Page 29 - foodservice news magazine Nov-Dec 2018
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DINING
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Then, press hits. “It was unbelievable. Instantaneous.” Broadsheet was the first with a piece in late January and folks were rocking
up that night. Over the next few months, Rey’s Place was featured everywhere from Time Out and The Urban List to Qantas Magazine and even internationally in The New York Times. It was new restaurant fodder for media, definitely, but there was an earnest excitement for this bold new cuisine and the untapped flavours of South-East Asia’s last frontier.
So what exactly is Filipino food? Another common question. Nearly 400 years of Spanish rule imbued the light, native cuisine with richer, more indulgent dishes, while Arab missionaries, Chinese seafarers and American G.I. Joes also left their unique culinary mark. Today, the country’s punchy food stars are vivid flavours of salty, sour and sweet; exotic local produce; braised meats, whole cuts; glistening seafood; and refreshing soups against a backdrop of pure rice, with addictive dipping sauces for diners to custom-make dishes and eye- catching East-meets-West desserts. Bayad describes it as “the tastiest
D.
thing in the world” and a case in point for doing little to it. “A lot that we have here it is literally a traditional recipe plated in a modern way. I don’t want to mess with it.”
Overcoming that initial ‘huh?’ also means double the work. “I effectively have to market my restaurant and the cuisine,” explains Bayad, who hosts monthly meet-ups for an inspired local chapter of the global Filipino food movement, spearheading national events, as well as collaborations with diverse Sydney restaurants to get in front of new audiences.
Ironically, Filipinos – the would-be easy sell – are often the challenge. Bayad describes a wildly supportive Filipino fan base, but two of his biggest ongoing stumbling blocks are perceived notions of authenticity and cost. “ ‘I can get adobo back home for $3.’” he gives as an example. But in the Philippines, you’re not paying Sydney rent or wage. He’s also not the first ethnic food operator to come up against the ‘authentic’ scourge. Whatever the cuisine, what’s true to one person from somewhere is always going to differ to someone from elsewhere.


































































































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