US envoy helps build friendship through food

US AMBASSADOR to the Philippines Philip Goldberg (right) with chefs Gordon Grant (left) and Claude Tayag. E.I. REYMOND OREJAS

Philip Goldberg has begun trying his hands on “culinary diplomacy” just three months into his stint as ambassador of the United States to the Philippines.

The setting where the envoy launched the unique approach is Angeles City, a former American base town and host to the US Air Force’s Clark Air Base until 1991 when Mt. Pinatubo’s eruptions and a vote by the Philippine Senate rejecting the extension of the stay of the US bases in the country forced the troops out.

Who Goldberg got working together were celebrated in their field: American chef Grant Gordon and Filipino chef Claude Tayag.

The two, introduced to each other for the first time on Feb. 24, cooked in Tayag’s kitchen at his Bale Dutung (Wooden House) in Angeles.

They clicked off immediately right after a tour of the city. Tayag, senior by 30 years to his 27-year-old Texan guest, extended the gift of friendship and professional collaboration by making him partake of chicken adobo at his recently opened Downtown Café at Nepo Complex in Angeles.

Traditional food

The food they prepared for the dinner with Goldberg, Angeles City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan and their friends was what the chefs described to be “traditional.”

Tayag presented Capampañgan dishes, starting it off with pan de sal toasts with duck liver adobo, chicharon with achara, and fern salad.

The fern salad, Tayag told the guests, went for $22 (P980) per pound in New York City.

He followed this with fried tilapia fillet over burong hipon (fermented rice with shrimp) and fresh mustard leaves.

Highlighting community efforts in the preparation of food, Tayag next served tiger prawns cooked with taba ng talangka (crab paste), a specialty of Pamintuan’s wife, Herminia.

Gordon came out with his super prime strip loin, potato and creamed spinach.

Kathy Santos and her Happy Living Fine Wine served special bottles of wine from the best vineyards in Napa Valley in California.

The culmination was Paradiso, a bowl with three balls of macapuno (young coconut meat), ube (purple yam) and yema (egg yolk candy) on a bed of pastillas (carabao milk cream).

In gratitude, Tayag clinked his wine glass several times as guests left their plates empty.

Over dinner, Goldberg said the Philippines and the United States share a rich history in agriculture and food.

Cultural point

“It’s a cultural point,” he told his fellow guests of 20 people, a mix of businessmen, local officials, academicians and artists.

Tayag said Philippine cuisine is “not spicy like Indian food, or hot like Thai food.”

“It’s not bland either. It’s flavored by patis (fish sauce), tomato, etc. It’s more like what the Japanese call umami. It is sweet, sour, salty and bitter,” he said.

Philippine food, he said, is a fusion of the influences of Chinese, Spanish, Indian, Mexican and American cuisines.

Gordon said it was his first time to be exposed to Philippine cuisine.

“I love it. I found it to be very clean, tasty and very simple,” Gordon, a James Beard Foundation nominee for rising star chef, told the Inquirer.

Goldberg capped the night of sharing meals and stories, saying, “It was a lovely, lovely dinner with Filipino friends. Salamat po (Thank you).” Tonette Orejas