Sip and snack your way around PH at this food crawl
There are probably as many ways to enjoy Philippine-made eats and drinks as there are islands in our archipelago, I think, as, checklist in hand, I visit stall after stall of local refreshments at the first-ever Kultura Crawl.
Happening until July 17, the pub crawl-like affair offers a unique way of learning more about our country by letting guests get a literal taste of Filipino culture by way of world-class pasalubong fare. Throughout the two-week event, visitors to Kultura stores in selected SM branches get to experience Filipino creativity and flavors through 31 participating house and guest brands.
“When I travel anywhere, I feel like the way you get to know a place is through food,” says Proudly Promdi’s Vida Alegre during the Kultura Crawl launch in SM Megamall last week. “It’s such a visceral reaction, so I really appreciate that Kultura invited us to do this. It’s not often that we get a chance to connect with people and our country in this way.”
Proudly Promdi taps small-batch brewers in Ilocos Norte to produce their tapuey and bugnay wines. “Tapuey and bugnay wines can be found all over the Philippines, but each one will taste different. The taste profiles are varied—there are subtle differences, even from one town to another,” Alegre adds, saying that it’s fun discovering the Filipino taste by trying the different varieties and also modernizing these local spirits.
From spirits to chocolates
If you’ve been curious, this is the time to sample Destileria Barako’s award-winning ube cream liquor, Mt. Kanlaon’s Don Papa rum and Destileria Limtuaco & Co.’s craft spirits. And if liquors aren’t your thing, there’s refreshing craft ale from Boondocks Brewing Co. as well.
Then you can slow down to taste-testing the various coffee offerings—from robust to clean-tasting—of Project Beans and Silcafe. Noncoffee drinkers will appreciate vitamin-rich teas from Tsaa Laya, Healthy Pinoy and Moringa & More, especially this rainy season.Tablea drinks are surprisingly just as varied. Cacaomistry’s plant-based cacao drinks are super creamy, Xocolat’s sugar-free variety is quite rich, and a cup of Kaffea has more of a coconuty sweetness to it.
For sweets, one would already go gaga over chocolate brands Auro, Malagos and Theo & Philo’s multitude of excellent tree-to-bar flavors, but there are also others worth trying, like chocolate with chili from Coco Dolce Chocolate, mango chocolates from Cocoa Monster and NutraRich, merienda staples from Pili & Pino, cookie bites from Manila Cookie Story and traditional baked goods from Masa Bakery.
There’s also no shortage of munchables, ranging from healthy-and-yummy to not-so-healthy but definitely still yummy. It gets hard putting the brakes on snacking once you’re started on Salbahe flavored peanuts and Que Rica hand-harvested pili nuts. But there’s much more to try.
Get your serving of veggies the fun way with Kangkong King’s crispy spinach chips, Gourmet Farms’ lettuce chips and Osh!’s popped corn chips. For true-blue meat lovers, Baken and Karne offer 100-percent real bacon chips and litson kawali chips, respectively.
The Seven Pantry offers a range of pantry staples like dips, spreads, and salsa for even more exciting bites.
