San Miguel Pure Foods Culinary Center (SMPFCC) has announced new culinary destinations for its Proba: Cavite Comida food tour.

“Cavite is well known for its food destinations, so we wanted to highlight the new, noteworthy and seldom visited spots in the province,” SMPFCC culinary services manager Llena Tan-Arcenas said.

“‘Proba’ means ‘tikman’ and we want to use this tour as a way to promote the province as a great dining destination for food stops near Manila.”

According to SMPFCC,food trends forecasting reveals that the emerging food movement in 2018 is “Filipino Heritage Cuisine.”

“It’s very encouraging to see new and upcoming chefs show love and interest in our rich culinary heritage. This food tour is timely, in that it showcases classic Filipino cuisine to a new generation of foodies out there,” Arcenas said.

Cavite Puerto

First stop was Bernie’s Kitchen in Cavite City. The restaurant was positively charming, a sort of amalgam of all your favorite carinderia.

Veteran restaurateur Bernadita Rojas-Fontanilla has been cooking for 30 years, and is the granddaughter of famous 1950s actor Leopoldo Salcedo.

The Salcedos are native Caviteños.

We sampled Rojas-Fontanilla famous Pansit Pusit, which uses squid ink in its savory sauce. It is garnished with sliced green mangoes and topped with chicharon, parsley and garlic.

We also sampled her Pansit Puso, which is served with Kinilaw na Puso ng Saging.

Most notable is the Bacalao, a sautéed fish dish using Magnolia Dari Creme. Bacalao means codfish in Spanish, and is a Lenten specialty in many parts of the Philippines.

Tanza

After Cavite City, it was off to Tanza, to the beautifully preserved Abad House, built in 1820.

Chef Chris Bautista, former culinary director at Lyceum of the Philippines University-Cavite, showcased two heritage dishes: Pipian, a Spanish-inspired chicken dish like kare-kare, and cooked using Magnolia Whole Chicken; and Tinumis, using Monterey Pork, which looks similar to dinuguan but is flavored with sampaloc leaves instead of vinegar.

Kawit

For dinner, we went to Kawit and visited a hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Mang Jose’s Rolling Store, which opened only last year.

Owned by Jhing and Mimi Hernandez, the restaurant has gained popularity for pugon-roasted items. It is just a stone’s throw from Emilio Aguinaldo’s house, a must-visit for history buffs.

We sampled the restaurant’s pugon-cooked lechon, as well as Boneless Lechon Belly, Inasal, Crispy Sisig and pork barbecue, right off the grill. San Miguel Beer was paired with the dishes, to the massive glee of guests.

Trece Martires, Amadeo

At Trece Martires, a popular destination is Cavite Republic, the recent reincarnation of an even older Trece establishment, Town’s Delight, which opened in 1974.

The restaurant merges classic Caviteño dishes with the newer culinary takes. Owner Matt Pacumio, grandson of Town’s Delight’s founder, is chef.

We sampled the Grilled Chicken Sinampalukan, Pansit Estacion Negra and Cavite Express. The place is also known for Paella Valenciana and Crispy Dinuguang Baboy.

Last stop was Amadeo, famed for its coffee farms. We had a cuppa at Olivia’s coffee, nestled in Olivia’s estate, which is owned by coffee farmers and connoisseurs Olivia and Joselito Lansang.

The couple was one of the first coffee distributors in Cavite, and the pioneer of the modern coffee industry in Amadeo.

Served with the coffee was San Miguel’s own La Pacita Graham Cookie sandwiches. – CONTRIBUTED