Something old, something new at The Grace’s Filipino food feast

12/08/2016

FILIPINO FOOD FESTIVAL 2016

FISH escabeche, beef caldereta, palabok, finishing off with brazo Mercedes and maja blanca with toasted coconut made my lunch day at The Grace Hotel brasserie last week.

It was my annual one-day outing at the two-week-long Filipino Food Festival in the heart of Sydney city.

A surprise treat yet again: The dishes’ names were the same, as one would have expected in any Filipino food festival, but the touch and taste thrilled the palate in a new and tantalising way.

One was tempted to compare the fare of food festivals in 2014 and 2015 to this year’s attraction at the same venue, but that would have served no purpose to me or to anyone who cared to listen.

It was a food feast, to be sure, with something old and something new, allowing gourmets and plain diners like me to savour the best of Filipino cuisine, prepared by some of the finest chefs flown in from Manila.

The menu ranged from gambas and chicken ginataan to crispy lechon kawali with liver, oxtail kare-kare, pork binagoongan, and seafood kinilaw.

Dessert served self-mixing halo-halo, leche flan, and an array of exotic sweets and treats.

The only thing missing, in my opinion, was some live music to complete an event with a truer ‘feel’ of Filipino hospitality.

I look forward to next year’s Filipino Food Festival, hopefully with a bit more flair.

Surprise me with a contribution of chefs from among our own Sydney-bred Filipino-Australians who, perhaps, may bring a new dimension to the food festival through a close grasp of the Australian taste for ethnic cuisine.

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13 August is the last day of the Philippine Food Festival at The Grace Hotel.

About

Jaime Pimentel

Jaime Kelly Pimentel, a working journalist and community radio anchor in Sydney’s inner west, was born, raised and educated in the Philippines. He emigrated to Sydney, Australia, in 1971.