Khaiba pop-up at Balmori Suites Chef’s Table

Khaiba is the newest pop-up at Balmori Suites Chef's Table, Rockwell Power Plant Mall. I would best describe the food to be a marriage of Filipino ingredients and flavors, expressed with a twist from the Middle East. Featured chefs of this pop up are Sonny Mariano and Nouel Catis. 

It was my first time meeting chef Sonny Mariano, one of the corporate chefs of the Tasteless Food Group. According to chef Sonny, he merely cooked everything he liked to eat or at least similar to it, but different. A pastry chef by training, he took on the reins for the pop-up. Cool, calm and collected, he showed no inkling of stress or worry, at least from the guests’ point of view.

For starters, he served us a dish called alimasag at kalabasa, squash puree piped into a crispy rolled wafer or barquillos, topped with a crab salad. Next item was the jamon at pandesal, a fried doughnut hole-sized pandesal stuffed with daqoos or a garlic tomato sauce topped with jamon. I’m usually a sinigang purist and would prefer a traditional sinigang—our family version that has been served since my childhood sans the fusion—but this turned out to be one of my favorite dishes. The sinigang flavors came through in the form of a prune and tamarind glaze basted on to the USDA beef belly cubes on a skewer. I must have had three skewers that evening, which was already a whole order in itself.

They continued to serve us appetizers to share as we were directed to our assigned tables for the evening. In lieu of a bread basket, we were served the sourdough bibingka with clotted cream, adobo liver pate and a date honey—to be enjoyed with a little bit of everything in one bite. The GenSan tuna kinilaw had a coconut-sumac vinaigrette and was topped with a refreshing atchara sorbet. Laing babaganoush was served with papadum crackers, which everyone, including vegetarians and vegans would absolutely enjoy. Lastly, the ensalada with an eggplant carpaccio, chickpeas, papaya tinapa, burong mangga and chimichurri.

For the seafood entrees, we were served Arabic spiced barramundi sarciado and miso prawns with mafti sauce which, I learned, is a tomato-based sauce with cinnamon, black and green cardamom. Chef added prawn heads to add flavor and reduced the sauce to produce a thicker consistency like a puree. Khaiba’s chicken inasal is served with a zaatar-spiced crunchy chicken skin. But the dish I would go back for would be the tagine-style lamb shank kaldereta. Slow cooked with aromatics and cooked with almonds, apricots and figs for sweetness and texture. It was served with a kiniing basmati rice adding a smokey taste to each bite. So yes, order that extra kiniing rice with this dish.

Chef Nouel Catis, the brains behind the Dubai Chocolate, featured his other dessert creations inspired by his childhood memories. This is a comeback to the Philippines for him after 16 long years. He looks forward to showcase what he has learned during his experience abroad by celebrating his honed craft through this collaboration. 

For his featured desserts, the most familiar would be the mango cake with coconut cream, graham crumble and caramelized cashews called the “Honey, Mangga Please” cake. Knowing that chef Nouel was the creator of the famous Dubai Chocolate—the moist chocolate cake with pistachio filling covered with a Davao chocolate frosting—is what may catch everyone’s attention. It is served with pistachio soft serve and a pistachio sauce. However, I do believe that the “Halo Halo” deserves some attention, too. It is a soft-centered ube cheesecake with heirloom rice pinipig, phyllo crisps and an evaporada pandan sauce. 

Both chefs dug deep into their roots to produce this collaboration. This melange of familiar Filipino flavors with a Middle Eastern flair is truly one of a kind. 

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The Khaiba pop-up at Balmori Suites Chef's Table features creations by chef Sonny Mariano of Tasteless Food Group and chef Nouel Catis. The pop-up runs until July 13. It is open daily for lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and dinner from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. For inquiries and reservations, call 09956393972. Follow on Instagram @khaiba.mnl @tastelessfoodgroup.