One of the Philippines' most renowned chefs shares his delightful take on cooking a Christmas dinner centered around sharing a table and smoky aromas.
Soft-spoken, kind in personality and almost always smiling, Jordi Navarra is as far from the image of a shouty, narcissistic chef as one could imagine. Navarra has trained at such renowned restaurants as Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck in London and Bo Innovation in Hong Kong, both of which have been awarded three Michelin stars, and he would be forgiven for developing an outsized culinary ego.
Instead, he remains a humble but highly respected chef and restaurateur in his home country of
Philippines who proudly flies the flag on the world stage representing his country's cuisine and culture. Since opening in 2016, his restaurant Toyo Eatery in Manila has garnered consistent critical and public acclaim, including being named the best restaurant in the Philippines by Asia's 50 Best Restaurants.
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Just as importantly, the 39-year-old native of Paranaque City, which is located in the National Capital Region-Manila Metropolitan Area, has ensured that "Toyo" (as the locals call it) is one of the most sustainable food destinations in Southeast Asia. It works with a network of small farmers and producers to maintain biodiversity and ingredients from all over the more than 7,000 Philippine islands.
The world's longest holiday season
Christmas is a big holiday for Navarra, as it is for almost all Filipinos. Shopping malls across the country are known to put up Christmas decorations more than six weeks before Halloween, thanks to the 100-day Christmas countdown that begins on September 16.
The intensity, commercialization and length of the holiday season - carols are heard for more than a quarter of the year - can mean that expectations of a perfect Christmas are off the charts. But the opportunity for families to get together, especially when millions of Filipinos live and work abroad, is priceless.
"I have fond memories of Christmas because I grew up without my brother and sister who lived in the United States," Navarra explains, "So during the holidays, they would come home and visit us. We would get together, share food and socialize."
Noche Buena is Christmas Eve.
As in Spain and many other Latin American countries, Filipinos celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. Since 85% of the country's population is Catholic, attending Mass is an essential part of the celebration, which takes place in the evening or at midnight.
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After that, the traditional feast of Noche Buena ("Good Night") takes center stage. These are dishes that are invariably associated with Christmas and are the prized cultural equivalent of the roast turkey lunch or dinner served in many countries on December 25.
The self-serve table is generously stocked with a variety of dishes: honey-glazed ham, edamame cheese, known locally as queso de bola, as well as pan de sal (sweet soft buns) and ensaymada (airy buns with powdered sugar). Seconds include a tropical fruit salad, often sweetened with condensed milk, fruit cake and hot chocolate made from roasted cocoa beans called tablea.
Families like to supplement the Noche Buena holiday table with other dishes and Navarra's are grilled seafood such as shrimp, grilled pork or, if many people gather, lechon (a whole roasted pig), which is a common Christmas table decoration in the Philippines.
Christmas kamayan feast
As a chef who champions his country's rich indigenous food culture like no other, Navarra, after the Noche Buena Christmas Eve celebration comes to a close, prefers to serve a special dish for Christmas that utilizes ingredients and culinary techniques from all over the country.
At home, with family and friends, Navarra enjoys a meal called kamayan. In Tagalog, the most widely spoken language in the Philippines, kamayan means "with bare hands". The food is served on banana leaves spread on tables.
Kamayan (kamayan) is a traditional style of eating in the Philippines and many other Southeast Asian countries without the use of European (spoon, fork, knife) or Asian (chopsticks) cutlery, where food is taken directly with the hands, which allows you to enjoy the dish more fully, in addition to using the senses of touch.
This form of eating is common at community celebrations throughout the year, from birthdays to family reunions, but rarely at Christmas. Navarra wanted to change this not only in his home, but also in his restaurant, as he believes that kamayan is about togetherness and enjoying time together.
"We wanted to celebrate the way of eating and the feeling you get from the Filipino atmosphere, the happy Christmas mood with food that involves sharing," he explains. "Eating with your hands is a very Filipino, very intimate way of eating."
Rice and dried fish
Navarra believes that among all the dishes of a homemade kamayan dinner, the most important - as in any Filipino meal - is rice.
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"Philippine cuisine always revolves around rice, which all Filipinos love. We use rice from Banaue, then boil it and steam it in banana leaves - it's like glutinous rice, but you can still feel the individual grains. Cooking the rice on the fire gives you toasted notes. You also need to keep the contrast of temperatures, textures and flavor profiles," he says.
These textures and flavor profiles include various variations of tuyo, salted and dried fish.
"Pinindang is a type of dried fish made from humoy, a type of anchovy that is shaped into a circle and then sun-dried on leaves," Navarra says. "It is obviously naturally salted and has a pungent flavor of the sea. We found it in the province of Antique, where it is produced in small quantities by local families, which means its supply is very limited."
Kinilaw
Navarra also serves a seafood dish called kinilaw (literally "eaten raw"), another local dish that proudly represents Filipino culinary heritage.
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"Kinilaw is one of the simplest approaches to cooking in the Philippines, but it's also profound because you're trying to accentuate the flavor of raw seafood with sourness, whether it's fresh sourness from kalamansi (or calamondin), a small dark green citrus, or fermented with vinegar or bagoong. It's so delicious because the natural umami emphasizes the richness of fish like mackerel or tuna," Navarra explains.
Crispy pata (crispy pork ham)
No holiday meal in the Philippines is without pork in one form or another. At home at Christmas, Navarra serves the same breed and type of pork as it does in its restaurant.
"In place of a whole pig, we serve a leg, known as pata, using a black pig from Batangas, which is a local breed crossed with Japanese Kurobuta pork. We cook the dish three times, first braising it with typical Filipino flavors including bay leaf, garlic and black pepper. Then we fry it already cooled, battered and roasted on a cast iron pan for extra searing," Navarra says.
In the Philippines, dipping sauces called sawsawan are a must for crispy pata. "We have two of them, one is diluted broth, but we also have homemade vinegar. So you have a choice of salty or sour sauce. You get the fatty, crispy pieces of pork that we all love and associate with holiday meals," he adds.
Grilled pork, sauces and salad
The second option, served on banana leaves for a kamayan holiday menu, is grilled pork. The love for all things smoky, charred and
grilled is deeply rooted in Navarre's taste habits, just like millions of Filipinos.
"Festive meals in my family always included grilled dishes," he explains. "My lola (grandmother) used to trade at palengke (the name of a market with fresh produce in the Philippines) and there were barbecues nearby where we often bought food. To this day, these are some of our favorite foods, no matter the occasion."
He combines pork with sour and salty notes in bagoong, a mango salad. The typical Filipino combination of flavors in the salad is due to the addition of slices of fermented green and ripe mango, which are mixed with bagoong and shrimp paste. Navarra makes the shrimp paste at home as well as at her restaurant, Toyo. It's one of many concoctions he makes, including a vinegar and fish sauce called patis, which is made from leftover fish.
Tupig and bibingka.
For dessert, Navarre is very fond of tupig, a rice cake made in a banana leaf using sticky rice. Another sweet treat is cassava cake, which is a variation of the Filipino Christmas classic, bibingka.
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Traditionally, these airy rice cakes with coconut shavings, brown sugar and melted butter are cooked in banana leaves on a charcoal grill and sold near the church. The locals usually eat them after Christmas mass is over.
Navarra reflects on what makes his Christmas kamayan dishes special. "Food just tastes better when you eat it with your hands," he says. "It's also a nice change from a regular meal. A diner recently told me that when you eat with your hands, you can't touch your phone, which means you are in the moment."
Sounds like the perfect Christmas tradition.