Upon booking my trip to Manila, after a little
research, I identified three restaurants where I wanted to eat… Hey Handsome (here),
Gallery Vask (here) & Toyo Eatery (Plus a shed load of street
food, obvs). For me, Toyo turned out to be the pick of the bunch.
Opened in 2016, Toyo Eatery is owned by Chef Jordy
Navarra – a local lad who has spent time abroad, honing his craft in the
kitchens of The Fat Duck and Bo Innovation in Hong Kong. At Toyo, Navarra applies
the modern approaches and techniques traditional Filipino dishes and ingredients.
One such homage, to the local flavours of roadside
barbeques and the Filipino love of food on sticks, is the dish Three-cut Pork BBQ. Taking some twelve
hours to make, this, of course, is elevated from the simple version that can be
found on every street corner – the accompanying bone broth resonated with deep
porky flavours and bastings of coconut cider vinegar add the essentially
authentic smack of acidity.
When talking about pinoy cuisine, you can’t bandy
around words like ‘authentic’ without mentioning the breakfast dish of bangús
(milkfish) – here, the Belly and Loin of
Bangús come grilled over charcoal and served with the obligatory
accompanying silog – made with
sticky garlic fried rice, raw egg yolk and crispy fish skin.
What I particularly loved about Toyo is that
every dish told a story (as well as being expertly executed and banging with
flavour). One such highlight was the Garden
Vegetables dish, which incorporated the eighteen vegetables cited in the well-known
children’s song Bahay Kubo (Nipa Hut). When I jokingly asked the
waiter if he’d sing the song for us, he instead asked one of the bar staff, who
duly performed an angelic interpretation tableside, in Tagalog! Respect to him for
that!
Bahay
kubo, kahit munti (Nipa hut, even though it's small,)
Ang
halaman doon ay sari-sari. (The plants that grow around it are varied:)
Singkamas
at talong, sigarilyas at mani (Turnip & eggplant, winged bean & peanut,)
Sitaw,
bataw, patani. (String bean, hyacinth bean, lima bean.)
Kundol,
patola, upo’t kalabasa (Wax gourd, sponge gourd, white squash & pumpkin,)
At
saka mayroon pang labanos, mustasa, (And there's also radish, mustard,)
sibuyas,
kamatis, bawang at luya (Onion, tomato, garlic & ginger)
sa
paligid-ligid ay puro linga. (And all around are sesame seeds.)
Breads – Pork Bread and
Sourdough with Fermented Black Rice
Tomato Meringue with
Ginataang Langka
Oysters with Pickled
Cucumbers, Lime & Basil
Kilaw – Wild Talakitok,
Lime & Sesame
Tamban – Malunggay Leaf,
Young Corn & Sichuan Buttons
Squid – “Relyenong”
Pusit with Mustard Flower
Lugaw – Crab Roe &
Burnt Kalabaza with Coconut Vinegar
Burnt Kalabaza with Sea
Urchin & Orange Kamote
Salad – Garden
Vegetables
Lightly Grilled
Mackerel in Grass-fed Butter with semi-ripe Guava & Kamias
Three-cut Pork BBQ
Grilled Loin &
Belly of Bangus with Silog
Lemongrass, Pineapple
& Salted Pineapple
Chocolate Cake with
Preserved Calamansi
Petit Fours
