Tribute to Culinary Arts Visionaries of 28 years: Valuing the ‘community of humanity’ for a healthy public!
Romy Dorotan and Amy Besa are culinary arts visonaries, inviting us to treasure our indigenous flavors and with an open mindedness of using ginger, tamarind blossoms, coconut milk, coffee beans, mangoes, guavas, and even heirloom black rice from Ifugao’s rice terraces, masterfully executing each dish, and enticing folks to travel and to savor these high quality foods, prepared with such love in the details.
It is an inclusive cooking style that all ingredients are invited to play their fullest flavors to mix in with others, not clashing, but harmonizing.
Who would fly from LAX to JFK just to have dinner and visit with friends Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan at Purple Yam in Brooklyn? Someone obsessed about a high-quality Filipino restaurant with a signature of sustained excellence, exceeding it each time – that’s me.
One time, I took Hydee Pichai with me and friends and Hydee took a photo with Romy that became the featured photo in my book, Even The Rainbow Has A Body.
Another time, I took my cousin’s family, Mila and Alfred Tecson and their teenagers then, to Cendrillon in SoHo. We drove from DC to NY to see a solo play about Immaculee Ilibagiza, performed by Leslie Lewis, speaking multiple languages and animating 9 characters. It was a story about Immacullee hiding in a bathroom space, with other friends for 91 days, to escape the genocide in Rwanda. That was in 2019.
When we had our lunch, Romy Dorotan and Amy Besa warmly welcomed us. It was early enough that customers were trickling in. By the time we left, the restaurant was quite full. We had black rice paella with squid, prawns, clams and mussel, okoy and more. We had bibingka, so light and cheesy, that Ollie Cantos, a blind attorney who went with us for a 19 hour drive back and forth called his mom to share about his experience. We had their sinigang and of course yummy desserts.
It was more than the food, it was their hospitality and generosity of spirit. The price we paid was so undervalued, given the solicitous, high-quality, and the warm service that we usually get, which truly was priceless.
After the play, we consulted about dinner – the unanimous choice was Cendrillon, so we ended eating lunch and dinner at Cendrillon, all in one day. Ollie ended buying bibingka to bring home to his mother, who lived in DC. I wish I could, even then to share this amazing experience, with loved ones, of course in part.
Fast forward to more experiences at Purple Yam.
One time it was with Hydee Pichai and her friends. She had a photograph with Chef Romy Dorotan, this time in the new restaurant, Purple Yam in Brooklyn. In recent years, ube or purple yam became popular, appearing in cocktails, drinks, cakes, and muffins.
Who would have known that to eat lamb curry with chutney, bok choy, and steamed rice would make us all open to this unique combination, previously unheard of in our palates?
Tonight, even my husband, usually a man of few words, shared his love of this flavorful lechon, a delicately marinated and tender flesh meat, with of course the crackling skin.
We were served omakase, 11 dishes tonight with 2 delectable desserts: chocolate crepe with mango chunks in light syrup paired with guava sorbet and buko pie paired with ice cream, made by Chef Romy Dorotan. The ice cream closes this dining experience and the delicious attractant to come back for more.
What made this night’s experience is the presence of my husband, Enrique Delacruz and my godson, Robert Dalmacio Soriano-Hewitt who practices law and teaches law in NY. I loved the dialogue as they both were animated in deconstructing the dishes: noritaco with chopped fresh and pickled vegetables that looked like a piece of art; okoy that disappeared quickly for how light and flavorful; sotanghon with 21-spices cooked duck legs on a bed of flat clear noodles, and snapper cooked in banana leaves with seasonings that enhanced the fish.
The bonus: a group of 30 who were paying tribute to Romy. One said that he has been coming since 1998, being warmly welcomed, first at SoHo, now Purple Yam – Brooklyn with Romy being so open, and so spontaneous in his creativity, and with high quality in execution! Isn’t that what a community of collective humanitarian should be? They make the world brighter, safer and healthier!