After more than three hours drive from Manila and the search for the place through the help of my friend and his Waze app, we arrived at CASA San Miguel in Zambales at past 10AM.
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| Butanding(Whale shark) shaped metal installation is displayed at CASA San Miguel. |
During the visit, I had a chance to meet and talk to the founder of CASA San Miguel, Coke Bolipata, a violinist who was schooled in Juilliard. He mentioned that the whale shark installation is part of an exhibit for their environmental awareness projects.
As we walked around the place with Coke, he shared how he built CASA San Miguel during post Mount Pinatubo's erruption in 1993 and how the idea was born out of his exposure as a violinist living in the United States since part of the program he was involved in that time included living in the countryside to perform and do community work.
He mentioned that the income generated from CASA San Miguel's cafe, bed and breakfast and projects help fund the school and provide scholarships to kids in the community which include the kids of fishermen and farmers.
Coke was featured by CNN Philippines television channel since he is truly an admirable Filipino. His advocacy and accomplishments in giving back to the community through CASA San Miguel is just amazing. Below is the video clip.
We also met Coke's Paris-based chef cousin, Chef Victor Magsaysay who is the chef of Ito Japanese restaurant in Paris. They are collaborating on a fund-raising lunch event which is set on October 10th.
As I was talking to Chef Victor, I noticed how fresh market picks are instantly used as kitchen decor.
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| The pale containing fresh spinach greens and orange squash flowers add a vibrant vibe in the kitchen. |
Chef Victor Magsaysay, is a self-taught chef who has been living in Paris since 2002. He simply loves to go to the market and cook.
For our lunch, he cooked dishes using local ingredients that he bought from a local market. Below are the dishes that he prepared for us.
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| Salad composed of crispy Bun-nog fish, alugbati(red vine spinach) leaves and crispy spinach leaves with a dressing made from extra virgin coconut oil and soysauce. |
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| Risotto dish made from cooked rice and fresh carabao's milk and served with a mix of stringbeans, squash and eggplant. |
Another interesting food discovery during our trip is when we tried the polvoron from Julian's Dream Cafe, the cafe at CASA San Miguel.
Coke Bolipata is the one who invented this special polvoron with layers of powdered milk, chocnut, cashew,pastillas, and dried fruit. It comes in five flavours(mango, ube, pastillas, avocado and pineapple).
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Julian's Dream polvoron includes a note on how polvoron is one of
the traditional candy Filipinos grew up with since the Spanish colonial
period. It also includes an inspiring quote from well-known personalities and information about the cafe' since sales from their products help fund CASA San Miguel's community program which includes providing livelihood to families and scholarships to kids. |
Coke told us that this was the same polvoron served at the Philippine President's dinner for President Obama in Malacanang Palace. His friend, Chef Margarita Fores, insisted that they include it in the dinner menu after she got a chance to taste the yummy polvoron from CASA San Miguel.
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| Chef Victor Magsaysay(left) and Coke Bolipata (right) with T-shirt, CASA San Miguel's resident dog Photo taken by: Jar Concengo |
We had a fun and enjoyable lunch. It is nice to know that there are Filipinos like Coke and Victor who amidst their success abroad still go back to their home country in order to give back to their community and help underprivileged kids have a better future.
To know more about CASA San Miguel, check out their website: CASA San MIguel's website.
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