Sutokil in Seattle

At our Seattle popup, we wanted to highlight the Visayan tradition of ‘SuToKil’ (sugba, tola or tinola, and kilawin) and take advantage of Seattle’s great seafood. 

Aren’t you the guy, you know, who cooks on TV?” asked the manager of Filipino grocery Seafood City, as she processed the gift certificates we were using.

I’m in Seattle. After spending a couple of days with friends in the neighboring Poulsbo area, I’m now refreshed and recharged for my last popup in the US for 2018.

I’m shopping with chef Melissa Miranda, who generously agreed to collaborate with me and Filipino Kitchen’s Natallia Roxas. The manager’s friendliness was just a portent of the many acts of kindness that we would receive, which made this particular popup such a stress-free experience.

Just the night before, Natalia, Melissa and I were sitting around Melissa’s dinner table to discuss the menu. Melissa agreed to let us stay at her place during our entire visit to Seattle (because she’s awesome).

Coming from two major events in St. Louis and Chicago, my mind was still in a bit of a haze, and I was worried we didn’t have a menu yet. Just a few minutes into our meeting, though, my mind was at ease. Our conversation was open, collaborative and creative, and pretty soon, we decided on a theme. We wanted to highlight the Visayan tradition of “SuToKil” and take advantage of Seattle’s great seafood. 

“SuToKil” means Sugba (grilled), Tola or Tinola (ginger soup), and Kilawin (seafood or meat marinated in vinegar), and so it was decided that Melissa and I would make two versions of each, one modern and one classic, while Natalia would make dessert and craft the menu cards.

My Labuyo Salabat Gazpacho is an old, reliable recipe of mine.

We would start off with my modern take on a ginger soup, a roasted tomato, labuyo and salabat gazpacho, followed immediately by Melissa’s marinated smoked mussels and pig’s ears kinilaw (sisig Matua in Pampanga).

For the hot courses, I would serve lomi noodles with a fish head-and-ginger broth that my grandmother used to make to represent my Chinoy side, and a grilled rockfish with Piyanggang sauce to represent my Mindanao side. Melissa would then round out the hot courses with her barbecue trio. Natalia’s fresh carioca patties with homemade ice cream would provide the perfect ending.

Turns out, people had heard about our little collab popup, and the word was we needed to prepare for over 80 diners! With a lean crew, a proper prep day would be crucial. Once again, the kindness of the Filipino shone through. We got some much-appreciated help from chef Jonnah, who works in Portland, but made the three-hour drive to Seattle to help us prep and cook.

Meanwhile, Manong Lane Wilcken, a master batok (hand-tap tattoo) artist who was in town to do some work, took time off to help me chop vegetables. His knife skills are excellent! Despite working in a busy, rented commercial kitchen where other chefs and catering companies were also working, our prep session went smoothly and uneventfully, which is what chefs dream about all the time. In fact, the only thing noteworthy about the whole prep session was how I got more than a few stares and puzzled looks from other chefs when I was burning coconut to black for my pamapa. It was a cool experience to reassure the other chefs that I knew what I was doing and it was an even better experience for me to talk a little about Mindanaoan food to those that asked.

The day of the popup was just as fun and stress-free as our crew put our heads down and worked, while managing to have engaging talks on the rise of Filipino food, watching stupidly funny YouTube videos and of course, singing out loud to Regine Velasquez songs. We are all Filipino, after all.

Once the popup started, we were all business. At the very first table of guests, I picked up a bowl filled with noodles and trumpet mushrooms and ladled boiling-hot soup over them. As I was moving the bowl to the pass, I tilted it a bit too much and the soup burned my thumb. Not wanting to drop the bowl, I had to hold on to it while the soup was still burning my finger until I could lay it gently on the kitchen counter. I burned myself on the first table and had to shake my head in disbelief. I hoped it was not a sign of things to come.

Chef Melissa Miranda’s Pig Ears Kinilaw

Fortunately, after replacing that bowl with a new one, the rest of the night went smoothly. In fact, serving 85 diners went by really quickly and none of my other body parts were in danger!  Throughout the night, it was gratifying to hear the diners’ comments, all of who had constant cravings for Filipino food.

The highlight of the night for me was hearing comments about how much they liked my grandmother’s ginger-and-fish head broth. I was actually hesitant to put it on the menu since it was such a simple “lutong bahay” dish with very subtle flavors, but I’m glad Melissa convinced me to have the confidence to serve it just the way we would at home.

The following day, we said our goodbyes and, as I gave Melissa a hug, we both knew this wouldn’t be the last time we would work together. I mean, it was just too much fun! I’m definitely going to hear much more from her as her popup and catering company, Musang Seattle, is doing absolutely great work.

Meanwhile, Natalia went to take the train to Portland, because her work with the Filipino community in the US never ends. We said our goodbyes at the Amtrak station, content with the money we’d raised for my charity work this year, but determined to do more next year. If only every project we worked on was as stress-free as our Seattle project.

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You can see Sharwin cook for and interview the country’s hottest celebrities every Sunday at 11:30 a.m. on Let’s Do Lunch on GMA News TV. Follow Sharwin’s food adventures on Instagram @chefsharwin and for questions, reactions, recipe and column suggestions, you can contact him at www.sharwintee.com.