Eat Global at This Bohol Resort's Pop-Up Dining Affair

(SPOT.ph) The farther we move from Metro Manila, the more chances we have to try food rooted in a different culture—a chance we should not pass on. Filipino cuisine in itself has a lot of nuances and exciting flavors, so as a tourist, we would benefit from learning more about the different cuisines we have, but there is the question of whether locals have the same opportunities to try international food as we do. After all,  don't we all deserve the same opportunities to try various cuisines?

In Bohol, local establishment Amorita Resort hopes to add to local flavors while patronizing ingredients and local finds from the island. The resort has started a program called Bohol Eats  (a.k.a. BEats) a pop-up culinary affair that brings in the best chefs from Manila to prepare a menu using Bohol ingredients and share their cooking with the locals. 

BEats happens every two months; it started as a pivot amid the pandemic and has become something to look forward to on a regular basis. Initially, it began by inviting chefs from the island to cook their dishes for Boholanos in an effort to power through the pandemic together. But with restrictions easing up, this has allowed Amorita to broaden the sphere and invite chefs from other areas to cook more global cuisines for the people of Bohol. Now on its 11th run, Bohol Eats has invited veteran Chef Rob Pengson of the Aleanza Institute and Beso Beso to bring his signature flair and elevate the ingredients available on the island.

Also read:
Asin Tibuok, Siakoy + More: Must-Try Bohol Eats and Where to Get Them
The SPOT.ph Guide to Bohol
How Bohol Bee Farm Supports Their Community During the Pandemic

Bohol Eats 11 features classic French cuisine and techniques made approachable for the Filipino palate.

The menu we tried, BEats 11, featured a five-course meal centering on the theme of a Soirée Magnifique. This French menu features familiar ingredients such as pumpkin,  goat cheese, walnuts, mussels, shrimps, and pork cooked using classic techniques (and done right, might we say). While at first glance the menu and the theme of the night may be daunting and seemingly too posh, the menu created by Chef Rob was actually pretty rustic and homey. The dishes may have unfamiliar names, but they were actually familiar flavors. 

The first course is a quick bite of a Spiced Pumpkin Tart with Pear and Herb Chutney. This is an interesting meal-opener as it marries more Western flavors of pumpkin with the Indian flavors of chutney and marsala. This brightly flavored dish has a hint of heat, and delivers a balanced bite for those sensitive to spice but are willing to wade in the pool. Adding another layer of East-meets-West fusion to this course is the crust, which is not your traditional tart crust made of dough, but a wanton wrapper. 

The next dish is a Salad of Crudites featuring red beets prepared in different ways and topped with a goat-cheese and walnut dressing. It's a play on words (BEats and beets) that was taken seriously, and the result was a simple yet flavorful and creamy beet dish with the goat-cheese dressing taking away any earthiness or slight bitterness from the beets.

Our favorite, a Parisienne Gnocchi with a bouillabaisse seafood bisque topped with gruyere, was served for the seafood course. This dish was an absolute flavor explosion with the flavors of the sea courtesy of the mussels and shrimp taking front and center. Paired with pillowy dough gnocchi cooked in butter, this dish reminds us of creamy seafood tomato soup, and bread on a rainy day. We almost didn't want this dish to be taken away. We wanted more, especially of the creamy broth in which all the proteins were swimming in. Freshness was king in this dish, as the flavors would only work with the freshest seafood—no hint of pungency here. 

For the main course, pork was cooked in two ways. The meat course for the night was called the Pork Scallopini with Pork Trotter with green peppercorn sauce and mashed potatoes. The pork trotter was pressed and cooked overnight, leaving it tender to the touch. Don't let the portion size fool you. It's a hefty dish. A simple dish that was executed well, this left diners relatively full compared to the other courses. A notable star in the dish was the green peppercorn sauce which played a sweet, almost gravy-like role in the dish tying together the scallopini and the pork trotter into what could be elevated adobo.

And to end the five-course degustation was a Parisienne Parfait. This dessert had a mix of vanilla bean ice cream, mango sorbet, a passion fruit orange syrup, creme Anglaise infused with vanilla bean, and cardamom, and, a coconut whipped-cream topping. Overall, it was a nice refreshing cooler perfect for the beach setting and for cleansing the palate.

Over casual conversations after dinner, Chef Rob shares that French techniques were some of the first things he fell in love with while in culinary school and that these techniques are something he always wanted to share with people. You could see this love for the art of cooking and French cuisine in how he prepared his dishes for the night. Each dish was cooked with love, and this was something you could taste in the balance of the flavors, in the beauty of the plating, and most of all in the respect paid to the ingredients used.

All-in-all, Bohol Eats is a dinner for the books. It took classic French techniques and married them with Asian influences to create a symphony of flavors one wouldn't expect to experience in an island setting. With the backdrop of the lush island of Panglao, this experience is definitely one of those must-tries when in the area. Eating good food in a beautiful place with good company, there's nothing more you could ask for. So, Spotters, we recommend that you be on the lookout for the next iteration of Bohol Eats because while the menu may change, and the chef may be different, the concept is still the same. It's using island flavors and bringing it to the next level. 

Bohol Eats is organized by Amorita Resort, Panglao, Bohol. For more information, visit Amorita Resort's website.