All that’s Philippine

Chef Sharwin Tee likes to compare food with people. For him, mixing ingredients and aromas is like family and friends get-togethers.

“A lot of our food is great when it’s re-heated and when it’s shared,” he says.

“We are very hospitable people, so we always have food ready; it just needs to be put back on the cooker and made warm again. We also serve it in very large portions because family is very important to us, so we just sit around the food, talking and enjoying each other, as well as the food,” explains the chef.

Sharwin Tee is one of Philippine’s top celebrity chefs. He has his own TV programme, Curiosity Got the Chef, travelling through the various regions of his country, collecting often unknown recipes and presenting them on his TV show. For three days only, chef Sharwin and his assistant Rachel Lapus were in Abu Dhabi, preparing a lavish Filipino buffet at Sheraton Hotel and Resort’s Flavours restaurant from June 9 to 11.

Beef stir fry, Filipino spring rolls, prawns with coconut, banana salad, chicken and ginger soup, rice, noodles and a delicious selection of traditional and not-so-traditional deserts— banana in caramel sauce, fresh cassava fruit, pancakes with guava sauce and chocolate crème Brule — were some of the choices.

“Filipino food is very well balanced. There is an equilibrium between sourness, saltiness and sweetness,” explains chef Sharwin.

“We don’t eat very spicy food, but we have a little bit of hot spice, sweet, sour and salt in every dish.”

There are also a lot of other cuisines’ influences, especially from Spain, Japan and China, but all adapted to Filipino tastes.

“Rice is one of our key ingredient, especially since we have rice farms, but we also use a lot of noodles. We serve these mostly with stews of fish, seafood, all kinds of meet and poultry,” says chef Sharwin.

“Yes, it sounds like a banquet, but any occasion is an eating occasion for us.”

The three-day food fiesta in Abu Dhabi, though, was not just any occasion. On June 12, Philippines celebrates its National Day and, for the first time this year, the Philippine embassy here decided to organise a big party, not just with the food festival, but an arts and crafts exhibition that also took place at Sheraton Abu Dhabi over the same period.

“Oh, I don’t think I miss something in particular from home,” says Grace Relucio Princesa, Philippines Ambassador in Abu Dhabi, after a few moments of thinking.

“You see the UAE is like the Philippines. We are the number four here, having an estimated 400,000 to 600,000 Filipinos in the country, so practically we have everything here. I miss my family, of course, that is natural, but in terms of food and other goods, everything is here,” explains Princesa.

For her half-a-million country folk living here, or at least for the ones living in Abu Dhabi — the ambassador came up with the Filipino Fun Art and Food Festival, which included not only the three-day food festival with a different Filipino menu for each day, but also some live Filipino entertainment provided by members of the community here and the exhibition featuring a few iconic Filipino arts and crafts. Among those was clearly one of ambassador’s favourites, the abaca.

“Abaca is a kind of banana. It is the strongest natural fibre in the world and because of the organic issues in the world why not use abaca instead of plastic! And 85 per cent of it comes from the Philippines. Abaca represents the Philippines. It is strong, it’s resilient, it’s exceptional,” says Princesa.

It is also a very old tradition, used for centuries in the 7107-island country, and that is probably why it came to be known as Manila hemp. Abaca was first cultivated on a large scale in Sumatra in 1925 under the Dutch, who had observed its cultivation in the Philippines for cordage since the 19^th century, followed up by plantings in Central America in 1929 sponsored by the US Department of Agriculture. Nowadays it is grown as a commercial crop only in the Philippines, Ecuador and Costa Rica.

Originally used for making twines and ropes, the fibre is pulped and processed into specialty paper used in tea bags, vacuum bags and even banknotes. Other applications include handcrafts like bags, carpets, clothing and furniture.

“It is even used by Mercedes Benz. It is a strengthening material in Mercedes Benz. That’s how strong it is,” points out the ambassador.

At an average annual export earnings of $82,097,293, abaca is the Philippines’ biggest moneymaker and the ambassador has ambitious plans now to bring it to the UAE as well.

“I want to tie it up with Masdar because Masdar is all about renewable energy and abaca is a renewable fibre, so I want to draw their attention to it,” she says.

Being first colonised by Spain during the age of Imperialism (National Day itself celebrates Philippines declaration of independence from Spain on June 12, 1898, although the Spaniards didn’t recognise it and later sold Philippines to US), then occupied by US after the Spanish-American War of 1898 and by the Japanese Empire during World War II, Philippines ended up with plenty of cultural influences reflected in the people’s traditions, dress, food and arts.

“Our culture is a mix of the West and the East, but the essence of Filipinos is fun. We have so much fun in our soul and our lives; we sing, we dance, we are very spiritual and resilient people,” claims the ambassador.

The fun part is what gave ambassador Princesa’s idea of this festival.

“The Filipinos are known for fun. Just this January our Department of Tourism launched a new campaign slogan: It’s More Fun in the Philippines! We want bring you to fun places that we think you should visit like the world-class beaches of Boracay and Siargao. Tourism representatives of Dubai are coming,” explains the ambassador.

A sample of what Philippines has to offer was given in the form of brochures and food and through Mama Sita’s as well, a Filipino food supply company that brought all the necessary ingredients for chef Sharwin to cook over here, plus a few extra for sale.

“I don’t know what this is, but I’m going to try it anyway,” laughs Matilda, a young Filipino eyeing a rice pudding at the food festival.

With a varied cuisine from one island to another, and especially from North to South regions, the Filipinos themselves may be surprised sometime by their own dishes.

Inspired by the festival, Sheraton also joined in the National Day celebrations by surprising its employees with a Filipino food day in the staff cafeteria on June 12. Giving that the hotel has 107 Filipino employees out of 400, the gesture was much appreciated and the Filipino ambassador herself dropped in for a bite!

silvia@khaleejtimes.com