Philippines' grandest food festival in UAE reimagines traditional Filipino cuisine with exciting twists

• Expo 2020 Dubai’s very own ‘Mangrove Café’ to run special events and surprise offerings for the entire Philippine Food Festival 

Dubai, United Arab Emirates :  The Philippines invites the UAE’s diverse community of 200 nationalities to prepare their palates for a delightful new generation of Filipino cuisine in the country’s grandest food fiesta to date – the Philippines Food Festival.

Coinciding with the Expo 2020 Dubai, the Philippines Food Festival marks the biggest engagement of the country in presenting its food in a new light, with the opportunity to travel the Philippines’ kitchens and explore the country’s cuisine in one table.

UAE residents who are piqued with curiosity about contemporary Filipino food will taste generations of recipes handed down to families, where authenticity remains at the heart of every dish served.

PDTI Assistant Secretary and Philippines Expo 2020 Dubai Alternate Commissioner General Rosvi C. Gaetos highlighted that the Philippine Food Festival will shine the spotlight on the distinctiveness of Filipino food concepts, which sets it apart from the rest of Southeast Asia.

“Traditional Filipino kitchen has interwoven different culinary experiences from our interactions with different countries within our history that spans 4,000 years back. Fast forward to today, the Philippine Food Festival brings to light this amalgamation of cooking techniques applied on these specially-curated menu items, each given a modern-day twist by some of our finest Filipino chefs based here in the UAE,” said Gaetos.

Running from December 2021 to March 2022, the Philippines Food Festival will collaborate with dozens of restaurants, hotels, leading supermarkets and grocery stores, as well as the Bangkóta Philippines Pavilion’s very own ‘Mangrove Café. This event aims to entice global citizens to savor the culinary flavors of the Philippines through delicious Filipino dishes, and iconic food products shipped all the way from the Philippines.

Maria Anthonette C. Velasco-Allones, Chief Operating Officer of the Philippines’ Tourism Promotions Board of the, aspires that this holistic approach of the Philippines Food Festival will serve as the country’s platform to exhibit some of its most popular dishes that the global community will feast on.

“We are bringing authentic Filipino food from the kitchens of the Philippines directly to your tables here in Dubai and the rest of the UAE, in our efforts to establish the Philippines as the culinary centre of Southeast Asia. Our dedicated chefs from the Philippines who have mastered the art of giving traditional dishes a spark of innovative food craftsmanship without losing the same comforting taste will signal the beginning of an exciting new phase for Filipino cuisine,” said Velasco-Allones.

Diverse offerings 

The Philippines Food Festival has partnered with three hotels in Dubai and one in Abu Dhabi, which are expected to host peak numbers of guests from all over the world during the holiday and winter season in the UAE. By including Philippine dishes either as part of their buffet offering or in a set menu, these hotels will link the palates of foreign tourists to the plates of Philippine kitchens.

Partner hotels will serve specially curated menus by internationally-renowned and award-winning Filipino chef John Buenaventura, together with a group of Filipino culinary artists or siñeros, all working in the UAE’s hospitality industry.

In addition, Filipino-owned restaurants across the UAE will be concocting their special ‘Bangkóta’ menu out of their regular offerings. This will highlight their best Filipino dishes cooked with creativity and innovation to recreate traditional recipes passed down across several generations of Filipino ancestry.

The Philippines Food Festival, alongside the country’s annual participation in the UAE’s Gulfood exhibition, has also tapped leading supermarkets and grocery stores to feature ingredients and products shipped all the way from the Philippines. This initiative aims to encourage the public to create delicious, homemade Filipino food. 

Lastly, the Mangrove Café located at the Philippines Pavilion will engage Expo 2020 Dubai visitors through a series of activities that will explore the distinct flavors of the country.

Participants and visitors of the Philippines Food Festival will get a chance to win exciting prizes, among them, a trip to some of the best destinations in the Philippines.

Be sure to check out the official social media pages of the Philippines Pavilion ‘Bangkóta’ for further info:

Website: www.phexpo2020dubai.com 

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About The Bangkóta - Philippines Pavilion in Expo 2020 Dubai 

Bangkóta is the name and inspiration for the pavilion of Philippines at the World Expo 2020, which will be held from October 1, 2021— March 31, 2022 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The pavilion, organically shaped like the Bangkóta—the ancient term for “coral reef” in the language Tagalog—updates knowledge about the Philippines, an archipelagic nation that nourished a collective, sea-oriented culture for millennia.

By calling attention to the coral reef-like qualities of Filipinos—such as an inclination for hyper-connectivity—the pavilion offers clues into a people who can build vibrant communities anywhere and everywhere in the world.

Remaining interconnected with each other as Filipinos, even through massive diaspora, the Philippines’ global stage is held together digitally. In the past 4000 years, as their Austronesian ancestors spread throughout island Southeast Asia and then embarked across the Pacific, they were and still are connected by the oceans of the world.

The Philippines pavilion evokes this hardy, traveling people in the sustainability District of the Expo, poetically emphasizing cultural sustainability through the millennia. In a plot size of 3163.25 sqm, the pavilion presents contemporary expressions in architecture, art, and design that links the deep past with the future of connectivity for the Filipino.

It is conceptualised and actualised by Architect Royal Pineda of Budji+Royal Architecture+Design and independent curator Marian Pastor Roces, collaborating with unusual synchrony with Assistant Secretary Rosario Virginia Gaetos of the Department of Trade and Industry, who also serves as Alternate Commissioner General of the Philippine Organizing Committee (POC). 

Bangkóta aligns with the theme of this forthcoming Expo 2020 – “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future” – with a riveting image of the Philippines and its people as truly global.

For further media queries, contact:
Vince Ang
New Perspective Media Group
Email: vince@newperspectivemedia.com 
Tel: +971 4 244 9642

© Press Release 2021