Hi Garmanvsfood family, how are we doing? Counting down to pay day? January is loooonnng right? so, what have you lot been up to aside from secretly wishing for spring? please do not get me started on Valentine’s day fast approaching! And no, I am not being a sour puss lol! Well, I have been out in these London streets with my peoples and trying not to do the most (as if)! Been to a one woman burlesque show which was part sexy, part comic (wonderfully scripted) and so fun. A few hours in Rovello theatre to see Mama Mia, relived my Roku gin experience by sampling the Roku gin cocktails at Holmes.. yup, January has been nay to shabby so far.
The first food adventure of the year is FILIPINO! Yassssss!!!! Why am I so excited? I mean err…. Half Filipina here! Plus, there are not enough Filipino places to eat in London. There is more affinity for Chinese and Korean food which are equally delicious, Korean BBQ though?!😍 But sometimes, I crave Mama’s cooking and the only time I can get anything remotely close to it is going to a Filipino place to eat. One time for Mama’s Kubo and Lutong Pinoy for halo halo, adobo and always reminding me of home. Now, what is even more interesting is that Sarap_London is owned by Chef Ferdinand ‘Budgie’ Montoya. Who is he you might be wondering? I call him the Lechon[1] master (in my book anyway). I first heard of Budgie by accident, I was searching for places to have lechon especially after having suckling pig at Sabor, my man kept coming up in all the lechon related searches in London (yep manz been busy like). Anyway, found him on the gram and started following. As luck would have it, he happened to have a stand at Meatopia (a London BBQ experience happens every summer, think BBQ festival..😆) but alas! my ticket was on a different day so no lechon. Fast forward a few months, September 2019, I took my dear friend Ronke (bad ass curator and closet foodie) to Kamayan [2] which was hosted by the lovely Mae, (she does boodle fight as part of her summer food experiences, promoting Filipino cuisine) and Budgie was one of the chef’s cooking too. I got to taste his lechon and boi! it was finger lickin’ good!
It made me pay even more attention to what he was doing and his push for Filipino cuisine in the London Restaurant space. So, when the opportunity to be part of his crowd funding came up, it was a no brainer! I jumped on and I am so honored to be a part of the people who have made this dream a reality, I still find surreal and get slightly embarrassed that my name is recorded under the thank you section of their website! Budgie then invited us to a soft launch of the restaurant and voila! here we are!
The soft launch menu had a total of 8 dishes categorised according to small plates, large plates and sides. Well, you already know how it went down, yes? Err duh? Of course we had every item on the menu!!!!.. We started with the small plates and these were essentially appetizers if you like but dang! First up was the dynamite lumpia – spring rolls of whole red chillies stuffed with mixed mushrooms.. exactly! Budgie came in RED HOT! At first glance, the spring rolls looked kinda average but when you take a bite? that’s when it turns into a ‘fire’ spring roll. You get the kick of the chilli which is almost immediately cooled down by the mushrooms.
The Sarap fried chicken was densely covered with banana ketchup, soy sauce, garlic & ginger sauce and it was finger licking good. For someone who is not too keen on sauces on chicken ha! I see the eye roll but, hey, I like what I like! and this sauce? I really, really, really like! Now the market Fish Kinilaw? Lisstteeennnnn.. this dish is the damn business! I am going to start with the dressing – coconut vinegar and chilli dressing? DOPE ASF! The Fish kinilaw was cured flakes of fish, citrusy calamansi and onions served with salted and the crispiest cassava for scooping! This dish had layers of flavour and the cassava scoop gave it texture, i mean this was soo good that I didnt mind the onions! Yes, I said it, I did not mind the chopped onions in this dish and I ordered another one😋!
The large plates kicked off with shredded jackfruit and potato adobo braised in soy sauce, cane vinegar & garlic. Can I just say that with Filipino food there is a distinct underlying flavour that is zingy, citrusy, salty and sweet all rolled in one! I guess what I am trying to put across here is, you know when you have had Filipino food! We also had another fish dish which was grilled fish fillet in sweet and sour red pepper sauce with rice was yummy!
And of course, the Lechon Liempo. This was stuffed and slow roasted pork belly served with liver sauce and atchara. It was perfect! The skin was crisped to perfection and had the right amount of crackle to it lol, the liver sauce was exactly what the pork belly needed.
Dear Budgie, your food was exactly what was needed today! Thank you for the invite, my autographed menu and all that you are doing for the culture! I am looking forward to bringing man dem round to sample your dishes!
Tagay
Ndidi
[1] Lechon roasted suckling pig
[2] Kamayan – Filipino communal style eating
