Palm Grill

 Sampling the best Tausug cuisine at Palenque 

By Earl D.C. Bracamonte

Palm Grill, the restaurant that offers authentic Southern Mindanaoan cuisine, opened its first mall concept outlet and their second branch at the Palenque, the only All-Filipino food hall in the newly-opened Gateway Mall 2 in Araneta City.

Like a marketplace, Palenque proffers flowers, grains, fruits, kakanin, and coffee in stalls around the enclosure. "It took eight months for us to complete the entire concept of Southern Mindanao - Zamboanga, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi (ZambaSulta) - as our way of introducing the region to Metro Manila diners. The ceiling approximates those of Badjao stilt houses, the walls reflect the many colors of a vinta's sail, as well as a kite mural from the late visual artist Rameer Tawasil.

"Chef Claude Tayag invited Palm Grill to be part of Palenque's food showcase and complete the gustatory experience from Luzon to Mindanao. Coconut milk is the base of all ZambaSulta dishes. Tausugs include burnt coconut in their food; both as flavor enhancer and as preservative," shared Chef Miggy Cabel Moreno in an interview.

During the launch, attendees sampled some of the best dishes from Southern Mindanao. Aside from my fave, Ensaladang Talong, we partook of Tiyula Itum, a savory soup dish cooked like bulalo but made mildly spicy with the inclusion of lemon grass, ginger, turmeric, and burnt coconut.

"While both our restaurants are casual dining experiences, the Palenque outlet is more of a fast food setup while the Tomas Morato resto offers diners a theatrical-like burning of the bone marrow and the serving of food in a tutup (plate cover)," Chef Miggy continued.

Then there was Pianggang Manok, chicken simmered in coconut milk and burnt coconut. This dish is prepared like how the Bicolanos cook Laing. Another meat dish was the Beef Kurma, curried beef meat cooked with diced potatoes. Diners would observe that the dishes look familiar but tastes differently than how they think they would. 

"Palm Grill is an all-sensory experience of Southern Mindanao. That's what we're here for - to give foodies a sense of taste and place of the exotic ZambaSulta region. This is not just a business because we champion Southern Mindanao cuisine to the rest of the world," Chef Miggy said at the end of our tete-a-tete.

And for sweet endings, we totally enjoyed BangBangsug, that's vanilla ice cream with hinti (bukayo or sweetened shreds of young coconut meat). We relished our dessert with the finest Sulu brew, which you can have as an espresso, sweetened, just with milk, or sweetened and with milk. The Robusta blend was the perfect beverage to close the noontime event.

Savor the exquisite tastes of ZambaSulta, as you discover the colors and tastes of Southern Mindanao at either of Palm Grill's food outlets in Tomas Morato or at Gateway Mall 2's Palenque section.

When completely operational, the Palenque section will also feature Chef Tayag's Bale Dutung, Chef Tatung's Tindeli, B.E.L. Iloco, and the Fil-Binondo concept, Chicken Fandian.

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Photo credits:

Food shots by Maria Reed

All others from Miggy Cabel Moreno's photo library