philippine cuisine, in Robinsons Galleria’s now closed Veranda. The restaurant didn’t do well. Lim was accused of mismanagement, but he says that location had a lot to do with the restaurant’s lukewarm reception. “We didn’t get any foot traffic. Nobody was there. The only one who I think had a lot of money was a beer-drinking place. All the other people in that area also gave up,” Lim says. “After we left that company, my partner’s partner put up another company

and they opened up another restaurant there—a pretty well-known chain restaurant— and it didn’t do well either. I think he kind of realized that it wasn’t all on me and it was about the location. So he kind of cut me some slack after that.” Then there was Chef’s Lab, which he opened with “a person who until now still hates my guts.” The restaurant was located in the then new Burgos Circle, which Lim says was also not the most ideal area. “Parking was insane, and we couldn’t get the office and call center people because it was kind of too far for them.” Lim has a point. As the oft-repeated truth from New York Times columnist William Saﬁre said, location, location, location is the most important tenet of real estate. To an unbelievably large extent, this goes for the majority of the restaurant industry as well. In contrast, Lim’s current place of work is in the middle of an industrial park. Not that it matters; he’s still proud of what comes out of his kitchen. The thing about Mise en Plus, he says, is that it’s run his way. “It’s a corporation so we do have partners, but it’s not that heavy. Every joint venture I had with partners always ended up so badly because a lot of them become experts right away. They throw in money, so everyone’s an expert, pretty much, and I hate that shit.” The company started, essentially, because Lim was broke. “I went bankrupt. I pretty much had P50,000 to my name.” He was still, however, Brand Ambassador for Lee Kum Kee. Part of his work involved pitching to clients, one of which happened to be a convenience store. “They said, ‘This is really good, can you make this for me?’ And with my back against the wall, knuckles bleeding, no choice, I said, ‘Yeah, I can do it.’ I said yes without thinking about it and it was tougher than hell. Everything that you would do with dough—I didn’t know that there were machines that would roll things for you, so my wrists were black and blue from manually rolling these things.” It didn’t take long for Lim to familiarize himself with the ropes of food manufacturing, though he says there’s always something new to learn. “I started to pay off my debt really quickly, and then I learned that there is a market for this. So what I would end up doing, because I didn’t have any money, I would x-deal a lot of my demos. I would go to different suppliers and say, ‘I’ll do a demo APRIL 2017

“MY THING IS I ALWAYS TELL MY CLIENTS, ‘IF YOU WANT QUALITY FOOD AND YOU WANT IT RIGHT, GET IT FROM ME. IF YOU WANT THE CHEAP SHIT, GO TO THE OTHER GUY.’”

for you, just pay me in kind, x-deal.’ I started doing that until I was able to pay for everything,” he says. “So even if people think that I sold out, I don’t care. It’s because I had to do what I had to do to survive.” There is a surprisingly long list of things to take into consideration when preparing food on such a massive scale. Food safety is one of them. Extending shelf life is another. Lim’s goal is to produce food that’s as close to fresh and additive-free as possible. Stuff he wouldn’t be afraid to serve his family. “There’s a lot of crap that you can put in. You can put in what they call anti-amag, you can put in extenders, you can put additives or ﬂavor. I’m proud that I don’t do that. I know what food should be and I want to take it to the next level. I’m sure my competitors aren’t so happy about it because I make better-tasting stuff than they do because I make quality; they think about price more than they do quality, so it suffers and it shows,” he says. “My thing is I always tell my clients, ‘If you want quality food and you want it right, get it from me. If you want the cheap shit, go to the other guy.’ I think my moral compass is pretty straight and narrow. I don’t want to compromise because my kids eat this food. If I can say I can feed this to my kids and my kids will eat it, I’m cool. If I can’t eat it and my kids can’t eat it, then I’m not doing the right thing.” One has to admit that convenience stores have upped their edible fare since Mise en Plus opened. “I’m not saying I’m the one who made them do that, but I can say I raised the bar and people are chasing after me and they’re probably pissed off that I did it and I don’t care. I think that we’ve been gearing more to what the Japanese are doing in their convenience stores. If you go to Japan, you get everything at a convenience store. It’s cheap and it’s good. That’s what I want to do. So I said, ‘We’re not going to cut corners. We’re going to think about food safety. We’re going to think about health,’” Lim says. “Now, if you look at all the other convenience stores, they’re starting to uplift their image on food. They’re starting to get better. It’s really a constant battle to make sure that you think of things that are great.” Lim talks about his strategy. “What I tried to do was I tried to look at it from a restaurant point of view, and I think that’s where I became successful. So we take more pride in what we do. We have smoked ham or a 68 A P R I L 2 0 1 7

farmer’s ham, or instead of it just being regular processed cheese we use Gruyere, Swiss, Havarti—we up the ante a bit and we make sure it’s affordable so everyone can buy it,” he says. “A lot of the convenience stores I supply to, they’re a lot cheaper than a lot of the high-end coffee shops that have sandwiches, and I’m sure that my sandwiches are a lot better than theirs.” He also makes sure to update himself on what’s going on in the industry globally. “A lot of times, where we were in the convenience store scene was so far from what the world is doing, say Japan, Taiwan, or the US. I’m fortunate that I can travel around, that I can look at the other places and I see what they’re doing. It’s more than just a sliced piece of cake. Now we think about different types. Instead of just regular banana bread, we have chocolate chip coffee banana bread. We think about so many things and flavor profiles that we can do and we make it so it’s convenient for people to eat.” Is he glad to be out of the kitchen? Yes and no. “I’ll always be a kitchen guy. Do I miss it? Hell yeah,” he says. “It’s a different pressure now. It’s about how we can do things, how we make things better. We have to be innovative, but I don’t have to worry about how many covers I’m going to have to do tonight. How many reservations do I have? Am I in a good location so I can get walk-ins? It’s not a problem. I get a PO, I get paid in 15 days, 30 days the most, I don’t have to worry. I just produce it and I’m done. So as far as pressure goes, big relief. But to get to where I am now, it was freaking tough. I’m not saying you have to sell your soul, but you have to understand what the client needs, and you have to do it.” The relative anonymity of being in the manufacturing industry is a godsend as well, especially for someone who has suffered his fair share of trolling on the internet. “I don’t have to be in the public eye, I don’t have to take fire for anything. I’m making money, my clients are happy, the only thing I have to worry about is if I get my deliveries done on time and if I need another oven because I need to have the capacity going. It’s really just fun. I still know a lot of the chefs in the industry and I still supply them. Some of the chefs in the different hotels and casinos, I do supply.” He hasn’t entirely left the restaurant scene, though. Rustique Kitchen, his restaurant with Tony Boy Cojuangco on A. Arnaiz Avenue

(formerly Pasay Road), Makati, is under renovation, though Lim says that it too has a location problem, citing traffic as one of the factors that make it hard to get to, as well as the presence of big-name restaurants that are more top-of-mind. “But Sir Tony is a very cool man,” he says. “He’s a very easy businessman to deal with. I’ve never had any issues with him. He’s really a down-to-earth guy, which is amazing, when you think about his position in society. I think out of all my partners, he is the easiest and the nicest one to be around; and to think, he’s probably the richest of them all. I’m lucky enough to work with him and do things with him.” Despite Mise en Plus’ success, Lim does admit to missing the limelight. “I’m not going to say we’re a covert ops or anything, but my team, we make a lot of things that people eat and they don’t realize that we make what they’re eating. We make a lot of the fried bread that I mentioned and people don’t realize that Chef Bruce was the one who conceptualized it. So it’s kind of tough, but I’m proud that I don’t compromise on anything that I put into my food. That’s the proudest thing for me.” Bruce Lim has gone through a lot in a short amount of time. Would he change anything? “I never regret anything I do in my life because it shapes me to be the man I am now. Am I unhappy about it? Hell, yeah But I don’t regret it because if I didn’t do that, I might have done something else and I wouldn’t be where I am now. “I run it like a kitchen. Bar none, everyone in the kitchen gets to eat for free. We do have events. I try to do as much team-building things as I can. I train people, especially my R&D team. Last year, my R&D team won gold, silver, and bronze in the Philippine Culinary Cup. I think we were the only commissary kitchen that went in and we beat some of the hotels. I think that was one of the best things that my team needed because we do a lot of work for different hotels and when you look at us, we’re a commissary kitchen. I tell them, ‘You guys are good cooks. You just don’t realize what you’re doing. Let’s join a competition so you guys can see that you can make this.’ They knocked it out,” he says. “I love the kitchen, I love the restaurants, I would deﬁnitely do it again”—he says, takes a deep breath, then continues—“when I don’t need the fucking money.”

PHOTOGRAPHED BY RALPH MENDOZA

The Surfing Capital of the North is slowly becoming the Next Big Food Destination. JJ Yulo drives up to San Juan, La Union and meets the chefs who now call it home

My frie end Denny, a certified city boy, wan nts to move to a cornfield in La Un nion, and I need to know why. Why take a perfectly good leap from our bustling city, full of life, and restaurants, bookstores, theatters, bars, parks (well, some parks!) and move to a sleepy seaside town known primarily for surfing? I didn’t want to judge so quickly, so I packed a bag and headed for the town o in i LU. As a kid, La Union for me was a place you could only drive to from Baguio. I went there once, and only because a friend of mine had a house there and we went to visit. The beach was just meh, to be honest. But nowadays, thanks to the people behind the TPLEX (Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway), it’s now become a destination because of the scene and because getting there takes a mere four hours. Another hour and a half or so and we’d be in the City of (Some) Pines. Unreal. San Juan has that little town feel like most other towns you drive by on road trips. I mean, hey, they have a Jollibee. But at some point, if you’re sensitive enough, you pick up all this energy. Keep your eyes peeled for a couple of hipster (I say this loosely) establishments here, a hostel there, amidst spaces built from a distant time. The business context stemmed from the rise of local surf culture and (pardon the pun) the wave it rode on. Ground zero of all this energy was the little hostel that could: the much ballyhooed Flotsam & Jetsam. What started as a few thatched huts for surfing-obsessed backpackers to sleep in is now just a wee bit grander with a multi-story structure of rooms with hotellike privacy (read: you get your own john) behind the original grounds. The two captains of this ship, Joncy Sumulong and Mia Sebastian, steer it with deft hands and know exactly what they want. I think this is largely because of the experienced backpacker Sumulong. Sebastian adds a lot of culture and flavor, but it’s in Sumulong’s tales that you will begin to understand what they’re all about.

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WELCOME TO LA UNION

Denny Antonino, one of the genuises behind favorites Your Local and Hey Handsome, packed his bags for La Union to start his next restaurant Papa Bear. Opposite from top: Seawadeeka, a food truck specializing in Asian street food; Tagpuan, serving rice bowls like a Filipino veggie bibimbap; a local taking a break.

BREWâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S BROTHERS

Sly Samonte opened El Union, perhaps the hippest place in San Juan, with business partner Kiddo Cosio. Samonte recently made history with back-to-back wins at The Philippine National Barista Championships. Opposite: Scenes from El Union.

APRIL 2017

BEACH VIBES

Clockwise from top left: Tagpuan’s all-vegetable Filipino version of the Korean staple bibimbap; a smoothie bowl from Makai Bowls inside Flotsam and Jetsam; chocolate from Tigre y Olivia; Italian chocolatier Simone Mastrora; vegetable dish from local institution Nak Nak’s; the cuppers of El Union preparing a cold brew. Opposite from top: A scene from The Hungry Nomad, Flotsam and Jetsam’s beachfront restaurant; pizza from The Hungry Nomad; seafood rolls from The Great Gamble.

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Flots—as it’s called—is a world unto itself. It’s a trap—a time suck—as you can while away hours at its bar/cafe/restaurant, drink in hand, letting the piped-in music lull you (hip-hop is a no no!) as you literally chat with the rest of the world. And therein lies the ace up its sleeve

Sumulong is the wild card of the LU scene. A certified Gen X baby, he left the corporate world where he worked as a stockbroker, and immersed himself in the world of backpacking, from the rivers of Cambodia to the tiny back alleys of Europe. Before you start judging this Peter Pan of the backpacker set as a hedonist, the truth is he’s taken all the decades of knowledge he’s picked up over the years—both worldly and otherwise—and put it to good use. Not only is he the one implementing all the green initiatives of the hostel, he’s also plotting out its mini music festivals, luring some of the country’s best musicians and DJs to play and chill. Flots—as it’s called—is a world unto itself. It’s a trap—a time suck—as you can while away hours at its bar/cafe/restaurant, drink in hand, letting the piped-in music lull you (hip-hop is a no-no!) as you literally chat with the rest of the world. And therein lies the ace up its sleeve. This small corner attracts people from everywhere—not just Filipinos, but an assortment of foreigners all passing through to discover lures of the PI. An actual conversation (remember those?) can be had here, with complete strangers at that, h all ll off them h cha hasing the essence of the country—or at least chasing the next party. Sumulong reck kons this is the best way to lure people here as tourists: by playing nice with the backpac cker brigade circling Southeast Asia, or as he calls it, the banana pancake trail. Someon ne set this man up with the Department of Tourism. To keep them awak ke after nights of downing cheap libations is the responsibility of El Union Coff ffee, loc cated just a few minutes down from Flots. A few years ago, it was unheard of to sip a cu uppa from a specialty coff ffee joint in La Union, but here it is, with all the serious kit it needs, pulling shots as good as you’ll get anywhere else. Two-time Philippine Barista Champ Silvester “Sly” Samonte ain’t there for nothing. But what makes it really special is at the center of what it’s trying to achieve—it is hedging its bets on Philippine pp coff ffee and a bringing it up to superstar levels. Founder Kiddo Cosio puts it best—“If everyone knows about Kenyan coffee, ff why can’t there be the same for Philippine coffee?” ff Samonte, Cosio’s secret weapon, is a coffee ff savant of sorts—his taste buds for the beverage are sharpened and heightened by his penchant for travel and research. If there is anyone who knows his coffee, ff it’s Samonte. Celebrated Chef Nicco Santos, who also happens to be a coffee ff fan, puts it succinctly: “I would say, right now, Sly is the best we have in coffee.” ff But Sly is a little quiet, maybe a little moody, definitely introspective at times. Cosio is the perfect foil to Sly, and together they form a formidable duo. Cosio, a former social media manager, and his wife Amy, a former teacher, opened El Union because they needed a reason to keep staying in La Union. It was the wife’s idea. “Let’s just serve coffee!” ff And the rest is history. Although he knows how to pull an espresso shot, Cosio is really more of the mouthpiece of both his coffee ff shack and the invigorated LU. Naturally hospitable, he can be found flitting about his HQ, or sipping some rum at the bar of Flots, or on the beach, enjoying the water. His boundless energy and demeanor actually encapsulate what this once sleepy town is now all about: hatching ideas. Progress. It’s this prevalent attitude—one that embraces dreaming, creativity, and the chutzpah to just go for the dream (one can surmise escaping Manila is one of those

BURGERS, BABES, BIKINIS

A sampling of Mad Monkeysâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; burgers, which have garnered their own cult following among locals and tourists alike.

LOCAL COLOR

Clockwise from above: Surfer Mikkie Eduardo decided to move to San Juan to start his own seafood roll restaurant, The Great Gamble; European tourists taking in La Union for the first time; chicken barbecue from Angel & Marieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s; dirty ice cream from The Hungry Nomad; Kiddo Cosio and his dog take time off work. Opposite from top: Scenes from the Mad Monkeys burger joint.

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You can see and feel the same kind of humming energy from this man, who is clearly just happy to be there. He showed me his future home: a three-bedroom affair in a cornfield. He will never get caught in a traffic jam to get to work. He will breathe clean seaside air

dreams)—that gives it its allure and mystique. It’s so free. And open. There is so much room to take chanc ces on your ideas and run with them. Right behind El Union is a tight array of miniscule shops being built. When this is all done, it will easily be the coolest place in town. Amo ong those turning concept to reality is Craft Point Brewery, one of the country’s growing number of craft brew artisans. Simone Mastrota, of Tigre y Olivia Chocolate, is an Italian chocolatier who has also made San Juan his home and place of work. His chocolate lab and retail shop will go up behind El Union too. All tatted out and sporting a beard that could easily mistake him for American singer/songwriter William Fitzsimmons (quick—I’ll wait a minute while you Google!), or at the very least a younger version of ZZ Top, this man is on a mission, producing local cac cao beans and wrapping them in beautiful Italian printed paper, and taking concrete steps to bring his product to a bigger audience. On the day we left, he was testing chocolate bars from cacao sourced mere minutes from where we were standing— the true farm-to-tab ble experience. Surfer Mikkie Eduardo is setting up a sandwich shack that will sell fresh seafood rolls by the beach. He’s calling it The Great Gamble—because he knows it most definitely is one. Eduardo’s personal advocacy is to make a mark with regional business, instead of relying solely on big cities. He’s certainly in the right place for it. This is also wherre my aforementioned pal, Denny Antonino, formerly a chef of the still very hot restau urants Your Local and Hey Handsome, and a guy who has had his fill of Manila chaos, is setting up a restaurant called Papa Bear—where he will smoke and cure meats to serve e and supply others in the general area.You can see and feel the same kind of humming energy from this man, who is clearly just happy to be there. He showed me his future home e: a three-bedroom affair ff in a cornfield, no more than 10 minutes from his place of bu usiness. He will never (at least not in the near future) get caught in a traffic jam to get to work. He will breathe clean seaside air. And he can apply his skills in fresh surroundings s. Across the street from coffee ff central is a cheap eatery called Nak-Nak that serves a mean and filling friied chicken and rice (or for you veg heads—an “omelet” loaded with a lot of veggies) for an unreal price of less than a hundred pesos. Nearby, Mateo Fabregas has a burger stand called Mad Monkeys that serves pretty good quality cosmopolitan burgers with a sign nature beer and cheese sauce. Around the corner, Tagpuan, a little window of a restaurant where one might g usually y find a sari-sarii store, does a mean Filipino veggie bibimbap and other rice bowls for below a hundred bucks. And these are only places we had room to try. Them surfers are certainly well fed. Just as I was unraveling bits about this community, I kept hearing insistent whispers in my ear: “You have to visit Tito Toby’s farm. It will blow your mind.” Sumulong must have said it out loud at least 10 times. “Don’t just find the hipster stuff—he’s ff actually the real story.” So off ff we went to the property of retired military man Toby Tamayo. His posture, upright and sure, reflected his years of training, but his demeanor revealed an entirely different ff personality, one you wouldn’t expect from a man of his background. He came off ff as knowledgeable (an understatement) and soft spoken… one might even say gentle,

This man, once branded as a cult leader by those who couldn’t catch his drift, is a big reason why these businesses are hitting it out of the park. The interesting thing is you hardly hear of him anywhere

as he regaled us with tales of how his farm came to be. It is not one of those beautifully landscaped and manicured tracts of land—but it is most definitely lush, and he grew it in a mind-boggling five years. You wouldn’t think it was possible, but there it was. And he did so in the simplest of ways—he studied the land and researched what would grow best there. Using teachings he picked up from indigenous tribes, the same ones he immersed himself in during his military days as a peacekeeper dealing with insurgents, he planted specimens that were meant to be there—and they flourished. Due to health reasons, he threw himself at this project, and as he likes to tell everyone, “I needed to live here. This place healed me.” It’s easy to see why one can live well here—the flora and fauna he’s managed to gro ow on this little plot is so abundant and palpably alive (his foray into bamboo is amazing g!), and there are sources for clean spring water. It’s a few degrees cooler in here than outside his gate, and the air is certainly fresher too. His lifestyle is clearly aligned with Buddhism, respecting the land and everything growing in it. At some point, he will do o workshops for tai chii and qigongg and other wellness pursuits, and for this city slicker living in this toxic society, breathing all this filthy air, it is—as predicted—mind-blowing. Tamayo, with his green thumb, practicality, ingenuity, and his stance on the environment, is the beating heart of the flow of life in this surf town. He’s making the hostel Flotsam as environmentally friendly as can be, using black and gray water systems fo or reuse. He’s tapped a natural water source and provides free water to a large number of the poorer families in the community. He’s helping grow coff ffee for El Union, and vegetables and herbs for Papa Bear and many other food entrepreneurs in the area. It is no wonder that people speak his name with such reverence. This man, once branded as a cult leader by those who couldn’t catch his drift, is a big reason why these businesses are hitting it out of the park. The interesting thing is you hardly hear of him anywhere. You would think that a man of his talents would be e splashed over all our channels, but it seems his practicality is not quite aligned with the way the powers that be want things to work. Honestly, though, take a walk into his five-year proof of concept and you will know deep down that this is one person who m may just have the keys to our future—one of true sustainability. The scenes that really stuck to our heads on this quick sojourn were simple ones: that of Cosio and his wife Amy and their little ones, of Mastrota and his children, all baskiing in the glow of a beautiful sunset, their dogs running free around them. This happens daily, while the rest of us slog through traffic, clock in overtime, or deal with a stressfful commute. It’s their “us” time, their family bonding, their time for just slowing down a and allowing these blissful moments to happen. Talk about idyllic days in a seaside town.. O l ti e ill tell t ll ho h the th ill reser e this thi feel-good f l d aradise. di There are certainly good business opportunities here—one can only hope that restraint is exercised as more people decide to plant their flags here (learn from Boracay, folks). But in the meantime, dream big, kick back with a cold one, and take in that slow and easy LU vibe. Don’t be surprised if, like myself, you’ll suddenly find ways to get yourself back here. Hasta luego!

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PARADISE REGAINED

La Union retains its small town charm despite the influx of brisk business. Below: One of the access roads that connect to the shore to the main drag. Opposite: Kiddo Cosio and son Dylan at the beach.

In the Cordillera, the word ili is used to denote home. Padmapani Perez introduces us to Baguiobased photographer Tommy Hafallaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s photo compendium of the same name, which shows us just how alive that word is. Through his respectful, almost reverent, lens, we see a rarely-documented reality that is at once tangible and spiritual, communal and reserved: home as both habit and idyll

THE JOURNEY BEYOND

Performed approximately once every 10 years, the dangtey is a ritual done over 90 days. Part of the ritual is the libot, where the men traverse the boundaries of Sagada to re-establish their claim upon it, calling on the spirits of their ancestors with prayers to protect the community. Ama Bosaing, in Hafallaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first documented dangtey in April 1988, wears his duwaw, a ceremonial headdress, to mark his status as one of the communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leaders.

IN THE BLOOD

Taken in July 2004 in Demang, Sagada, Ama Polat is seen preparing for omen reading by doing papan di manok, wherein he beats a chicken rhythmically to make its blood clot, afterwhich he burns its feathers.

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After the singed feathers were plucked and scraped off the chicken, Tommy Hafalla carefully cut the carcass open to reveal a rarely seen arrangement of the liver and bile sac.

A KIND OF HOMECOMING

Top, from left: Ama Guitelen, Tommy Hafalla, and Ama Polat in dap-ay Akikis in Demang, Sagada in 2011. Below: Taken in July 2004 in Dagdag, Sagada, Ina Wan-nay and Ina Ngali pour yeast over approximately 70 kilos of rice to prepare tapey, fermented rice wine, to offer for the dangtey.

eat with, and a cup of tapey. The unseen was then invited to eat. When the prayers were done, everyone present tucked into the hearty soup, the gamey chicken, and the unparalleled smoky richness of the fat of etag. The tapey flowed continuously. This ritual form of eating together happens in different iterations and scales across the Philippine Cordillera. On the final day of the dangtey, a community ritual performed every 10 years in Sagada, each lead family must contribute one gimata (a basket) filled with etag, and another with tapey (the fermented rice, not the drink). A member of each lead family carries their offering, weighing about 70 kilograms, to the dap-ay, a circular place of gathering. The elders invite the unseen to come and partake of the feast, and then the food is distributed to every community member and every guest. No one goes home without a share. This is food for the soul in every respect. It is a way to honor relationships with ancestors, spirits, and the living. It is based on the principle, as they say in Sagada, “Adi tako bokodan nan gawis, epeyas tako nan gawis.” “Let’s not keep what is good to ourselves. Let us share what is good.” Mangan tako. Let us eat.

HAFALLA IMAGE COURTESY OF RJ FERNANDEZ

Hafalla, Shawnee Anongos, and Jason Domling gazed silently on this blessing, which augured that the way forward would be clear, people’s thoughts would be cleansed, and anxious minds would ﬁnd peace. The daw-es is a ritual for cleansing and welcoming someone home. This one was meant for the ancestors, whose images appear in Hafalla’s recently launched photo book, ILI. He addressed the unseen in his prayers. “You who went on ahead, you went across the seas, and now you are home. You are back. May there be no misfortune for anyone. We hope for good things for all. We are thankful that we are all well.” After the reading of the omen, the chicken and etag (salted and smoked pork) were put to boil in a pot. Domling opened the jar of tapey, or rice wine, and invited the unseen to come and drink. Everyone was offered a sip. Hafalla and Domling quietly said a prayer to wake the spirits. Hafalla handed Anongos some of the tapey and its rice, which he then stirred into the pot, to cook with the meat. When the meat was ready, the food was set in baskets. A bowl of rice, the chicken’s gizzard and intestines beside it, etag, chicken meat, a stick to symbolize a spoon for the unseen to

ILI BY TOMMY HAFALLA IS AVAILABLE AT MAPABOOKS.COM., THE AYALA MUSEUM BOOKSHOP, AND ARTBOOKS.PH

GOOD OMENS

A babawian is a sacred place around Sagada and its peripheries. One of the oldest is in Binatbato, shown here as men perform a sedey in October 2005. The sedey is a ritual performed when a community experiences unexplained misfortunes. Attendants slaughter a sacrificial pig and offer the cooked meat to the spirits before they partake in the meal.

THE OTHER HALF

Taken in July 2004 in Demang, Sagada, the dangteyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s culmination is marked with families gathering at the dap-ays, stone circles marking the center for the community. Appointed families produce baskets full of tapey and etag, salted and smoked meat, and distirbute them to every household after prayers.

FRUITS OF THE LOOM

Tapey is commonly found in Benguet and typically used as an offering to the ancestors in rituals. Children enjoy eating the sweet rice that comes from the process of making it.

RECLAMATION

The communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s men trek over 15 kilometers along Sagadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s boundaries as they perform a libot in 2004. This is the second dangtey that Hafalla has documented. The one shown here was performed due to a takba, or spirit basket, being moved from its resting place without permission, resulting in a series of misfortunes within the community.

IN FOCUS

DAV ID L A I The Neighborhood is, as per Margarita Forés, #wherechefseat in Hong Kong, and the man behind it, David Lai—whose resumé includes the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco and opening Alain Ducasse’s Spoon in the region—is all to blame. Rogue talks to the once-under-the-radar chef about cooking for a well-traveled clientele, and where he goes for the most comforting noodles in his city PORTRAIT BY DAVID HARTUNG

You started out in Fine Arts. Does that experience ever come in handy in the kitchen? Although normally I try to avoid connecting a line between art and food, I would say cooking is more akin to performance art because it requires the participation of the diners, and the experience (if it were powerful) lives on in memory. For me, I also enjoyed the solitary, hand-crafted aspect of cooking so it was easy for me to transition from one to the other. You’ve been in the industry for quite a while now. Have you noticed any particularly striking change in the culinary scene since you started? For me, the biggest change since I started was the internet; the instant omnipresence of information. When I started, the access to information was rather limited and the way one learns about the outside world and the latest trends was either by traveling or by reading about them in magazines and cookbooks. Nowadays one only has to surf the net to see what the hottest restaurants served last night. The good thing is that it’s so easy. The bad thing is that it’s so easy that people start to (subconsciously) copy each other without realizing exactly what they are copying, and so the food looks and tastes the same across the world. You’ve experienced working in kitchens under many chefs. Based on these different environments, how do you run your own kitchen? My bosses were mostly old school. I have regular rendezvous with them in recurring nightmares but I love them dearly because I owe them everything. Everyone can cook at home at a leisurely pace, but at work and in volume one has to perform under pressure and this is true across all trades. Like they say, “no pain, no gain.” Without pressure,

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one works in his or her own comfort zone instead of in the real world. But at the end of the day, it is important to understand the team as individuals and the incentive each person responds to. There’s no one-sizeﬁts-all management style.

is “manufactured.” Seafood is one of our last accessible links to nature. But even this will not last forever. With excellent ingredients, not much needs to be done and I hope people will learn to appreciate and therefore protect nature.

What about the Hong Kong food scene do you think is most unique? What makes it different from San Francisco or other cities? I think a city’s culinary potential is a reﬂection of the diners. Hong Kong’s diners in general are very well exposed to many cuisines and in turn, we have many talents coming to work from around the world.

How did your passion toward local produce and seafood sustainability start? It may sound like a cliché, but there is no greater joy for a cook than to work with the best ingredients, especially when they are fresh and natural.

“I hope chefs in Hong Kong can pay less attention to fashion and trends and learn to be themselves.” You’ve been an ambassador of sorts for French cuisine and techniques. Have there been misconceptions about it in Hong Kong? How do you think your work has helped shape how people perceive it locally? The biggest misconception about French cuisine is that it is a monolithic cuisine. France has borders with Spain, Italy, Germany, etc. and it has deep inﬂuences from North Africa. The food is extremely diverse but people still think in terms of onion soup and escargot. You’re known for your work with seafood— how did that start? What about it do you enjoy preparing? Much of what we consume these days, whether meats or vegetables,

What do you see in the future of the culinary scene in Hong Kong? I hope chefs in Hong Kong can pay less attention to fashion and trends and learn to be themselves. Only then can they appreciate their own important uniqueness in place and time. What’s your personal comfort food? On most days of the week, I try to eat simply and that would mean plain noodles with a side of greens and chili sauce. On weekends, I will take a good steak. When eating out in Hong Kong, which places do you go to and why? Mak’s Noodle. Good noodle, good soup, good vegetable, and I can eat there almost daily without getting tired. What do you usually cook for yourself in the kitchen? When I’m in the kitchen, I usually try to cook things that fascinate me. At the moment it’s Indian food. The way ﬂavors are built with dozens of spices and other ingredients— it is fascinating and so much fun to learn. What is your ﬁrst memory of food? The enduring memory is the curry chicken my grandmother used to cook. What won’t you eat? Dogs, because I have them as pets.

At the dawn of Trumpâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s electoral victory and at a time when politics divides the country more than ever, JJ Yulo visits the US and finds some audacity of hope through its cuisine

BOWLING FOR SOUP

From top: Scenes from New York’s Taste of Persia, famous for ash-e reshteh soup; a steaming bowl of ramen from legendary New York haunt, Ivan Ramen. Opposite: A scene from a Taiwanese bakery in New York City’s Chinatown.

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That’s pretty long, considering I spent a lot of my summers there visiting my grandmother together with the rest of my clan. Looking back at those years, I can say they were some of the best moments of my life—they brought us closer as a family, created memories for us, and defined our summers. Those times, together with my time in culinary school, also opened my taste buds far and wide. (I say this as I look down at my midsection.) Many a food epiphany was had in America, and I was looking forward to more. After my Round Table pizza, always the first order of business after landing in that gateway for most Pinoys—San Francisco—I had a fitful sleep and an early morning flight to my first stop: Manhattan. If there’s one thing about New York, even under the shadow of The Donald, it’s always full of boundless, almost palpable energy. It can also be very tiring if you’re not used to it—it’s a walking town, and it’s not unusual to walk 20 kilometers in a day. You just have to harness all that energy and fuel it—mostly with food. It’s everywhere. My mission that day was to taste stuff that just said NYC. That wouldn’t be too hard, because if there’s a city on this earth that has pretty much everything you could possibly want to eat, it’s this one. Upon checking in my digs, I called my cousin and headed for Ivan Ramen, a ramen joint run by a white Jewish guy, Ivan Orkin, who, by the way, had the cojones to open his first outpost in the stronghold of ramen: Tokyo. That’s like a Japanese street baller challenging Steph Curry to a shootout. But this gaijin shook things up because the ramen connoisseurs were compelled to try what this intruder at the gates was up to. How dare he?! Surprisingly—even to himself—he rocked it. And that’s how the first-ever gaijin ramen house opened. Ivan Ramen has all you can expect from a ramen experience, except it also has Western sensibilities. My vegetarian ramen, amplified with roasted tomatoes and vegetable soy broth, had exceptional, balanced flavor… not overly decadent like, say, an atomic tonkotsu-based version. It’s this balance, and layering of umami, that may just be his signature. Despite the cold rain the next day, I managed to saunter over to this place called Cosme NYC. A swanky Mexican restaurant in the Flatiron District run by Enrique Olvera, this is a thousand miles away from Taco Bell. Think modernist Mexican. They say that it’s rooted in the cuisine’s traditions while celebrating seasonality. In other words, it has access to some of the best ingredients the West has to offer. A humble tostada is topped with fresh uni, avocado, cucumber, and bone marrow salsa. Duck cooked in red mole—one of the most intriguing and amazing dishes in the Mexican culinary canon—is so mouthwatering, I consumed the leftover mole like soup. A street side torta

BAKERY IMAGE COURTESY OF REN WANG

I hadn’t been to the United States in eight years.

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It’s a hub for DIY, and the right-brained types flock here to let their creative juices flow. Happily, that also means that they need to eat, and if there’s anything else Portland has to offer, it’s food.

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PORTLAND IMAGES COURTESY OF MELINA MARA/ THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GET TY IMAGES (BAKERY) AND ZACK SPEAR (SIGNAGE)

(sandwich) was stuffed with fried oysters, chorizo, black beans, and chipotle. Washing all this down with Bloody Marias made with a base of chili-infused top shelf Siete Leguas tequila loosened me up considerably. But that buzz left me in a New York minute when I got the bill—I had forgotten how pricey it could get here! Although it was pretty fun, I was not quite full, so we walked over to a sliver of a pizza shop in the middle of 18th Street to line up for some ash-e reshteh at Taste Of Persia NYC. Before opening here, this Persian businessman sold his famous Iranian vegetable soup for years at a market. I’ve never tried anything like it: an intense herby broth with noodles and chickpeas topped with this super-sour yogurt, caramelized garlic, and onions. It’s mysterious, spice-filled (there is fenugreek, giving it a faint bitter edge, plus cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger), and ultimately a delicious, comforting, and filling dish, one that can down an elephant with a small portion. And it only costs six bucks for a huge “small” order. After the sticker shock of Cosme, it was good to know places like this existed, and did brisk business as well. The much-vaunted Eleven Madison Park, my one planned splurge meal, was one for the books. Not just because of the food—which was creatively presented, with much flourish, enough to make my jaded food sensibilities rejoice in wonder and yet still taste stuff that was familiar and that I wanted to eat—but more because of the details. I entered and the first gent who greeted me was Keith, one of the managers, and the one who followed up on my emails to get a table. I apologized for being shabbily dressed, and all he said was “Psssh, don’t worry about it. I’m the only one who needs to wear a suit here.” And with those simple words and a handshake, he had me. The service was impeccable. I’d say pretty much flawless. Elizabeth, my server, made me feel as if I were a guest at her house. Normally when I dine alone, I’m fidgeting with my phone, or reading a book, but EMP had all my senses trained on them. Midway through my meal, I was told that since I was there all by my lonesome, they’d take me in the kitchen for a look-see. The course I had just eaten—a foie gras course—was a choice of either hot or cold dishes. I chose the hot one. Upon entering the kitchen, and after introducing me to the chef and the brigade and showing me around, I was given the cold dish by one of the cooks—a young Filipina (they did their research)—just because. And before I went home, I was presented with a jar of granola. I almost forgot about this, and tried it two days after. It is probably the best granola I’ve ever had. In this day and age when my taste for these haute cuisine haunts has tapered a bit, and I’d rather eat a good cheeseburger, EMP is one of the rare exceptions that will get my hardearned moolah. There’s nothing that says NYC more than a bagel and lox. One would be hard-pressed to find something much better than the legendary Russ & Daughters (in our case, the cafe, with sit-down service). A business that’s been around for decades, this is THE place to indulge in Jewish specialties. These masters cure their own salmon for lox—heck, any smoked fish here is wondrous. The cream cheese is flavored and seasoned in-house. Chopped chicken liver served with pickled onions and matzo crackers will haunt me forever—its creamy richness almost over the top, but that won’t prevent you from slathering monstrous gobs of it on your crackers. Borscht—a traditional beet soup here served chilled—is light and sweet, salty and slightly tart all at once, redolent of dill and served with perfect pumpernickel and a side of sour cream. And don’t get me started on the Bloody Marys (yes, I like ‘em!)—the vodka was infused with caraway, and had a lot of pickled veg and rye croutons, too. This is the kind of food you make a beeline for after a long time away. Nearby is a buzzing joint called Pig & Khao. Leah Cohen is half Filipina, half Jewish, and this restaurant of hers serves funked-up

FINE DINING TO FAMILY FEASTS

From top: The setting of Eleven Madison Park, perhaps the most talked about restaurant in New York today, with a portrait of its only Filipina kitchen staff—who served some extra foie gras to the writer; Thanksgiving dinner in Portland, Oregon where a variety of cuisines was served. Opposite from top: At a neighborhood bakery, a young customer chooses a breakfast treat; the Portland, Oregon sign, which has become a landmark of Old Town.

APRIL 2017

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Taking a chance, I walked over to what may just be Portland’s most famous restaurant—Le Pigeon.This is most definitely French-inspired, albeit after a ganja session in the back alley. (This is perfectly legal, by the way—Portland dispensaries even advertise on buses—no wonder they’re always hungry!)

food with lots of Filipino and Thai in the mix. If that isn’t a New York story, then I don’t know what is. So is the story of Shalom Japan, with married chefs Aaron Israel and Sawako Okochi cooking and fusing their two cultures into something inventive that gives their food some meaning. The food side of Manhattan and New York’s other boroughs are not only growing vertically with other cultures sprouting vines and staking flags to their cuisine, but also horizontally, with flavors and techniques fusing and forming something new altogether. The city’s appetite is in good hands. In what seemed like a heartbeat, I had to bid adieu to NYC and find my way to a state I’ve never been to— Oregon. Portland, to be exact. It’s known for many things, but mostly for being creative. It’s a hub for DIY, and the right-brained types flock here to let their creative juices flow. Happily, that also means that they need to eat, and if there’s anything else Portland has to offer, it’s food. The abundant food truck scene is the most apparent. You will find them in every corner of the city, in areas specifically allotted for them to make them easier to find. You’ll find all sorts of stuff here—burgers (of course!), ramen, gyros, a very huge sampling of Thai food, vegetarian grub, and tacos. My host brought me to the Portland Mercado, far from the madding crowd, and filled with mostly Mexican and Latin American choices: a very cool bar called The Barrio owned by a Japanese ex-Nike exec that serves awesome micheladas (spicy Mexican beer cocktails); a candy store; and Mixteca, a food truck that served one of my most memorable meals ever. The cook is a lady from Oaxaca—where some of the most legendary food from Mexico is found. The thing to have here is anything with mole—a thick, rich, complex preparation of over 20 ingredients—the kind of dish that varies from region to region, cook to cook. My tacos, with simple chicken and mole and some salsa, made like a giant fiesta in my mouth. It was so unbelievably soulful, and so far removed from most Mexican food I’ve had. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there was a free evening where I kind of overslept from crazy jet lag. Taking a chance, I walked over to what may just be Portland’s most famous restaurant—Le Pigeon.This is most definitely French-inspired, albeit after a ganja session in the back alley. (This is perfectly legal, by the way— Portland dispensaries even advertise on buses—no wonder they’re always hungry!) I only got my table at 9:30 and it was buzzing—and no wonder: these guys can really cook. The highlight was this grilled, dry-aged pigeon, with mushrooms, bacon, and persimmon miso, cran106 A P R I L 2 0 1 7

berries and black garlic sauce—quite fitting that they put effort in their namesake protein. Probably one of my most memorable travel moments happened during Thanksgiving Day. I was all prepared to stay indoors and watch TV. It was cold and raining, and I didn’t want to impose myself on any of my hosts, who I’m pretty sure had their own thing going—Turkey Day, after all, is probably bigger than Christmas on the holiday scale. But I got a call from my friend Dani to go with her and her mom to her aunt’s house. It might be a squeeze but it’ll be fun. So abandoning my Pinoy hiya syndrome, I hopped into her car and rode with them to the next state. The house was a nice suburban home on a hill, with neighbors’ homes of similar structures. When I entered, I was expecting, oh, maybe 10 other people. An extended family. But no— there was a whole village packed into her Uncle Randy’s house. It was a mixed family of black Americans and Mexicans, all devout Christians. The kitchen was in a chaotic flux, with the ladies cooking with purpose. I sat in a corner just taking it all in, like a fly on the wall. When the feast was ready, everyone gathered around the living room and held hands in prayer, after which guests were given some airtime to say what they were most thankful for. It was as personal as it gets—I was almost embarrassed to be there—but to be honest, it was an honor to be a witness to that. I’ve read all about the controversies behind this holiday—but the truth is when you get down to it, the spirit of being thankful is a beautiful thing, indeed. I got a little emotional wolfing down my turkey and stuffing with all the fixings as there was so much soul and love in their cooking. But it got downright spiritual when Uncle Randy busted out his keyboard and started up some church hymns—and the ladies of the house let loose like cherubims at choir practice. It felt like the front pew at church (albeit in Spanish!), an evening both serene and surreal. I was as far removed from Manila and even my version of America as I’ll ever be, and I was loving it. My final leg was at the Bay Area, with friends and family, in the city I probably knew best. This time I spent mainly acclimatizing amidst my Filipino-ness before saying paalam to America. In the darkness of my flight home, while everyone was snoring away after their inflight meal, I pondered on this journey to Trump America, which shuns minorities and ethnicities. But everywhere I looked, these people were the ones in the thick of things. Granted, I went to states that were more or less friendly to all nationalities and colors and persuasions, but what that said to me was a message loud and clear: that even if the current politics drew lines between people, it was through their food ways that the melting pot, and the good ol’ American Dream, remained alive and kicking. This was definitely where you wanted to be.

SMALL FEATHERS, BIG FLAVORS

From top: Mixteca, one of the many vibrant food trucks in Portland, offers what the author calls one of his most memorable meals: the chicken mole taco (pictured opposite); a peek inside Le Pigeon, which specializes inâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;what else?â&#x20AC;&#x201D;dry-aged pigeon.

SHABUSERS R. Zamora Linmark pens a new short story about the many drugs and addictions of Manila, and one in particular that connects us all

y brother Bong is a shabuser. Our cousin Dong Dong and his sisters, Pinky and Gigi, are also meth heads. Their father, Tito Bart, however, was not lying when he said he never touched that shit, not even once. “It makes people look like zombies,” he said, “just look at my children.” Not a user, true, but definitely a pusher. Push push push, until he got caught on CCTV selling to bored nymphomaniacs and septuagenarians looking for cheaper ways to intensify their libido other than Robust. A long-time shabuser, Tita Marge, my mother’s best friend, was hooked from the first inhale.This was right around the same time that nuns were stealing the revolution from widows and farmers. If not for the current president’s “Smoke and Die,” “Surrender or Die,” and “Quit then Die” campaigns, she’d still be tweaking before and after confession. “One inhale pa lang and I was already in heaven.” Our lesbian neighbors, J.R. and Tin Tin, whose claim to fame is that they once led an anti-Marcos demonstration in front of Camp Crame where they were arrested, imprisoned, and allegedly tortured by soldiers for inciting rebellion and conspiring with NPA rebels—well, they’re back again behind bars; this time, for getting their maids hooked and pimping them to Euro trash and DOMs frequenting Burgos Street. Newsflash: Gardo “Tondo Boy” Batongbacal, action star and rumored to be an illegitimate son, one of a handful, of actor-turnedsenator-turned-Pera-or-Bayong-game-show-host Tito Joey Guevara, just checked himself into rehab, location undisclosed, fifth time this month. Perhaps the same detox center as the one child star Maricar is rumored to be holed up in, behind Bicutan market overflowing with fishes, fruits, vegetables, and swatter-sized flies. Attorney Edwin Romero, son of anti-US bases Senator Rommell Romero, confessed to smoking shabu when he was in law school. “It helped me to focus and stay up. More long-lasting when injected,” he told Jessica Soho, whose hour-long special about recovered shabusers of the rich and the infamous remains the most-watched show this year, second only to the 65th Miss Universe beauty pageant. Atty. Romero quit cold turkey soon after he topped the bar exam and, to mark the occasion, traded his Catholic faith to be one of the fastest Bible-quoting Christians in the country. “What a goddamn liar,” said Winston Tan, his Chinoy ex-lover, a criminal lawyer himself now under investigation for smuggling shabu from Taiwan. “That cocksucker craves shabu more than oxygen.” Felipe Sin, no relation to the deceased Cardinal, the oldest son of a retired Supreme Court judge, was high on meth when he removed the brain of a diplomat’s daughter with a .45 magnum in Dasmariñas Village. Comatose for a month before her parents reluctantly pulled the plug. Felipe is currently serving a lifetime sentence in Muntinlupa Penitentiary, killing time watching pirated DVDs in a jail cell that was reconstructed to rival the Imperial Residence in Sofitel, complete with a personal chef, a butler, massage therapist, and a dozen bodyguards comprised of prisoners and ex-police officers. A physician visits him once a week to inject him with methadone and deliver his week’s

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supply of Zoloft (for depression), Clonazepam (for panic attack), and Cialis (for impotence, though he claims it’s for an enlarged prostate). Felipe blamed his drug addiction on Manong Carlos, the family chauffeur who allegedly molested him from age four to 14 before introducing him to girls, guns, and crack. Manong Carlos, when interviewed by Karen Davila for TV Patrol, denied the allegations and pointed to Felipe’s nanny, Yaya Linda. “She was the one; she was his hooker.” My grandmother’s kumadre, Doña Maria Esperanza (a.k.a. “Tita Hope”), and her maid Lucing light their glass pipes only once a year, during Lenten season, so they could stay up for the week-long, nonstop reading of the pasyon. She likened the endless rush feeling to witnessing a Virgin Mary apparition. Over half of my batchmates, especially those with low self-esteem and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, can’t live without meth— or “Tina,” as the circuit party queens in San Francisco call it. They order the clear, chunky crystals via smartphones. Half an hour later, they’re tweaking in their Fort Bonifacio studio units, getting blowjobs from call center agents on their 3 a.m. coffee breaks, or happy endings from massage therapists claiming to be Tesda-certified. “You don’t know happiness until you feel it taking off inside you like a space shuttle,” said one. “It’s better than sex,” said another. “Better with sex,” said the third. “I used to be obese,” said Paco Diaz, current rave king of Manila. “I could eat more Big Macs in 10 minutes than Sharon Cuneta. I was a loner who felt like a leper. Zero confidence, as in zilch. Until shabu entered the picture. In two months, I went from flab to fab abs. And the sex, pare, walang tigil. Marathon to death.” Diaz’s latest sex videos are one of the most watched, 10 million downloads to date. Screen goddess Lovey Dovey, box-office queen known nationally for her two dozen titillating indie flicks (read: soft porn) and mindblowing oral sex simulations, made international headlines recently when she was arrested at Guam International Airport for possession of firearms and methamphetamine wrapped in Victoria’s Secret lingerie. “I really don’t know what the big deal is,” she said, licking her blowjob lips. “American soldiers used it to kill Communists in Vietnam.” Her father, Congressman Arturo “Artsy Fartsy” Perez, who was a former Marcos-crony-turned-Aquino-loyalist-turned-Arroyo-tuta-turnedAquino-kissasser-turned-news-anchorman, begged the president to pardon her. “If she’s not careful, she’ll be blown away” was the message from the current president’s spokesperson’s spokesperson. During her jail time in Guam, she was visited by Korean missionaries and a convoy of fans, mostly itchy jocks and sons of politicians, seeking to trade stimulants with her. Much to their surprise, she turned their glass pipes down. “Too late,” she said, “I already promised Jesus.”A promise that included turning down movie roles that would require her to bare her body and soul even if it were done in good taste and the script was penned by an award-winning writer who did not believe in revisions. Upon her return to Manila, she was feted a heroine’s welcome and showered with a sky of red and pink roses.

ILLUSTRATION BY JETHER AMAR

ISSUE 108

SHOPLIST Where to buy the products featured in this issue

T H E M A R I A N F E A S T, PAGE 54

D E V I L I N T H E D E TA I L S , PAGE 35

PAGE 54

adidas by Raf Simons Commonwealth, SM Aura Premier, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig; 801-8345

Zoo Dress; zoo.com.ph Etro Shoes; etro.com PAGE 56

Beetroot Bra and romper; beetroot.checkout.ph Miss Selfridge Skirt; Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center, Makati; 728-4105 Nami Accessories; namionline.com PAGE 57

AMI Paris Archives d’Homme et Femme, Salcedo cor Aguirre St, Legaspi Village, Makati; 836-2740; amiparis.com Balenciaga 8 Rockwell, Makati; 776-2740; balenciaga.com Christopher Ræburn Archives d’Homme et Femme, Salcedo cor Aguirre St, Legaspi Village, Makati; 836-2740; christopherraeburn.co.uk

Love Rocks Jewelry by Rakel Ilustre Earrings; The Mega Plaza, ADB Avenue cor Garnet Road, Ortigas, Pasig; 211-7612

Dior Homme Homme et Femme, 8 Rockwell, Makati; 843-2025; dior.com

Popo Go Custom top and skirt; Granada Street, Quezon City; 410-6007; popogomanila.com

Dries van Noten Archives d’Homme et Femme, Salcedo cor Aguirre St, Legaspi Village, Makati; 836-2740; driesvannoten.be

PAGE 59

Fuct SM Aura Premier, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig; fuctstore.com

Zoo Dress; zoo.com.ph PAGE 60

Agent Provocateur Corset; agentprovocateur.com PAGE 62

Jaz Cerezo Custom dress; cerezo_jaz@yahoo.com PAGE 63

Love Rocks Jewelry by Rakel Ilustre Earrings; The Mega Plaza, ADB Avenue cor Garnet Road, Ortigas, Pasig; 211-7612 Popo Go Custom top and skirt; Granada Street, Quezon City; 410-6007; popogomanila.com

Gosha Rubchinskiy Hoodwink, SM Aura Premier, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig; 553-5559; gosharubchinskiy.com Jil Sander Archives d’Homme et Femme, Salcedo cor Aguirre St, Legaspi Village, Makati; 836-2740; jilsander.com Lanvin Archives d’Homme et Femme, Salcedo cor Aguirre St, Legaspi Village, Makati; 836-2740; lanvin.com Lazy Oaf Hoodwink, SM Aura Premier, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig; 553-5559; lazyoaf.com Maison Kitsuné Hoodwink, SM Aura Premier, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig; 553-5559; shop.kitsune.fr OAMC Hoodwink, SM Aura Premier, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig; 553-5559; oamc.com The Artisan theartisanclothing.com You Must Create (YMC) Hoodwink, SM Aura Premier, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig; 5535559; youmustcreate.com

ISSUE 108 ARS

GOIN

April 2017

In celebration of Rogue’s 10th year, we revisit our past issues to bring back previously featured personalities, this time as Famous Rogues. Billy King was featured in our fifth Appetite Issue in August 2012.

“We chefs don’t have that luxury of hanging our creative stuff on the wall. It’s a moment, then it’s gone. So that moment must be great.”

Billy King, chef

n a time when a restaurant’s food took precedence over the person cooking it, Billy King’s name was one uttered with a tinge of awe. With a mercurial passion that allowed him to whip up original dishes off the top of his head and a bad boy persona that followed him from top-drawer hotels in

London and the Middle East, King rolled into Manila in the 90s and redeﬁned what ﬁne dining was, straying from the rigid threecourse meal to present surprises covered in truffles and goose liver. Be it at the defunct Intercontinental Manila’s Prince Albert or his former ventures (from Truffles to the well-

loved Le Soufflé), King would swing open the kitchen doors and mingle with his customers. Though the ice bucket hat rarely makes an appearance these days, he was always ready to rush back in at a moment’s notice to tailor any and every dish to a diner’s taste. The scene, people will tell you, was never the same.

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