Food, glorious food! Filipinos have a strong affinity for eating that we eat at least five meals a day if you include merienda and, sometimes, pulutan. It’s hard not to love when the Philippines’ most humble ingredients possess huge potential to be cooked into world-famous dishes.
Food is even celebrated through fiestas dedicated to local produce, common in Southeast Asia (SEA). Try setting up a buffet spread of some matcha cupcakes, coconut cream, sticky rice dumplings, and other Asian delicacies and watch it bring people together, regardless of culture or race.
READ: Ube is the Next Big Thing! This Cafe in LA Makes Ube Desserts
Our neighboring countries excel in the culinary field as well! Southeast Asian cookery involves traditional techniques such as slow-cooking meat with curry in clay pots, flavoring soup with fish sauce or lemongrass, seasoning fish with fresh herbs, and a lot more customs that characterize the region’s taste for bold spices and aroma.
Our food + fiesta-loving selves tried Seven Corners Restaurant’s very own food festival, Taste Asia, featuring popular dishes from Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. This food promotion running from August 1 to 15, 2017 highlights a wide variety of high-quality international cuisine.
Paper fans and painted lanterns hanging from the ceiling set the Southeast Asian-themed ambiance. With our excited taste buds, we traveled across eight culturally-distinct countries all unified in one culinary cove of an upscale buffet.
Let’s begin our tasting voyage! Here are 15 dishes you must try on your visit to Seven Corners:
FILIPINO
15. Halo-Halo and Balls Galore
First off, Seven Corners features a “Make Your Own Halo-Halo” station, where diners can mix out their own shaved-iced masterpiece! This means that you could have as much as you want of that ubiquitous ube. Foreigners also seemed to take a liking to other unique topping choices like colorful jelly (gulaman) and syrupy balls of fruit. Sticking to the Filipino’s fascination with ball-shaped food, guests may also opt for all-time favorite Filipino street food like fish ball, kikiam, and kwek-kwek which are fried at the station.
14. Ube Leche Flan
Two of the ultimate Pinoy desserts layered over each other and topped with a pecan looked and tasted like absolute perfection!
INDONESIAN
13. Rendang Daging (Spicy Dry Beef Curry)
This curry was a rich coconut beef stew with a little layer of deliciously juicy fat flavoring the meat. Flavor: INTENSE!
JAPANESE
12. Assorted Japanese Rolls and Sashimi
What in life is better than unlimited sushi?
When in the mood for unagi (Eel), tamagoyaki (egg), tuna, salmon, or one of each, head over to their sushi bar where the assorted Japanese cold dishes look and taste fresh from the sea. Note that they have rotating menu selections but thinly-cut sushi and sashimi slices are mainstays.
11. Sweet Sushi
Buchi and Sweet Sushi
It was my first time to hear of sweet sushi—where have you been all my life? The colorful fruits gave a tropical twist to the mochi rice. However, it wasn’t as sweet as we expected, but this is a good dessert option for those controlling their sugar.
10. Matcha Lemon Drizzle Cake
*Insert heart eyes emoji*
These shiny and beautifully-glazed cakes looked straight out of an anime! If you want a subtle matcha flavor, go for this one. Take ten!
KOREAN
9. Bibimbap
The hot Bibimbap station is one of several interactive stations at Seven Corners. Choose from an array of namul (sautéed and seasoned veggies), gochujang (chilli pepper paste), soy sauce or doenjang (fermented soybean paste) for the chef to top over rice, meat, and an egg. If you’re indecisive like me, you may request for the chef to customize his recommendation for you.
MALAYSIAN
8. Pandan Chiffon Cake
My dessert plate with the chiffon cake on the lower left. I am unashamed of how much sweets I consumed.
Appetizing shades of green was a recurring color at the dessert bar. This fluffy and cottony soft cake infused with aromatic pandan balanced our dinner of rich sauces and spice-laden mains. We didn’t shy away from heavier desserts tho.
Click on the next page for more SEA favorites!
