Filipino cuisine gets the plant-based treatment with garlic fried rice, barbequed mushroom skewers, vermicelli noodle soup, mung-bean hummus and more.
Adobo, sisig, inasal, kare-kare, bulalo, lechon, sinigang, crispy pata, tocino, longganisa – Filipino dishes are typically meat-heavy, with plenty of pork, chicken and beef. There are vegetable dishes, but they usually have cuts of meat in them too, or else they’re considered sides.
But it doesn’t always have to be about meat – at least according to chef Joff Hernandez. His Melbourne-based business Lupa Rice Bar (lupa means earth or land in Tagalog) aims to change perceptions of Filipino cuisine and prove that its traditional flavours can be enjoyed in plant-based form.
Hernandez usually caters for private parties and at-home dining, with the occasional pop-up in partnership with Melbourne restaurants. But for one night, he’s bringing Lupa to Sydney.
The six-course banquet celebrates rice in various forms – from rice-vermicelli sotanghon (a noodle soup) and puffed rice crackers served with mung-bean hummus, to garlic fried rice with barbequed mushroom skewers; sapin-sapin, or Filipino rice cakes; and champorado, a chocolate rice porridge.
The one-off dinner is taking place at Newtown’s Sydney Cebu Lechon. Tickets are $90 per person, with seatings at 5.45pm and 7.30pm.
sydneycebulechon.com.au
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