F1 Hotel Manila's Luzviminda is a Festival of Filipino Flavors

F1 Hotel Manila launches LUZVIMINDA, a month-long celebration of Filipino Cuisine at the hotel's F Restaurant. F1 Being a hotel owned and managed by Filipinos, LUZVIMINDA is in line with the hotel's mission of showcasing Filipino talent.  LUZVIMINDA brings together the different flavors from the three major regions of the Philippines (Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao) each region having its own rich culinary tradition and character.

The brains behind LUZVIMINDA is Chef Sau del Rosario, F1 Hotel Manila's Executive Chef, a native of Pampanga. To ensure the authenticity of the dishes' taste, F1 Hotel brought in guest chefs Martin Jickain from Luzon, Karl Noel and Paul Sidney Uy from Visayas, and Ed Tuazon from Mindanao.

Mindanao Collection

The launching of LUZVIMINDA was hosted by F1 Hotel Manila's Marketing Manager Mr. Mikco Maiquez and Ms. Sam Oh. Guests of honor were celebrity chef Boy Logro, Taguig City Vice Mayor Ricardo Cruz Jr., CCA Founder and President Susana Guerrero, and Food Expert Nancy Lumen.

Part of the program was a fashion show presenting creations by Chito de los Santos, Jinggo Inoncillo, Ronaldo Arnaldo and Eric Pineda. Models were title holders of Miss Earth beauty pageant.

LUZVIMINDA runs from June 1-30, 2013 which is very timely for the celebration of Philippine Independence Day on June 12.

LUZVIMINDA's lunch buffet featured both classic and contemporary Filipino dishes such as Habechuelas, Truffled Maya-Maya Pinangat, Deep-Fried Crabs with Alabar Sauce, Kambing sa Nangka, Gising-Gising, Pinakbet, Beef Kurma, Lengua with Corn and Mushroom, Sisig Foie Gras, Vegetable Lumpia, Chicken Inasal, Baked Tahong, and Bam-i. For this special occasion, Bagnet was brought in from Ilocos while Lechon was flown in from Cebu. Being constant travelers around the Philippines, we thought we already tasted every possible Filipino dish there is, we were wrong!

Garlic Rice and Aligue Rice

Assortment of Breads

Malagos Cheese from Davao

Habechuelas (Visayas)

Truffled Maya-Maya Pinangat (Luzon)

Deep-Fried Crabs with Alabar Sauce (Mindanao)

Kambing sa Nangka (Mindanao)

Gising-Gising and Pinakbet (Luzon)

Beef Kurma & Lengua with Corn and Mushroom (Mindanao)

Sisig Foie Gras (Luzon)

Chicken Inasal (Visayas)

Filipino Vegetable Lumpia

Baked Tahong

The Salad section consists of a variety of creative creations including Maya-Maya Mayonesa, Ensaladang Lato, Pako Salad with Salted Egg and Shrimp, Spicy Seafood Ceviche, Green Mango with Bagoong Sushi, Pomelo Green Mango and Shrimp in Bagoong sa Gata, Mangosteen Salad, and Tomato and Salted Egg Salad. Now this is interesting! If you thought salads made of seaweeds and ferns were already exotic, well think again. Who would have known that spicy shrimps and avocado would make a great pair, and that sweet mangosteens would perfectly complement chicken? LUZVIMINDA chefs are real geniuses  and their creativity elevated the classic Filipino salads to the next level.

Maya-Maya Mayonesa

Ensaladang Lato (Mindanao)

Pako Salad with Salted Egg and Shrimp (Luzon)

Spicy Seafood Ceviche (Mindanao)

Green Mango and Bagoong Sushi (all regions)

Pomelo, Green Mango and Shrimp in Bagoong sa Gata (Mindanao)

Mangosteen Salad

Tomato and Salted Egg Salad (Luzon)

Moving on to the seafood on ice section, the first thing you would notice was the huge tuna on the center. F1 Hotel boastfully announced that the tuna was flown in from General Santos City, the country's tuna capital, instantly set the guests rushing to get their freshly sliced tuna sashimi. Other selections were fresh oysters, steamed mussels and curacha, salmon sashimi and a variety of maki.

Fresh Oysters

Steamed Mussels

Steamed Curacha

Salmon Sashimi

Maki

The king of fruits, Durian, was the star of the dessert table with a variety of treats made with this fragrant fruit from Mindanao. Most interesting of all was the Durian Panna Cotta, where the Durian flesh was made as an ingredient in panna cotta and the empty husk used as panna cotta containers. The Durian Cheesecake was another interesting dessert made extra special with a glazing of passionfruit. Other classic Filipino desserts such as Sapin-Sapin, Barquillos, Crepe with Grated Coconut, Maja Blanca, and Halo-Halo were among the selections.

Durian Panna Cotta

Durian Cheesecake with Passionfruit Glaze

Sapin-Sapin and Macapuno