Yes, and what a beautiful feast it was. Our first serious cooking encounter with Filipino food happened as a result of some cool people meeting and starting to talk about food and food waste and the world realizing that a collaboration could be really fun.
Angelica Trono is originally from the Philippines and Helen is from Ice Cream Socialists, and we loved the combination and the collaboration with Cafe Lab. So, our first discussions were about food and waste and then Filipino street food entered quite soon. Super cheap and, of course, using cuts of meats that we usually waste, this cuisine connects pleasure with ethics, as a means to make ends meet, non pretentiously but beautifully.
So, we came up with the menu and tried it out, tested it at our home and agreed- this is fantastic. And in the end it worked so nicely. For us the chefs, Calamansi lime became our favorite, we all loved it. And then Sisig- have you heard of it? And what are Oliver’s sweet hearts?
The special feast happened on the roof of the Green Building at RMIT, just for the end of the uni year and we were happy to invite friends and colleagues. As we cooked and ate, we talked, and discussed waste and food and society and how beautiful this food is.
So what is Betamax you might ask? It is coagulated pigs blood, cut in squares put on a stick and dipped in a sweet and spicy sauce. Perhaps the simplest and cheapest of the Filipino street foods. It acts more like a vehicle for the sauce and tastes a bit like tofu. Ha! So, the Filipinos gave it the name Betamax because it resembles the shape of the old-school video tape cassette. We thought that is awesome!
