Western Mindanao's Soulful, Aromatic Cuisine Inspires Hapag's Brilliant New Tasting Menu

(SPOT.ph) Menu after menu, the folks of Hapag strive to better understand Filipino cuisine—particularly the parts of it that aren’t as immediately visible or easily accessible to the everyday Manileño. Previously, they tackled the rich tapestry of flavors of Western Visayas; this time around, Hapag is zoning in on Western Mindanao—specifically Zamboanga, Basilan, and Tawi-Tawi, places the team visited to better understand the area's food, culture, and people.

In Chef Kevin Navoa’s words, the resulting tasting menu—filled with interpretations of the dishes they tried and loved during their explorations—is Hapag’s way of expressing that there’s “more to Filipino food than what we think we know.”

Hapag’s foray into Western Mindanao cuisine began the way many great things do—with curiosity. Navoa admits the subject was initially unfamiliar to the team. “None of us really knew much about the cuisine from that part of the Philippines. As a Filipino chef, I felt it was important to understand regional food techniques and traditions,” he explains. “After working on the Western Visayas menu, we wanted to keep digging deeper into the country's diverse culinary roots. Zamboanga and its neighboring provinces stood out because they felt ‘foreign’ even to us, and we were intrigued by the strong Muslim and Malaysian influences in the region.”

The team ate their way through dishes of all kinds in the area—including tiyula itum, the Tausug beef soup that gets its blackened hue and smoky aroma from burnt coconut; and variations of piyanggang, another Tausug dish of grilled protein (typically chicken) marinated in burnt coconut and spices. At the Zamboanga icon Jimmy’s, they got to try satti, or skewered meat (similar to Malaysia’s satay) in a spicy-sweet sauce, which locals eat with puso (hanging rice pouches) at satti houses as early as 4 in the morning. 

Dolatre shares how the sweetness of the dishes caught them by surprise. “Even seafood dishes like clams and crabs were sweet.” In other parts, he shares: “We were impressed by how subtle and refined Tausug flavors could be.”

Translating all these tidbits of knowledge and wealth of experiences into a cohesive degustation was no easy feat. “The menu [features] dishes that reflect Tausug, Chavacano, and Yakan influences, but we only have 10 courses,” Dolatre says of the lineup. “We’re focusing on honest storytelling, showing how our understanding evolved. We’re being thoughtful about pairings, too—like whether to include wine alongside Muslim dishes.”

“The biggest challenge… is how we tell the story through food. We need to be accurate and respectful while making it accessible to diners,” Ganuelas-Recto adds.

The finished plates in the Western Mindanao tasting menu (P7,500+) take after dishes they tried—soulful and full-flavored; abundant on the aromatics; bright in some places yet raspy and smoky in others. Still, they’re recognizably Hapag with their contemporary presentation, playful flavor combos, and the incorporation of ingredients from other parts of the globe. Some of these had appeared as sort of prototypes in a previous collaboration with Akar—and it’s now that we get to see them in their more final form. Pro tip, don’t miss their beverage pairings (wine pairing is an additional P2,800; there's also a non-alcoholic option at P2,000) as Ganuelas-Recto has lined up superb sips, designed to bring out the best of Hapag’s food lineup.

The Tiyula Itum sets a deeply aromatic tone for what’s to come. Hapag streamlines the Tausug beef soup here, presenting its flavors in the form of a hearty broth served from a mug. It's anything but oversimplified, potent yet soothing, delivering the smokiness of burnt coconut and zing of ginger, galangal, turmeric, native shallots, lemongrass, and chili. (Should you go for the wine pairing, its partner Champagne Dosnon Recolte Rosé Brut—which has a peachy, strawberry-like profile and touch of minerality—is excellent.) Then there’s the Satti, for which Hapag presents four skewers with a variety of tastes and textures: rich, chewy beef tongue; robust-tasting beef rump; soft, juicy chicken isol; and beautifully charred chicken skin, all designed for dipping into a hearty sauce made of peanut, spices, and reduced chicken broth. 

Via the Agal-Agal, Hapag brings us a taste of the seaweed salad the team loved during their trip. Their version swaps the traditional soymansi with a shoyu dressing—just the thing to add gentle depth to the fresh seaweed. A topping of bubuk (toasted spiced coconut) makes for subtly spiced forkfuls, while succulent slices of yellowfin tuna kinilaw complete the party. Then there’s Mee Goreng, traditionally a stir-fried noodle dish from Indonesia that’s popular as a late-night snack in Zamboanga. Hapag’s take is savory-sweet and a touch saucy like the original, with added complexity from the al-dente noodles made in-house; their own scratch-made oyster sauce; zippy sambal; earthy, meaty mushrooms; and a tiny quail egg yolk to tie everything together. 

From there, Hapag goes for an unexpected pairing in the Siyagul + Roti Martabak, named after two dishes they had encountered at the local market. Siyagul is a dish of stingray, coconut milk, and aromatics; Hapag’s version uses swordfish in a coconut-turmeric-mornay sauce that highlights the fish’s mild flavor. It's served over a crust of sorts of crisp martabak—and the addition of herb pesto, fresh herbs, and Malagos Borracho cheese (made with fresh goat's milk aged in Cerveza Negra!) make for a pizza-esque flavor profile that we dig. This is followed by Leche Flan as a palate cleanser (!), taking after how, in Western Mindanao, the flan would typically be served with the main courses as a sort of relish to the other spicier viands on the table. Balancing out its creaminess is icy-tangy calamansi-tanglad granita; jelly-like nuggets of scoby; sweet-tart pickled hibiscus and cucumbers; and lightly bitter binahian leaves.

Hapag, of course, sure knows how to throw a feast—needless to say Salu-Salo, the restaurant’s party of mains, is as festive as it gets. The cast of characters in this round? Riyandang, taking after the Maranao style of beef rendang that’s a touch sweeter and more coconut-forward than Indonesian versions; Camaron Alavar, which has juicy prawns coated in a sourdough batter, rolled in pinipig (think tempura!), then deep-fried to a cronch and served with Alavar sauce; Junay, their take on the packed rice dish cooked in burnt coconut, here brightened by calamansi and sprinkled with kalkag (fried shrimp) and shallots; and a Pomelo-Pako Salad for refreshment in between forkfuls of the rest.

Dessert is an equally colorful affair, beginning with the Knickerbocker—Hapag’s ode to Zamboanga’s icy sweet icon, here combining compressed tropical fruit, pineapple jelly, langka jam, an amazake-pili nut foam for a touch of umami, and strawberry ice cream. Officially closing the meal on a whimsical note is the Bang-Bang Sug—a spread of bite-sized sweets, essentially petit fours, inspired by Tausug treats traditionally served with Kahawa Sug coffee. Palikambing, or deep-fried bananas in cinnamon sugar, comes as a smoked-banana bonbon with caramel and cinnamon in milk chocolate; Wadjit, a sticky rice cake similar to biko with black glutinous rice, is used here as a filling in a shell of dark chocolate; Biyaki, comparable to a sweet corn tamale, becomes a bonbon of corn mousse in white chocolate; and Putli Mandi, originally a glutinous rice cake filled with sweetened coconut, becomes a confection of chewy, bukayo-infused kakanin, a thin shell of white choc, and grated coconut.

Filipino cuisine is a highly regional one, and it’s only right that we spotlight its lesser-explored, equally beautiful parts—as Hapag is happily doing. “This isn’t just about showcasing dishes," says Dolatre, "it’s about recognizing how much of the Philippines we’ve yet to explore and giving that food the care and respect it deserves."

Ganuelas-Recto adds: “Filipino food isn’t just adobo, sisig, or lumpia. It’s diverse and deeply regional… If diners walk away understanding that Filipino food includes tiyula itum and piyanggang, then we’ve done our job.”