AUSTRALIA – Tampok sa 12-part video series na “A Taste of the Philippines” ang ilang Filipino-Australians chefs na gumawa na ng kanilang sariling pangalan sa larangan ng food business sa Australia.  

At bilang pinakahuling mga episode, inihahandog ng APBC o Australia-Philippines Business Council ang mga putahe nina Chef Kim Cudia-Prieto ng Lolo and Lola Restaurant mula sa Canberra at Chef John Rivera ng Kariton Sorbetes mula sa Melbourne. 

“The series has allowed us to showcase these talented Filipino-Australian Chefs from around Australia who have pioneered a new era of Filipino cooking. Some have created mouth-watering Filipino dishes with Australian influences.  Others have taken Australia’s world-renowned produce like Western Rock Lobster from WA, and comfort foods like the traditional Sausage Roll with tomato sauce, and recreated them with traditional Filipino delicacies and ingredients, blended and presented with a modern flair…   

In the process of exploring the unique tastes from the Philippines and Australia, we took the opportunity to also highlight the natural beauty of the many regions featured, and thereby promoting each regions’ tourism attributes,” pahayag ni APBC President Rafael Toda. 

Para sa episode 11, tampok ang Kinamatisang Manok ni Kim Cudia-Prieto na isang putahe mula sa Laguna. Ikinumpara ni Cudia-Prieto ang kinamatisan sa chicken afritada. 

“It is the cheaper and fresher version of afritada…the afritada uses tomato paste but this one uses fresh tomatoes. The people of Laguna created this dish because of the abundance of native chicken and fresh tomatoes in the area…  

It’s a whole chicken, about 1.7 to 1.8 kilos…we’ll gonna be marinating it in soy sauce and calamansi juice…,” sabi ni Cudia-Prieto. 

“That’s what I love so much about Filipino food that every time you explore in a region you discover something different. I mean, I’ve never heard of this dish before,” ani Yasmin Newman, ang host ng food series. 

Para sa episode 12, katakam-takam naman ang Longganisa Sausage Roll recipe mula kay John Rivera. 

“We’ll gonna make some sausage rolls here inspired by Filipino longganisa which is a native sausage and we’ll gonna make a beautiful banana ketchup to dip that later on,” ani Rivera. 

Ibinahagi ni Rivera ang sikreto ng masarap na longganisa: 

“So the first thing you need for a really, really good longganisa is some great pork. So, we’ve sourced this from Fat Pig farms over in Tasmania…this is the shoulder that has been ground down, a lot of flavors there because it is the working muscle and we’ll gonna top that up with twenty-five percent of the weight with pork fat because if there’s nothing the Filipino loves more, it’s pork fat…it’s gonna provide the moisture and the succulence.”  

Nagpahatid naman ng pasasalamat si Toda sa mga sumuporta sa kanilang grupo para sa matagumpay na paglulunsad ng nasabing video series na nagtatampok sa galing at talento at masarap na mga putahe ng Filipino-Australian chefs:  

“We would not have been able to produce the series without the financial support from the Australia-ASEAN Council, a division of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs.   

The APBC was a successful recipient of grant funding to produce the 12-part series. The objective, to develop a strategy aimed at stimulating trade between Australia and the Philippines post the pandemic. We selected to focus on Hospitality and Tourism, the two hardest hit industries during this time.”