Happy 4th of July to all our friends, neighbors, family and customers!
We will be CLOSED for LUNCH for a PRIVATE EVENT on Wed, July 4th.
But we will be OPEN for DINNER starting at 5:3o pm.
We will have many special dishes for those of you who will be having dinner with us. Our Chef-Artist and Bamboo Master Perry Mamaril will be reprising his spectacular BINACOL or baby chickens cooked in fresh bamboo tubes.
Bamboo Master Perry Mamaril stuffing the baby chickens in fresh bamboo
We spent a small fortune to get fresh bamboo tubes which are brought in from Puerto Rico by our friends at Caribbean Cuts in the flower district of Manhattan.
fresh uncut bamboo tubes with at least 5 solid nodes on each one
The bamboo tubes should only be cut just before they are used because you want to preserve the fresh membrane lining inside the tube which is the secret ingredient to a really authentic and delicious binacol.
Fresh lining of the bamboo tube that gives the binacol its particular flavor.
Perry gives the bamboo a quick wash from the hose before filling them up with all the ingredients that come with a binacol.
A quick wash for the bamboo tubes before stuffing them with the baby chickens
The binacol, just like many traditional Filipino dishes, needs a souring agent to balance the sweetness of the buko juice and other ingredients.
Small guavas are an ideal accompaniment for the buko juice for the chicken.
In the Visayas, they can put sour leaves like libas and young cashew leaves, but since we don’t have those here in the US, you can also put rhubarb, sorrel or frozen kamias (if available) in the mix. Other flavoring agents are ginger and lemongrass along with preferred starches.
Starches added to the binacol: cassava and plantain.
We use the juice and grated meat of these young coconuts that come in an unopened shell from Thailand. They are shipped here frozen, but at least they are unopened and they have no sugar added to the juice.
Bamboo tubes sealed with banana leaves ready to cook
The bamboo tubes are arranged in a container with an earthen base to hold them up and Perry puts live coals around them to start cooking.
The bamboo tubes are set upright in an earthen base and wrapped in foil to prevent them from being burned by the hot coals
hot coals are spread around the base of the tubes to start the chickens cooking
The resultant broth and tender chicken that come from these bamboo tubes are truly worth the effort. This is food that is not only delicious and life affirming, but healthy and respectful of the traditions that our forefathers in the Philippines developed. We long for that palate that they had which we are trying to re-discover here in NYC.
Hope you can join us for DINNER on Wed, July 4 to celebrate one of the most extraordinary cooking methods in the Philippines that we are trying to preserve. The costs of replicating this here in NYC are prohibitive and so we can do this only once in awhile. But we are committed to preserving the food that is truly ours — ang sariling atin. Filipino food is indeed delicious and wonderful and we are happy to share them with you.
Happy birthday, America!
