The Miele Guide
It’s that time of year again when you can vote for your favorite restaurants for the Miele Guide. This restaurant guide profiles Asia’s best restaurants as determined by professional restaurant critics, a jury of respected foodies, and public voting. The Miele Guide also annually ranks the Top 20 Restaurants, including the Top 5 in each country.
According to the creators of the Guide, “The first round of judging consists of creating a shortlist of best restaurants as determined by the region’s top restaurant critics. The second and third rounds of judging will be conducted simultaneously via online polls. The public, in addition to a jury of food professionals and prominent food lovers, will be invited to cast their votes. Finally, our in-house team and contributing editors will be dining anonymously at the most highly rated restaurants to confirm our annual ranking of Asia’s Top 20.”
The Miele Guide was really designed to give the public a say in the selection of best restaurants. High brow critics may disagree with the inclusion in the guide of low-end restaurants like Som’s or Tatoy’s or of franchise restaurants like Italiannis, but the variety reflects that these restaurants are well-loved by locals and even by visitors and therefore qualify as the “best” in the area. After all, in an industry that capitalizes on taste, the only sure thing is that it varies! Plus, real foodies know that expensive does not mean delicious and cheap does not mean bland. As the Miele Guide is for everyone, having a range of restaurants in the list is something that is welcome.
Last year, aside from being elated with Antonio’s Fine Dining of Tonyboy Escalante making the Top 5, I was happy to see that the last Miele Guide included restaurants from the provinces such as Cebu (Abaca and The Gustavian), Iloilo (Tatoy’s), and Pampanga (Bale Dutung). Really, these three provinces can be destinations for their sumptuous cooking alone!
I did regret, however, not encouraging people enough to vote for their favorite restaurants so there was a year when Bistro Filipino of Rolly Laudico and even Pepato (when it was still around) of Margarita Fores did not make the list, even if I, along with a good chunk of the foodie population, consider these two a couple of our country’s “best.” So please, no regrets this time (!), get online and vote for your favorite restaurants NOW at www.mieleguide.com. Voting has been extended up to June 30 only!
Truffles
Masseto’s order of fresh black summer truffles are now available until supplies last. Masseto will be featuring black summer truffles as well as fresh Chanterelle mushrooms and white asparagus from Europe this June. Masseto is at 114 Valero Street, Salcedo Village, Makati City. Call 810-3565, 338-0929.
Food Styling / Photography
Pastry chef Pixie Sevilla is promoting a food styling/photography class for beverages (milkshakes, brewed and cappuccino coffee, halo-halo, beer and soda) that will be held on June 26, Sunday, from 8 a.m. to 12 noon in Jo Avila’s Studio in Annapolis, Greenhills (across Choi Garden). Fee is P5,000, limited to 10 students only. Call 0917 522 6010.
The Resurrection of Old Favorites
Nanohana
Makati yuppies were saddened by the closing of Nanohana, that Japanese restaurant with addictive Wagyu fried rice on Valero Street in Salcedo Village. It has re-opened at the location of another restaurant that closed down, Spasso at The Fort. Nanohana is now at Luxe Residences, 4th Avenue cor. 28th Street, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig.
Pepato
Pepato, that Margarita Fores restaurant in Greenbelt 2 that we now dearly miss, makes weekend appearances now at Pasong Tamo Extension. You can find here “the creations from 2003 and earlier, that will forever be Pepato’s and will always be available,” says Fores. As they are available only on weekends, call first to see if they will pop up at Whitespace and what else is on the menu. Pepato Pop-up is at The Commissary at Whitespace, 2314 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati. For reservations, call 729-0030 or 0917-5138945.
Simply Thai
Terrace at the 5th in Greenbelt 5 closed down, but Cecile Chang (formerly Cecile Ysmael and creator of Thai at Silk in Serendra) has returned to her core competency of Thai cooking and opened Simply Thai at the same spot. The place is gorgeous, with handpainted art by UP students on the walls and Thai wooden fixtures hand-carried by Cecile herself from Bangkok on display. The food, especially, is yum: classics such as Tom Yum and Pad Thai but also modern Thai dishes such as Thai Hainanese chicken (o di ba, Thai na, Hainanese pa—dual citizenship daw, two passports).
So much to explore, so much to eat. Thank you, God! Happy eating, everyone!
