CHEF Andrew Zimmern
Ever since my protracted sabbatical here in the US, I’ve been craving for “honest-to-goodness” Filipino food. Since I live in the “’burbs,” it’s been difficult to quench my craving for flavorful Pinoy cuisine with ingredients here quite scarce.
Fortunately, good ol’ boob-tube has kept me globally connected especially when hunger pangs strike. One such show is Andrew Zimmern’s “Bizzarre Foods” on Travel Channel, which had an episode where he went around the Philippines to scour for “not-so-common” dishes. Zimmern even visited the same restaurant in Angono, Rizal that I featured on a TV show I used to co-host. He tried their sweet ginataang bilo-bilo and their soup no.5. I was surprised that Zimmern was able to eat what I couldn’t even stand looking at – the Uok or the provincial giant worm.
Zimmern went all the way to Puerto Princessa, Palawan to Kinabuch’s restaurant to try snails cooked in gata, seaweeds and panga ng tuna. He can aptly describe the dishes as soon as these hit his tongue. His humble demeanour matched with his global palate and thirst for knowledge makes him beloved among Pinoys abroad.
To top it all, Zimmern recently announce on USA Today: “I predict, two years from now, Filipino food will be what we will have been talking about for six months… I think that’s going to be the next big thing.”
This is good news for us Filipinos living abroad. Zimmern even bravely predicted: “I think it’s going to take another year and a half to get up to critical mass, but everybody loves Chinese food, Thai food, Japanese food, and it’s all been exploited. The Filipinos combined the best of all of that with Spanish technique. The Spanish were a colonial power there for 500 years, and they left behind adobo and cooking in vinegar – techniques that, applied to those tropical Asian ingredients, are miraculous.”
Zimmern also attributes his predictions to the growing number of rated Filipino chefs in the US. With the chefs’ very positive outlook towards Filipino cuisine, it seems things are looking up for us indeed.
Celebrity chef champions Pinoy cuisine
Source: Mb.com.ph (September 13, 2013 at 10:00PM)
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