Pino! Filipino Cuisine

Our very own cuisine has simple and modest beginnings.  Malaysians, Indonesians, Arabic and Chinese came to trade and brought influences that were assimilated and later became part of our culture.

Then, the Spaniards came to spread Christianity and they brought a culture (and of course, food) which was entirely different from that of the East. They came as conquerors and greatly influenced the Filipino elite at that time who tried to imitate the culture of the conquistadores.

This is best illustrated by celebrating “fiestas” which became the model for expressing not only Christian values but also to mimic the table of the Spaniards.  Later, the Americans came and with them, their culture and food. This created a new group of Filipino elite, this time copying American values. 

All these foreign influences were not adopted outright but adopted and later adjusted to fit to the native taste.

Today, Cebu has a new restaurant that serves Filipino cuisine and some select members of Cebu’s media were invited to a dinner hosted by Michel and Amparito Lhuillier last November 8. For your favorite food columnist, trabaho na pud, working very hard tasting all those delicious food and wine to render a culinary account.

With a white wine, the Pfaffenheims 2006, I began dissecting the nuances of the appetizers—the Kilawing Tuna, Lambuting Alimango and the Luto sa Hurno na Scallop. I got real tiny servings from each dish then I decided to finally settle for generous portions of those tasty scallops with a third glass of Pfaffenheims; that’s a nice start.

Next item on the menu— soup Chicken Binakol—was served but Michel Lhuillier, ever so hospitable, ordered a second soup, the Halong halong Halaan. I could not choose so I went the easy way, I had both!

Then came the main dishes: Kare-Kare, Chicken Relleno, Sariwang Lumpiang Ubod, Crispy Pata and Laing accompanied by Bamboo rice. These dishes had to be matched with wines and we had a choice between the Pfaffenheims or a red wine, the Chateau Moulin Galhaud 2003. Michel Lhuillier, feeling very generous, offered Pino’s very best red wine, Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1999.

Again, I went to taste very tiny portions of every dish (following my personal physician’s advisory!) and decided that I should pay very close attention on the Lumpiang ubod and Crispy pata.

Often, my friends ask me to describe the “taste” of the dishes I have had in the past. Research na sad, your favorite food columnist, on the “Science of Taste.” It has been defined by Tamara Holt in The Science of Yummy (November 2007 issue of Popular Science) as what happens on “the tongue—the perception of sweet, sour, salty, bitter and the curious savoriness named umani by the Japanese.”

Umani (Xian in Chinese) is also called “richness” or sense of deliciousness is  brought about by foods high in umani content like kelp and konbu (dried seaweeds) which “lend a fullness of flavor and a meaty tone and with none of the fattiness that comes from the using butter or cream either.”

Flavor, on the other hand, is much more complicated. First, it involves the sense of smell; and when you talk of smell, you talk about gene scent receptors, numbering 250 to 400 in humans.

And men, excuse me, are not created equal! Those who work in the perfume industry can have as many as 400 active genes while some people I know may have the same number but half are sleeping.

The second factor is taste and the last component of flavor is “chemesthesis—the feeling of heat, coldness, pain or tingling.” We know what heat, cold or pain is; few, however, can discern the sensation of “tingling” unless you have tasted Szechuan peppercorn.

So complicated is this business of taste and flavor! Another glass of my favorite red wine, the Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1999, helped energize the hippocampus (associated with memories, including food cravings) of your favorite food columnist.

Our lovely dinner ended with two choices of dessert: cup of chocolate, Mango and Torta de Argao and the Ube Halaya, Leche Flan and Macapuno Balls.

A week later, back to Pino (Wilson St. Lahug, Phone 2320939) to entertain visitors from Japan headed by Dr. Katsumi Honma, who operates 45 veterinary clinics and over a hundred pet shops. This is his second trip to donate anti-rabies vaccines to the Cebu City Government. A seasoned world tourist (only monthly trips around the world!), his opinion of the Filipino dishes for lunch at Pino was very significant. He said—“5 star taste.”