Dinner at Agimat in Poblacion

The last time I saw Poblacion was more than ten years ago when I passed by P. Burgos to go to Rockwell. It was known as the red light district of Makati. It has been gentrified and one of the pioneers was Don Angelo Bautista who changed the interior of Lokal Hostel to showcase Filipino culture.

Dinner in a restaurant called Agimat was a lesson in our pre-colonial roots. I did know the meaning of Agimat in Pilipino but vaguely. To me it was an education in Philippine history and geography that we can be proud of.

As Sara says “on a personal note, I love the celebration of being Filipino, how there is mindfulness in sourcing the produce, how the narrative puts us in touch with the food we consume.”

The term Agimat was inspired by Filipino folklore. It is an amulet used to ward off evil or the mythical charm noted for developing instant attraction to the bearer.

Cassie, the wife of the chef, was happy to explain every dish we ordered.

“Its full name is Agimat Foraging Bar & Kitchen The concept was created by the Alamat Group. We are the same people behind Alamat Filipino Pub & Deli. Our group is composed of chef Niño Laus (my husband), Kalel Demetrio (our liquid chef), Paolo Sayo (contractor and interior designer), and myself Cassie Laus (managing director).

We are restaurateurs with an advocacy to help people gain a new kind of appreciation for everything Filipino. In Agimat, we want to show how rich our land is and how amazing our local ingredients are (known and unknown).

We want to show the world how talented Filipinos can be by creating world-class cocktails and cuisine using our local ingredients which are normally pushed to the shadows as we are a country that suffers from colonial mentality.

There is just TOO MUCH to highlight which is why we decided to be a Foraging Bar and kitchen. Every four months, we select a province in the Philippines and our team travels there to see what’s growing. We go to the mountains, fields, sea, forests and lakes. We talk to farmers, fishermen, historians, and even our local shamans or “albularyo” that help lead us to ingredients which we can use. There are some ingredients that are abundant in the province but unknown to us here in Manila. These are the ingredients that excite us most because we love discovering new things and educating people about our land.

The non-alcoholic drinks you had was ginger ale which we make ourselves. You also had the hibiscus passion fruit spritz which we also made from scratch. Actually, everything is made from scratch in Agimat.

Your appetiser was Burong Maliputo. We foraged the Maliputo fish in the middle of Taal lake. The fish is endemic to Batangas which is why it’s pricier than other fish. Whenever the locals buy that fish, it’s never for self consumption, rather, they are given as gifts. Since it is endemic we also wanted to control the amount of fish we got so what we did was to ferment it so that we can serve it in our restaurant over a long period of time. It is served on top of sago chips, alugbati, and topped with a Filipino salsa made with adlai and roasted eggplant.

The dessert you had is Saba which is caramelised banana. Guests are usually surprised to be informed that the skin is edible. We slow cook it for several hours. It is cooked together with kalingag which is local ingredient very similar to cinnamon. The Saba is served with house made ricotta cheese, toffee, and raw wild honey foraged in Batangas.”

The waiters and waitresses all wore uniforms with printed Baybayin which literally means “to spell.” I saw it in our natural history museum. Hmm. From museum to a restaurant. Baybayin and Alibata are the same thing except that Alibata is the wrong term. It’s also been called Sulat Tagalog and other names but Alibata has stuck.

Baybayin was used to write short things such as poetry and announcements. It was carved in natural material such as bamboo and pots.

One popular train of thought of the demise of the script is to blame the Spanish. While it’s easy to blame everything on them, we probably have most our information about the script thanks to the Spanish.

The Philippines is blessed with an abundant variety of edible botanicals hiding in plain sight. Yet, while there are many plants that grow “wild” all around us, the trick is knowing when and where to look for the ones that can define or punctuate our cuisine, depending on our needs.

I owe it to my daughter Veronica, once a CNN, BBC and Al-Jazeera broadcaster and my niece, fashion photographer Sara Black for the pleasant discovery. Thank you Veronica and Sara for the education I got from dinner at Agimat.

Sara Black is part owner of Agimat. She was born and raised in the Philippines. Her father is British. In her 15 years in the industry, Sara has since photographed some of the most high profile celebrities and members of society in the Philippines. She is known as the country’s leading beauty photographer having repeatedly collaborated with clients such as Avon, Nivea, L’Oreal, P&G, Splash and Unilever for some of their biggest campaigns.

Veronica Pedrosa began her career, in 1995, as a news anchor with CNN International and then with BBC World. She has also been a journalist with ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs.

 Pedrosa was with Al Jazeera English in the run-up to its launch, and worked for the channel for six years full-time, from 2005 to 2011, and then as a freelance for a few years more. During that time she was based in the Asia-Pacific bureau, in Kuala Lumpur; at the main bureau, in Doha; and as a correspondent in the field, based primarily in Bangkok.

She was the lead news presenter at the Kuala Lumpur bureau throughout its life as a broadcast centre, from 2005 in the run-up to the station’s launch, to the closure of the Malaysian broadcast center, in 2010.

Like other young Filipinos, Sara and Veronica they are leading the return to our roots.