A night of street food and Champagne
We left Ayà wanting to start a petition.
You see, a couple of months ago, the wine bar by the brilliant minds behind Hapag hosted a “ChiCha at Champagne” night where they served street food and bubbly—a combination Ayà sommelier and operations manager Erin Ganuelas-Recto has always loved.
Back when she was starting at Hapag, chefs John Kevin Navoa and Thirdy Dolatre asked her what her favorite Filipino food and wine pairing was, and she said, “Street food and Champagne… There is something about the crisp bubbles cutting through the richness of BBQ or crispy chicken skin that just works.”
The chefs share her love for this combo. Ganuelas-Recto told Lifestyle, “We have always liked drinking with food. The chefs and I, whenever we would go to a restaurant or even a local isawan, we would try to bring a bottle. We’ve paired chips with Champagne. We have so much fun doing it so we want to share that.”
Accompanying the food that night were bottles and bottles of Champagne Delamotte—Brut, Blanc de Blancs and Rosé.
Ganuelas-Recto said, “Filipino food is bold, sweet, salty, sour, sometimes spicy. That is why we focus on Champagnes and Rieslings at Ayà. They balance our flavors beautifully. They make familiar dishes feel even more special.”
Gregoire Piochon, export manager of Champagne Delamotte, wants people to know that Champagne isn’t just for celebrations. “It’s for every day. For me, at home, personally, I don’t have white wine. My white wine is Champagne. It’s a white wine with bubbles. At home, I have red wine and Champagne, that’s it.”
“Champagne is really a wine that should be for all occasions,” Jaime Jalandoni, director and COO of Premium Wine Exchange, told Lifestyle. “What we did tonight was to serve dishes that are part of Filipino drinking culture that you would think to pair with other forms of alcohol and we did it with Champagne to break that mold and show that Champagne is something that you can drink with Filipino food.”
Ganuelas-Recto said, “I hope guests leave with a fresh perspective. Maybe they will start seeing wine as more than just something for special occasions. Maybe they will realize that a glass of Champagne is just as at home next to BBQ as it is next to caviar. Either way, we want them to walk away excited and full.”
Refined, elevated
Of course, with Navoa and Dolatre at the helm of Ayà’s kitchen, what guests got wasn’t your run-of-the-mill street food. Each dish was refined, elevated, delicious and so satisfying.
The chefs reinvented everyone’s favorite chili cheese sticks with kesong puti mornay, jalapeños, fermented banana ketchup aioli dip and a generous line of caviar. This, paired with glasses of Champagne Delamotte Brut, was the beautiful start to our meal.
The BBQ—pork barbecue and beef tongue skewers, pineapple, jalapeño and sinamak—blew our minds. The beef tongue was so tender, so flavorful that we couldn’t get enough.
The Chicken Skin Nachos (crispy chicken skin, chili chicken, pickled jalapeños, kinalabasa tomato salsa, fresh herbs) had us swooning. We refused to let them take away the basket until every bit of it was finished.
Binusog na Fried Chicken Wings (gamet rice-stuffed chicken wings, burong bell pepper butter sauce, pinakurat ranch) were flavor bombs—and paired so well with the Blanc de Blancs.
Sisig and Piaya was a revelation, a surprising mix that worked really well together.
The delicious pairings came to an end with Champagne Delamotte Rosé and Smashed Chori Burgers—homemade chorizo Negrense, tocino glaze, atchara, caramelized onions, kamote milk buns. This was Piochon’s favorite. “Amazing food. Everything was fantastic but my favorite one was the Smashed Chorizo Burger. It had a little touch of spice, a gentle kick. And with the Rosé, it really made the right balance.” It was also Ganuelas-Recto’s favorite pairing.
“We host a lot of wine dinners and it becomes like our playground,” she said. “But this was incredibly fun.”
It really was. And everything was so delicious that we want to be able to return to Ayà to enjoy them again. But how? The dishes had been created just for the one-night affair. They were too good never to be enjoyed again, the guests kept saying that evening. That’s why we wanted to start a petition. “Please add these dishes to your menu,” we kept telling everyone at Ayà.
Weeks later, there was good news: the crowd favorites from the “Chicha at Champagne” event are now part of their permanent menu—the Chicken Skin Nachos, the Chili Cheese Sticks and The Choriburger.
We are thrilled. Just one more hirit. To the wonderful people at Ayà, please bring back the beef tongue skewer too? We still can’t stop thinking about it.
Ayà is at the 7th floor of The Balmori Suites Hidalgo Drive, Rockwell Center, Makati. It’s open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for lunch and 6 p.m. until late for dinner and drinks. For reservations, visit www.hapagmnl.com/aya.
