The Pen's Old Manila teams up with Holy Carabao Farms for 6-course degustacion | ABS-CBN

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The Pen's Old Manila teams up with Holy Carabao Farms for 6-course degustacion

The Pen's Old Manila teams up with Holy Carabao Farms for 6-course degustacion

Angelo G. Garcia

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MANILA -- The farm-to-table movement is finding its way into one of Manila's iconic hotels, The Peninsula Manila. For a limited time, the hotel's signature fine dining restaurant Old Manila, is offering a special six-course degustation in collaboration with Holy Carabao Farms.

Farm-to-table simply means that restaurants source their ingredients directly from farms, specifically small farmers. It's beneficial in both ways: the restaurants get the first pick or best products, while farmers get 100 percent of the profit.

Old Manila, known for its fine cuisine, is no stranger to finding the best ingredients. That's why the hotel partnered with an organic farm that produces some of the best organic vegetables, fruits, dairy, and meat in the market — Holy Carabao Farms.

Old Manila chef de cuisine Allan Briones and Holy Carabao Farms co-founder Hindy Weber Tantoco. Handout

“We're so grateful for this opportunity. If you only knew how Holy Carabao started 11 years ago from our backyard to being here with all of you, to being noticed by none other than The Peninsula Manila. It's really a wonderful feather on our hat. It kind of assures us that we're on the right track. Finally, there's a hotel group and a chef that appreciates what we grow in our land, full of love and bringing that to a wider audience,” shared Holy Carabao Farms co-founder Hindy Weber Tantoco.

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The farm started as a small backyard farm until it grew to a full-fledged farm. It's based in Sta. Rosa, Laguna but has several partner farms in various locations. The farm's main products are local vegetables and fruits but it also has poultry, pork, and dairy products like carabao milk cheese. Holy Carabao also sells ready-to-eat salads and marinated chicken at its store in Poblacion, Makati and its online shop. It likewise supplies fresh produce to select supermarkets in Manila.

The farm's main focus, however, is in indigenous vegetables and fruits. “We want to give as much value to malunggay as kale. It's actually much potent, " Tantoco said.

"We actually have a very biodiverse ecosystem. Our soils are so rich with nutrients and minerals. Our vegetables are nutrient-dense. So I think that's what we should promote. We're in the Philippines after all, so when foreigners come here or even children when they eat food they should be eating and get to know Filipino food and local ingredients,” Tantoco said.

Old Manila chef de cuisine Allan Briones and Holy Carabao Farms co-founder Hindy Weber Tantoco. Handout

In the collaboration with Old Manila, chef de cuisine, Allan Briones made sure that the dishes will highlight Holy Carabao Farms' products. The special menu also uses sustainable seafood from local waters and Auro Chocolates of Davao.

“The menu was built around their produce. We wanted to showcase their produce using the methods I always use in the kitchen to create dishes,” he said.

The six-course degustation menu is available at Old Manila until June 2 and price starts at P3,850 per person.

“After thinking about it for three weeks, I finally came up with a proper menu with the produce that they have. But first I had to try their stuff first, even taste at its raw state to know how it really tastes like, what it's going to be like when you cook it or do something with it. We made sure that the flavor profile of each dish had the perfect combination,” Briones said.

Poached Canadian lobster with banana heart and pansit-pansitan. Handout

The six courses include the poached Canadian lobster. He combined luxurious lobster with banana heart, crab roe, cassava crisp, kaffir lime, and pansit-pansitan.

Roasted vegetable tartlet with carabao milk cheese. Handout

There's also the roasted vegetable tartlet with carabao milk cheese, basil crème, beetroot gastrique, and tomatoes. This tartlet uses different kinds of root crop like sweet potatoes, carrots, and purple yam.

Roasted chicken consomme with white heritage corn flan. Handout

The roasted chicken consomme is the soup dish of the menu. The clean soup is complemented by a white heritage corn flan, grilled corn kernels, green papaya, and cracklings for added texture.

Smoked halibut filet with heirloom puffed adlai. Handout

For the fish dish, the smoked halibut filet is served with long beans, oyster mushrooms, radish, roasted cashew and a kropek-like crunchy heirloom puffed adlai.

Another main is the grilled Berkshire pork tenderloin with squash ravioli, bacon, mustard seed, pickled yacon (similar to jicama or singkamas), and tarragon butter.

Coconut 'buko' dessert made with Davao chocolate and pineapple. Handout

For the dessert, chef Briones created a showstopper. He created a “buko” dessert out of milk chocolate, pineapple, cocoa, and muscovado.

The shells are made of Davao milk chocolate which is filled with a fluffy meringue and sweet pineapple compote. It is served with a cocoa and muscovado sponge “soil” and a quenelle of pineapple sorbet.

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