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Viennese to get a taste of Pinoy food in Hiltons Philippine food festival

Filipino chefs Gilbert Edano and Jose Tagalog
By HECTOR PASCUA ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau
"Kain na Tayo," or "Let us eat," an invitation to share a meal, a personal interaction and a social experience. This has been realized in Vienna, Austria, when Hilton Hotel Vienna, in cooperation with the Philippine Embassy and the Filipino community in Vienna, opened the Philippine Food Festival on May 29.
Hilton Hotel Cebu sent to Vienna its chief cooks Gilbert Edano and Jose Tagalog. The two chefs will present during the week-long Philippine Food Festival, dubbed "Experience the Philippine flavors", the countrys favorites like adobo , the lechon and sinigang , together with a selection of other fine dishes.
Bernd Maier, Operations Manager of Hilton told ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau, "Our Hilton Hotel in Cebu is helping us to make this food festival for a week. Our main objective is primarily to introduce to our clients here in Austria, Filipino culture through these Philippine foods. The two chefs from Cebu are helping us to make authentic recipes. And I am very much convinced that they are really excellent cooks. And of course, it is an excellent Philippine cuisine."
Philippine Ambassador to Austria Linglingay Lacanlale likewise explained the purpose of the affair: "Tonight, we are opening the Philippine Food festival here at the Hilton hotel Vienna. This is in cooperation with Cebu Hilton. The purpose is to promote our cuisine as well as our food products."
"We have mangoes which we shipped from the Philippines. We have also beverages, courtesy of the Department of Agriculture, and we hope this will expose our products to the Austrian community and also for them to know our cuisine. Further, we hope, this will be a big opportunity to see for themselves how varied and rich the Filipino cuisine is," she said.
One foreign diplomat commented after tasting the adobong manok, "I love this chicken adobo. It is full of flavor, and extremely tender. It fell right off the bones. I will surely come back here together with my family."
An Indonesian diplomat who is a Catholic said, "the pork with some vegetables tastes good. We also have such thing in Indonesia, though I would say, this one is really different. I do like the vegetables in it like the okra, spinach, radish, green pepper and string beans. It is really excellent!"
No wonder that Mr. Bernd Maier, the operation manager affirmed, "Filipino cuisine is really very nice and very colorful. It is very impressive. I already heard positive comments from our clients. I think this Philippine Food Festival would be a very successful endeavor."
Aside from the classic Filipino recipes being served during the whole Food Festival, there are also typical Philippine appetizers. These feature cool, healthy concoctions with tropical savor with fruits like mangoes and pineapples, seafood like shrimps, tuna and mussels and local lime, herbs and spices.
Dessert offerings are fresh, ripe, succulent Philippine mangoes – the best in the world. There is also the halo-halo, a refreshing summer treat of iced tropical fruits, and a selection of Filipinos sweets, cakes and delicacies.
Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, who is on a business trip to Europe with some provincial board members of the Cebu government, also graced the occasion. She invited the guests to savor the Philippine cuisine in its proper setting, which is in Cebu. The governor also extended her invitation to visit the beautiful island of Cebu.
The Philippine Food Festival will last until June 5, 2008. There will be Filipino cultural performances every evening at the lobby of the Hilton Hotel, Vienna during the Food Festival.