When
our American friend Tom said he'd finally visit the Philippines last
August, Carlos immediately organized a trip to the province of Pampanga,
complete with a ten-course lunch at Claude and Mary Ann Tayag's
restaurant,
Bale Dutung.
"Bale Dutung" means "house of wood". If this house looks somewhat familiar, it's because it was featured in
Anthony Bourdain's Philippines episode on
No Reservations. Here's the
Pampanga clip on Youtube, showing artist and chef
Claude Tayag's restaurant.
Mary
Ann Tayag welcomed the seven of us warmly. We had to call ahead and
reserve, so the Tayags could put us together with another small group in
order to make the 12-head minimum. We chose the "Anthony Bourdain
menu", which referred to an all-Kapampangan lineup of dishes. As each
dish was served, Mary Ann would annotate, explaining the origins and
flavors of each dish.
A salad of wild ferns and tomatoes topped with half a soft-boiled egg.
Grilled chicken buttons (it's the behind, folks!) with brown rice.
Quail stewed in soy sauce, garlic and vinegar (adobo), with egg pan de sal.
Lechon
taco. Each diner is served only one ( in order for them to be able to appreciate the rest
of the ten-course meal properly), but the fixings are buffet style.
Beef
bone marrow. You get a wooden popsicle stick to scoop out the
delicious marrow, plus a straw to help you get all the juices.
A
thick guava-flavored soup called "bulanglang", featuring "ulang" (large
river prawns). There's a small serving of plain rice inside the banana
leaf package.
Seafood kare-kare (a stew with peanut sauce).
The
courses I didn't photograph were the appetizers (crackers and dip made
of homemade herb pesto, "taba ng talangka" or crab fat, and
"balao-balao" or fermented rice flavored with shrimps); the coffee and
dessert (maja blanca with corn and young coconut).
The
meal took us four hours to consume! It was amazing how we could all
still stand up at the end of it all. Claude visited our table and
signed the books we bought. He and Mary Ann co-authored the book
Linamnam, a regional food guide to the Philippines (Anvil Publishing, 2011). Claude also styled
Kulinarya (A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine), by Glenda Rosales Barretto.
Was
it worth it? Foreign visitors and locals who aren't too familiar with
Pampanga cuisine (like myself) can definitely check this menu out. Some
of the dishes were known quantities with a distinctly Pampanga/Tayag
twist. Some, like the balao-balao dip and the guava-redolent
bulanglang, were exotic. If that doesn't strike your fancy, there are
also
other menus
to choose from. I truly enjoyed Mary Ann's entertaining and
informative spiels, and learned a lot about Pampanga's rich history and
culture through its food.
What to do after an afternoon of eating? We decided we all wanted a richer dessert, and went all the way to
Kabigting's a few towns away in Arayat, for white halo-halo (with pastillas milk candy instead of ube jam)!
Thank
you, Tom, for visiting the Philippines, because if it weren't for you,
we wouldn't have thought of going on this Pampanga food tour!
