Tasty Land Excursions Improve Silversea Cruises’ New S.A.L.T. Culinary Program

We enjoy Thai restaurants all over the western world. The Philippines also produce great cuisine. But why do we rarely find Filipino restaurants around the world, given the enormous Filipino diaspora? Why hasn’t this kitchen taken off?

Serves the creations of head chef Wayan Kresna Yasa in the restaurant Kaum in Bali.

Photo credit: LUCIA GRIGGI / Silversea Cruises

Maybe you never noticed. But through the new Silversea Cruises The SALT (Sea and Land Taste) program, Nicole Ponseca, offers you cuisine that has been enriched for centuries with Chinese, Malay, Arabic, Spanish and even American influences. The Filipino-American, California-born chef is a co-founder of Jeepney New York City restaurant and co-author of the colorful and highly regarded cookbook “I’m a Filipino: that’s how we cook. ”

Chef Ponseca is among a number of culinary personalities who have begun to work with Silversea’s SALT program. Ask for his Maiden voyage In the Mediterranean this spring, the new Silver Moon will be the first Silversea ship to integrate the SALT program, where chefs come on board to share their knowledge and enthusiasm for the regional cuisine in which they specialize share.

New York-based chef and Filipino food guru Nicole Ponseca on a SALT sail.

Photo credit: LUCIA GRIGGI / Silversea Cruises

An extension of the SALT laboratory on board (see last contribution), the program’s shore excursions will also expose guests to local foods at markets and farms, as well as local food, wine and beverage experiences. On a trial run of SALT from Bali to Manila on the Silver Muse in 2019, participants made some of the following stops that represent the kind of experiences you can expect in future sailing around the world.

In the Potato Head Beach Club, the resort hotel designed by Rem Koolhaas in Seminyak in southern Bali, Barely The restaurant serves its guests at picnic tables on the terrace overlooking the sea and uses dishes made by the local island ceramics manufacturer style. There is a more urban hustle and bustle indoors.

Chef Sau del Rosario’s shrimp soup at lunch at the Center for Culinary Arts in Manila.

Photo credit: LUCIA GRIGGI / Silversea Cruises

During his training and work in the States, Chef Wayan Kresna Yasa was born and raised on the small island of Nusa Penida off the south of Bali. The larger of his barely dishes, which is shared by two to four guests, allows guests to experience a range of flavors from his Indonesian homeland. Ayam Bakar Taliwang from West Nusa Tenggara is a grilled smoked chicken marinated with Lombok-style spices. Ikan Barramundi Bakar Sambal Dabu Dabu from North Sulawesi is a grilled barramundi fillet that is marinated with tamarind water and turmeric paste. A crispy half duck served with a green mango and red chilli relish comes from West Java.

Up in the famous highland town of Ubud, archipelago Opened two years ago as an offshoot of Dutch-born Eelke Plasmeijer and Jakarta-born Ray Adriansyah Locavore Restaurant known for its local sourcing. The name Nusantara is the Bahasan Indonesian word for archipelago, and this is where guests actually find another opportunity to explore cuisines from across the country.

The popular rice dish Nasi Campur can contain mixtures of pork belly, pickled vegetables and the tangy chilli sauce sambal, while sambal goreng consists of fried shallots, chilies and garlic in coconut oil and sea salt. Sambal Ganja from North Sumatra consists of chillies, lemongrass, shrimp, shallots and garlic. Grilled king prawns, served with shallots, garlic, chilies, and more, make up udang bakar kecombrang, which can be found across West Java.

In a room on the upper floor, the Nusantara team runs a kind of experimental fermentation laboratory with glass and ceramic jars that are filled with herbal and plant preparations and would inspire a botanist. During the Silver Muse SALT test sailing, the Nusantara chefs took guests on an easy hike in the rice paddies and wooded areas to share the wealth found there. On the way, an elderly farmer came out of his little house to climb and collect sap from a palm tree to demonstrate how to make coconut sugar. At the end of the hike, a hipster food truck appeared in a clearing in the forest to serve Babi Guling, Bali’s ubiquitous roast suckling pig.

In the port of call of Sandakan in the Malaysian part of north Borneo, the Sandakan Central Market may not be the most attractive massive concrete structure, but it is a real job market and far from a tourist trap. Since the market faces the sea, fishing boats deliver their catch right there. The market is full of brightly colored dry and wet goods, and the Silver Muse Chef Anne-Mari Cornelius and her team have a chance to read all kinds of Halal and Chinese ingredients.

Chef Sau del Rosario at the Center for Culinary Arts, Manila

Photo credit: LUCIA GRIGGI / Silversea Cruises

Sometimes the best food is the simplest, and Sandakan’s nondescript Good Taste Restaurant, with its plastic chairs and tables, is the place for a Chinese pork rib broth called Bak Kut Teh and all kinds of other spicy seafood.

Im stylish and artistic San da gen kopitiam The cafe with an old trishaw in the front and marble tables and tiles inside creates a retro feel. From beef rendang in toasted coconut curry to puff pastry and a pudding meringue cake called UFO, guests at Silver Muse took a tour there to make their own mackerel cakes.

Non-food experiences on a SALT sail can include an hour-long excursion outside of Sandakan, where dozens of orphaned orangutans reside in the area Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center. The monkeys are protected within 16 square kilometers and are trained on rope structures and trees to prepare them for their return to the wild. Visitors stay on sidewalks, but can watch the orphans closely as they move around their dedicated exercise / play area.

North of the Sulu Sea and the Visayan Islands of the Philippines, the small island of Romblon is known for its marble. There Clang Garcia, author of Food Holidays Philippinescan arrange food tours like a motorized three-wheel drive into the countryside. Guests visiting Milagros Montero will have demonstrations outside their home and will likely be busy grabbing river prawns as they crawl out of a basket. Her family is expert at grinding and mixing them with coconut, hot chilies, ginger, and shallots to make sarsa na uyang, delicious steamed fish cake snacks cooked in banana leaves.

At the seaside in the town of Romblon, Clang Garcia also arranged the SALT sailing for a lunchtime feast with dishes such as chicken tinola soup with fish sauce, grilled Tanique fish, and fruit and salads with chillies.

Hanging out at the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center.

Photo credit: LUCIA GRIGGI / Silversea Cruises

At the end of the cruise in Manila, the guests followed the cook Nicole Ponseca to the house of the founders of the Center for Culinary Arts, Manila (CCA). There movie star handsome chef and author of Twenty years of love + cookingSau Del Rosario served an indoor and outdoor feast that included leg of lamb cladereta and sinigang sa bayabas (ulang or river prawns), as well as about two dozen other dishes and desserts.

All of this means that you have to keep coming back on a Silversea Cruises SALT sail to even try all the dishes there is to be discovered, let alone master all the recipes and flavors that have come together over the centuries.