Sand Under My Feet: Travel the Philippines Through Food: Siglo Modern Filipino

“There's no better way to understand a culture than through food”. I think I’ve said this several times already in a couple of my blog posts, and it can never so true enough. We associate a certain taste to a region or a country. Say for example in the Philippines, Bicol Region is easily a place where cuisine is known, most often than not, spicy. Mediterranean food is packed-full of spices; Japan is known for raw food; South East Asia has rice as its staple fare. There is more of a connection between food and culture than we may think; it operates as an expression of cultural identity.

Specific cuisines in specific countries or region may have evolved but what stays the same is the extent to which each place’s unique cuisine can reflect its unique history, lifestyle, values, and beliefs. The Philippines is no exception for that. Being a country colonized by several other countries for years and have made trade relations with other neighboring Asian countries, some can’t put their finger as to what Philippine cuisine really is. I would say our cuisine is a fusion and relatively congruent with the livelihood of a region. But what excites me is that it is that it is the next cuisine the world is going to rave about.

View Park Hotel Tagaytay’s Siglo Modern Filipino Restaurant is one of those places that has a concept built around presenting food to introduce the Filipino cuisine and culture. At Siglo, one can experience a wide variety of Filipino-inspired cuisines while travelling the Philippines through food. They promise that you can stay on one of their tables and be able to get a taste of Filipino food without really travelling or boarding plane or getting on a boat.

Siglo Modern Filipino is passionate about bringing to your table heritage Filipino dishes from different regions of the country. They commit to promote Filipino culture and ideals, preserve heirloom recipes, support the Filipino farmers, innovate classic Filipino dishes using modem techniques and creativity.

Their restaurant’s interiors portrays the essence of the Philippines, with wooden decorations, tables and chairs; Capiz and stained glass windows, which are all reminiscent of the Filipino-Tagalog culture with intricately detailed design and warm ambiance. I think they patterned the design of their interiors after the vintage homes you can find around Laguna, Cavite and Batangas.

Siglo Modern Filipino invites you to travel the archipelago with bestsellers from each of the major Philippine island groups. During our visit we got to try their Blockbuster Bilaos. These are curated platters of different kinds of dishes put on a bilao lined with banana leaves and the soups in clay pots. Btw, bilao is a flat round-shaped rice winnower, a traditional implement in the Philippines. It is usually made from woven bamboo. If you order any of the variants, it already includes rice, variety of local fruits platter and a 1.5L of soda (Coca-Cola products).

Bilao Luzviminda - take a quick tour of the whole country from north to south - by tasting bestsellers from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Included in this bilao are: Ilocos Bagnet, Chicken Binacol Soup, Seafood Kare-Kare, Lumpiang Shanghai, Ubod Salad.

Barkada Bilao - satisfy the entire barkada's food cravings with carefully selected timeless favorites. Good food tastes better when shared with good friends. This variant has Bulalo Regular, Crispy Sisig, Calamares Frito, Himagsikan Chicken Wings, Gising-Gising.

Siglo Bilao - travel the Philippines through food with heirloom recipes of Filipino dishes collected by our very own Siglo team in their travels. Native Tinola, Classic Kare-Kare, Crispy Tawilis, Pansit Pusit, Siglo Salad

We also got to try some of their up and coming signature drinks which are still not in the menu: Bukang Liwayway which contains pineapple juice, drops of calamansi, turmeric and local honey. And the other one is Red Amaranth Cucumber, this has muddled red amaranth (which the restaurant grows on their garden a t the back), cucumber and pomelo.

I like how these Blockbuster Bilaos are presented, creative, colorful and with funny hugot lines. They are best for groups and reminiscent of boodle fights. Service was good too, the staff knows their menu very well. If you have balikbayan relatives, Siglo Modern Filipino will be a great place for you to bring them so that they can enjoy Filipino food that they surely miss.
Inspired by hundreds of years of Filipino cooking and a kitchen team with a collective years of expertise, Siglo Modern Filipino enables you to enjoy a personal gustatory getaway. Without investing a lot of time, effort and expense. Start your food travel adventure now. Check them out on your next trip to Tagaytay!

SIGLO MODERN FILIPINO GF View Park Hotel, 3500 Tagaytay-Calamba Rd., Sungay East, Tagaytay City, Tagaytay City Contact Nos: 02 2469069 ext:932 / 0943 1316625 0917 5446396 / 0999 8839460 Website: www.siglofilipino.ph

Facebook: facebook.com/siglomodernfilipinotagaytay

Instagram: instagram.com/siglomodernfilipino

For more information, complete menu and restaurant reviews, check out their Zomato profile: