What a beautiful day to spend in Magnolia, Texas. It is in Waco, Texas where a 59 day standoff between the ATF, FBI and local police against the cult of Davidians occurred. It was an unfortunate incident that started in a service of search warrant for illegal firearms. When ATF came, the Davidians had been tipped off and were heavily armed. Service of warrant failed and the standoff lasted at under two months, with a fire started by the Davidians which resulted in deaths and explosions.
That backdrop was in my mind until a good friend Jv Samson persuaded me to open my heart and my mind. I did and it was one of the best days I had in Waco, Texas: leisurely walking, window shopping, taking photos, sharing stories, clothes shopping that friends did and a very delicious lunch of bacon grilled cheese and a humongous iced tea. Slight rainshowers for 5 minutes which cooled the air and back at 86 F. My good friends are good photographers and they took my photos spontaneously.
A great day in Waco, Texas and a very delicious steakhouse for dinner at Texas Roadhouse. But before that, a stop at the legendary Buc’ees where it is a huge flea market of all kinds of processed foods like pickled okra, candied pecans and trust me, the biggest and cleanest bathroom as big as a dancing floor.
The end of a great era of delighting palates with Pan-Asian food!
Day 3 is as full as the nights before. I heard 200 covers were served every night of this closing week. Looking at the faces of the staffers and wait staff, they seem tired, yet are patient and solicitous serving us. Romy Dorotan was cooking as fast as he can, with the same level of attention for each plate. He took the time to say hi, even some selfies and served wine in one table. By the time we left, the 7pm customers were already in line. One couple tried to get in, but without reservation, all seats were spoken for.
Tonight, two of us only, with no guests. We had okoy, eggplant with mango, tomatoes, jicama, bittermelon slice, and burnt coconut cream. It got paired with barbecue spareribs served on a bed of steamed bokchoy and with a light pineapple marinade. Dessert was ube tikoy with champoy ice cream. The last time I ate champoy was 6 decades ago. There’s no mistaking their high quality, unique flavors – ube tikoy is not available anywhere else except here.
When Purple Yam – Brooklyn closes, it is a sad realization that this era of great Filipino foods with organic, fresh ingredients has come to an end. Yet, ever grateful that they held their own with integrity to only serve the best, healthy dishes that support our healthy bodies, causing no harm.
Well there is, as I want to eat everything in the menu, but my stomach’s capacity is limited. Joking aside, this restaurant serving dishes fit for royalty has one more night, tomorrow, Friday, before they close their doors in Brooklyn.
I am so happy I went back 3 times this week to eat my favorites.
Maraming Salamat Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan. Your two restaurants, Cendrillon and Purple Yam Brooklyn, that were operated for 25 years, have left us beautiful memories of what royalty dishes must be, exceeding palates’ expectations and not making them weary with too much salt, too much fat and too much sugar. Your balance of flavors delivered to our plates is exceptional in harmony and stunning colors!
The end of a great era of delighting palates with Pan-Asian food!
Day 3 is as full as the nights before. I heard 200 covers were served every night of this closing week. Looking at the faces of the staffers and wait staff, they seem tired, yet are patient and solicitous serving us. Romy Dorotan was cooking as fast as he can, with the same level of attention for each plate. He took the time to say hi, even some selfies and served wine in one table. By the time we left, the 7pm customers were already in line. One couple tried to get in, but without reservation, all seats were spoken for.
Tonight, two of us only, with no guests. We had okoy, eggplant with mango, tomatoes, jicama, bittermelon slice, and burnt coconut cream. It got paired with barbecue spareribs served on a bed of steamed bokchoy and with a light pineapple marinade. Dessert was ube tikoy with champoy ice cream. The last time I ate champoy was 6 decades ago. There’s no mistaking their high quality, unique flavors – ube tikoy is not available anywhere else except here.
When Purple Yam – Brooklyn closes, it is a sad realization that this era of great Filipino foods with organic, fresh ingredients has come to an end. Yet, ever grateful that they held their own with integrity to only serve the best, healthy dishes that support our healthy bodies, causing no harm.
Well there is, as I want to eat everything in the menu, but my stomach’s capacity is limited. Joking aside, this restaurant serving dishes fit for royalty has one more night, tomorrow, Friday, before they close their doors in Brooklyn.
I am so happy I went back 3 times this week to eat my favorites.
Maraming Salamat Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan. Your two restaurants, Cendrillon and Purple Yam Brooklyn, that were operated for 25 years, have left us beautiful memories of what royalty dishes must be, exceeding palates’ expectations and not making them weary with too much salt, too much fat and too much sugar. Your balance of flavors delivered to our plates is exceptional in harmony and stunning colors!
Day 2, A full house at 530pm, we were lucky to sit in the backyard to escape a bit NY’s 95 Fahrenheit in the summer. Our guests tonight are friends we have not seen for 25 years, Rebecca Asedillo and Doug Cunningham. It was a lively exchange of lived experiences from taking care of grandchildren, to being retired, to archiving documents of our organizing days as young folks for the return of democracy in the Philippines.
What did we eat, more like what did we not eat? We ate dumplings, fresh lumpia, mussels, ribeye steak bistek, okoy, bibimbap with 21-spices roasted duck, eggplant with smoked coconut cream, sisig, halo-halo with ube, coffee, macapuno, champoy ice cream and bread pudding topped with vanilla ice cream
We came back to the hotel quite satisfied, but never bloated by extenders or preservatives. This is what fresh, from scratch, cooking with the freshest ingredients. Doug kept complimenting that each bite is amazingly fresh and flavorful, not over the top, quite restrained and self-assured dishes not needing any more seasonings.
A great evening of fellowship centered in how else can we help Kamala Harris win? I shared my 2008 experiences of campaigning over a weekend for Barack Obama. Thanks Rebecca Asedillo for my homemade soap and for driving an hour and a half from your residence to break bread with us.
What a beautiful evening of soulful conversations!!
A hefty thanks to Romy Dorotan and Amy Besa who were kept so busy with two sittings, 530pm and 7pm! Daghang Salamat! Muchas Gracias!
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!
We never have an agenda. We simply start with great food chosen by Cora Oriel Ted Benito Maryjane Southerling Saldana Mina Layba Nathan Glenn myself or Rex Sampaga. Hubby shows up every now and then and if Roger Oriel is in town, he joins us. Last time he joined us at a paella place and another time, Kuya Lord.
Conversations meander all over the world and Glenn starts riotously, encouraged by Ted. Cora takes us back to sharing more stories and pretty soon, we all find humor in the dishes being served.
We go outdoors and share more stories. By the time we end it has been 4 or 5 hours of fellowship. Non-stop laughing, finding joy in our own reminiscing of our own past and sharing most importantly, our future plans and to help plan for more of life to be lived.
The best saying came from Ted:”I am only successful if the community benefits from it.” Imagine that community-mindedness!
I shared what I learned from Komos:”You should do good while you are living well.” The story ended with this luxury tequila maker who sends employees to become scholars, recycles agave husks to become biofuel pellets, pallets to transport their products and construction bricks to build schools and women’s shelter, that evening’s dinner was courtesy of Benel Se-Liban and Cris Liban, a night ago.
Find the good, do good for others and contribute to the joy-making each day!
Thanks for coming with me, dear love of my life Enrique de la Cruz. I love you all!
Last five photos #11 to #15 came from Mina Layba, a better photographer than I am.
