It was in 2021, while watching an episode of chef Sandy Daza’s TV show “FoodPrints,” that I planned to one day visit Pampanga and try the seeming to-die-for dishes offered by some of the restaurants he featured. I was finally able to travel to the culinary capital of the Philippines early this December, accompanied by...
Tag: food
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Living his dream and not working a day in his life
Sandy Daza hosts three food shows on TV and writes a column, making him one of the most recognizable chefs in the Philippines. He co-owns kiosks bearing his name that sell empanada and siopao in malls across Metro Manila. And he wears another hat: as a guide of culinary tours in Japan that he considers...
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Food, friendship and more on a tour with a chef
FUKUOKA, HIROSHIMA, OSAKA—We came here to savor food that popular Filipino chef Sandy Daza has taste-tested and pronounced “exceptional” (for him, “good” is simply “not enough”). But the “Daza Japan Food Tour” of the three cities and their namesake prefectures on Oct. 20-25 offered participants more than just food. It also included visits to fish...
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When food tourism in US colonial period spurred fight for Filipino cuisine
The adventurous palate of foodies and their #willtravelforfood motto are interesting phenomena. The trend mentioned in a recent lecture intrigued me and moved a university student in the audience to ask Dr. Kristine Michelle L. Santos if Filipinos of yesteryear inherited their fondness for food from the Americans during the colonial era. Santos, an assistant...
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A ‘trattoria’ in Silang, Cavite? That’s ‘amore’
Tucked in semi-commercial Bulihan in bucolic Silang, Cavite, is a “trattoria”-style restaurant called “Cotoletta Ni Saletta.” It gets its name from the owners, Matteo Saletta, an Italian who speaks Filipino quite fluently, and his wife, Jonie Olandag-Saletta, a Filipino who speaks Italian like a native. In Italy, a trattoria is a small restaurant usually run...