These past few years, Tagaytay has evolved into a foodie destination with various offerings that run the whole gamut -- from the usual franchises to gourmet fine-dining options and unique restaurant concepts made for the mountain city.
Sisterfields, the new concept from The Cravings Group, is a comfort-dining restaurant specially catered to the location with a “sustainable cuisine” concept.
Cravings president and founder Susana P. Guerrero has always been vocal in espousing environmental advocacies, and together with her daughter, Cravings CEO Marinela G. Trinidad, they created Sisterfields with three important tenets: farm-to-fork, pasture-to-plate, and crop-to-cup.
While it’s located in the Summit Ridge Hotel, Sisterfields retains a homey feel, with a white-picket farm vibe, and splashes of hacienda-living with its high wood ceilings, wooden beams, and spacious interiors. There’s an easy feeling of luxury with white ceilings painted with pineapples that catch one’s eye. The atmosphere is relaxed but still elegant.
The food also follows this, with a specially created menu by visiting Manhattan chef Noel de la Rama. With 20-plus years of experience as a caterer and a personal chef, De la Rama is an advocate of farm-to-table cuisine.
“We first took an inventory of what was available 15 kms around the area, and the menu is inspired by that. We created dishes that are famous in Tagaytay like bulalo and tawilis, but adding our spin like a kaffir lime aoili dipping sauce, for example, with the tawilis,” De la Rama said.
Other starters include the Chopped Salad with Green Goddess Dressing. The dressing, which was popular during the '70s and the
'80s, uses the freshest herbs available, and the result is a dressing that’s tart and fresh—a delight to eat with greens or tomatoes.
There’s also the delicious Tinapa Spring Rolls – fried with a filling of vermicelli, mushrooms and tinapa, dipped in its accompanying sweet chilli sauce, as well as the Grilled Beef Summer Rolls with Peanut Sauce.
Sisterfields has its own brick oven to create crispy flat bread pizzas like the Longganisa and Quesong Puti with Pico de Gallo. This pizza has longganisa that’s on the sweetish side, the pico de gallo adds just the right amount of fruity acidity, and the quesong puti adds a creamy texture and some brine.
For vegetarians, the Roasted Vegetables with Tagaytay Goat Cheese will surely wow – with its abundant topping of farm fresh vegetables like zucchini, eggplants and peppers, with the goat cheese adding acidity, as well as creaminess.
Mains are limited to eight items ranging from Grilled Chicken Quesadillas to various pastas. There's the Southern Fried Chicken, the Talakitok en papillote and beef preparations like the Sticky Baby Back Ribs, served with coleslaw and mashed potato. The ribs had a rub that was peppery with a spicy chili undertone, while its meat also fell off the bone with ease.
Another beef dish is the Sisterfields Burger, a quarter pounder of Australian beef, served with garden greens, maple glaze bacon, and a fried duck egg. The texture of the patty initially surprised, as it leaned towards more of a sausage in terms of texture, but the taste was excellent tasting of fennel and spices, and still very juicy, the fried duck egg’s yolk was still runny and it added a layer of lusciousness to it, while the maple glaze bacon accentuated the sausage patty’s sweetness, and gave a crispy component.
If you’re into family style-eating, Sisterfields has the “Local All Time Favorites” with dishes like Sisig Express, Crispy Tokwa’t Baboy, Batangas Bulalo, and Sizzling Bulalo to name some.
End your meal with a cup of specialty coffee from Di Bella Coffee, which was founded by Philip Di Bella in Brisbane, Australia. The company is not only Australia’s largest specialty roaster, but prides itself as the only company in Australia that sources all their coffee green beans directly from the farmers. Cravings is the official distributor in the Philippines, and will be serving the coffee in all its outlets.
Representatives from Di Bella Coffee Mellissa Hamilton and Loren Whitefield are training the group's baristas in the Philippines for six months to give their customers the Di Bella “Ultimate Coffee Experience.”
Sip a flat white with Chocolate Smores and Cookies available from the Epicurious express area found in the Sisterfields entrance, or order from Sisterfields “End Guilty” menu – sweet Tres Leches Cake, the bestselling Chocolate Caramel, rich Devil’s Food Cake, or a cup or two of their seasonal ice cream—Ube Halaya (which has little bits of Halaya), Kapeng Barako, and Pineapple Tarragon (with candied pineapples).
Summit Ridge guests can enjoy their breakfast buffet in Sisterfields with deli hams, sausages, bacon, pancakes, omelets, as well as freshly baked pineapple and banana bread, among others.
Every Saturday night is a “Chill & Grill” night – with barbecue, seafood and cocktail drinks for only P549 per person. Lunch buffet every Sunday can also be availed for the same price.
Sisterfields at the Summit Ridge Hotel, km 58 General Aguinaldo Highway, Maharlika West, Tagaytay. For more info, call 24068888.
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
