This was the second Tasting Collective event that we attended. After the wonderful event at Win Son (you can read about it here: http://www.foodlovergirl.com/win-son/), we were excited to go to this event. F.O.B stands for Fresh Off the Boat, and is a Filipino BBQ restaurant. Tasting Collective is a dining club for food lovers, and they offer brunch and dinner at great NYC restaurants. They close off the restaurants for the club, so we get to have the entire restaurant and chef(s) all to ourselves. So, this is more than just eating food at a restaurant, but you get to have the background story and its passion from the chef(s), eating 8- to 12-course brunch/dinner created specifically for Tasting Collectives. I was very excited for this event, as I have never had Philippines cuisine before, especially an authentic kinds!!! Here at F.O.B., Philippines-born chef, Armando Litiatco offers the dishes cooked at home on a Sunday afternoon, shared among family. Sweet!
They have the sign-in book at the entrance, which is always kind of fun, you can add a little personal, warm note to the restaurant. Speaking of warm, the restaurant decor was all about warmth. Chefs told us that photos on the walls are of places that people enjoy doing BBQ, such as at the beach. But what I liked the most were the personal touches, such as family photos, mostly old, black and white photos, which were just adorable!
The inside is not very large, but cozy and welcoming. They have simple furniture that reminds me of dining room furniture from a warm home. It was like walking into someone’s home, I really liked the atmosphere. They have the one accent wall at the back, painted in sea green color.
The wall on the left was brick wall, and the rest was simple, clean, white color. Everything in this restaurant screamed warmth and cozy-ness. Once the restaurant was filled with other Tasting Collective members, the event was ready to start. But first, the chef came out to formally welcome us and told us a few things about himself and the background of this restaurant and its food. He told us that he loves Filipino BBQ, and he cooks and serves the food that he enjoys eating. He will not serve something that he or his family don’t like. That sounds great to me!
For this event at F.O.B., we were offered 8-course brunch, created especially for Tasting Collective. I really love this dining club! And if you are interested in joining, I will provide a link to join the club at discounted price at the end. Anyways, I showed the menu to my friend who’s family is from Philippines, and she told me I was in for a serious good time! So I was really excited to taste all of these creations (even though I had no idea what any of them were)!
First dish of this delightful 8-course brunch was Corn Bibingka. It is a rice cake with coconut butter and kesong puti- farmers cheese. It came on a banana leaves, as it is baked in it. How Tasting Collective event works is that almost every dish will be served family-style. Sharing the yummy food with other people at your table, among four to six people. At this event, we sat with much more delightful people than at the previous event, so the sharing food and socializing with strangers were more fun and we really enjoyed the experience better than the last time. It is always great to meet nice, sweet, interesting people.
Now, back to the food. Corn Bibigka was like a sweet corn pudding, creamy and rich, with the texture of fluffy but filling rice pudding. It was amazing, comforting, and delicious! It had great amount of corn, which I really liked since I like corn. I could’ve had a huge plateful of this dish…!!! It was a wonderful and sweet beginning to this brunch event!
The second course was Sisig, made with sizzling pork belly, ears, cheeks, chicharron, and egg. This was also brought out in family style. It was interesting flavor and good mix of different texture. I have never had pork ears and cheeks (I don’t think). The meat was juicy, flavorful and each unique yet coming together to create one unified, tasty dish. The texture was mostly soft, but with crunchy chicharron added the contracting and fun texture. I was thinking this dish would be great with side of rice… Didn’t really get the egg flavor, but I think it gave additional mild overall taste, bringing all the different flavors together.
The next one up was Champorado with Danggit. This one was served individually. When I read the description of this dish, I was really curious…in both good and bad ways. It is a chocolate rice pudding made with Filipino tablea and crispy fried fish. I know, I know. Now, getting able to taste strange, unusual, unique, authentic food from another country thousand of miles away is such wonderful gift and amazing opportunities that not everyone gets to have. So, when we are provided with such chance through this dining club, you got to be brave and take it! This dish was certainly nothing I’ve ever had. Very unique and innovative. I know it sounds really crazy and weird to put chocolate, rice, and salted fish all in one, but it worked! It was kind of like one of those “salted caramel chocolate” type. I can see that it is not a dish for everyone, but it is for those who loves chocolate, rice pudding, and salted fish (separately), and is willing to be adventurous enough to try it. From what the chef told us, You are supposed to have a bite of chocolate pudding, then a bite of salted fish, then pudding, fish… getting sweetness and saltiness one after another to get the harmony of the two flavors. I actually really liked it, I am glad I got to try it!
Talong was next. It was a charred eggplant in omelet, and it came with a side of tomato and cucumber. This was my least favorite dish, I thought it lacked in flavor…but then again, it might have been because everything else had very strong flavor. The eggplant was ok, kind of cool in temperature. The omelet simply folded in half, cuddling the eggplant. Didn’t have much surprise there…
The dish number five was Picadillo, which was ground beef simmered in tomatoes with potatoes, raisins, and olives. It was really great, another dish that I thought would go great with a side of rice. Actually, I wanted to have as a donburi – served on top of hot rice in a bowl. It was very juicy, and great added tangy flavor from olives and raisins. I am not a huge fan of olive, but the acidity taste worked really well here. It was comforting and addicting.
Around this time, even though I didn’t get a donburi, but they gave us a side of Garlic Rice. It was awesome, super tasty, and went great with everything. I wish if I had the unlimited refill of this from the beginning of the 8-course brunch to the end. But then again, we probably gotten filled up with this amazing rice, not able to finish all the courses…
Another side dish we received was Fried Egg. It had four eggs in one, and yes, it was to share among four people. It was super comforting, I really appreciated all these side dishes that are so comforting, on top of the 8-course menu. The fried egg kind of completed the “brunch” aspect.
The course number six and seven came together. It was Tochino and Longanisa. Tochino was pan fried cured pork, and Longanisa was sweet and spicy pork sausage. Tochino, shown on the left of the plate, was bit sweet. It was grilled just right, a bit tough and chewy (not too much) but I believe that is exactly how they are supposed to be. I really like it! Longanisa, shown on the right side of the dish, was really interesting, much sweeter than I expected, which was a bit surprising. I don’t think I have ever had a sausage with this much sweetness. It was not a bad sweetness, it worked really well, and was juicy and packed with flavor. They had a side of vinegar that you could dip Tochino and Longanisa, to calm down the sweetness a bit if you preferred to do so. It also gave that sweet and sour type of flavor too. Great dishes!
The last course was the dessert! I was excited for this one… It was Halo Halo, made with nata de coco, jackfruit, red bean, garnanzo, une ice cream. It was very colorful and vibrant, I don’t know if I have seen so many bright colors in one dish.
Halo Halo is “mixed thing” and it contains many ingredients. Then, it is mixed altogether (carefully so not to crush any beans or fruits) until it turns purple. This task that requires a bit of skill was done by our server. She did a really good job! The end result was like a slushy ice with chunks of beans and fruits. The candied beans provided hard texture, but not so hard that it is too crunchy. The fruits were fresh and soft, juicy. Most of all, it was very fun to eat.
And they have a beautiful bathroom, they only have one, but it is clean and nicely decorated. I liked how it is simple, I liked the golden banana leaves on the wall, which goes with the theme of the restaurant.
Our waitress was really nice, friendly and attentive. I didn’t get her name, but she was great, and again, very skilled at mixing our Halo Halo for us! The chef had great personality, and I really like that he only serves what he enjoy eating. They opened just a couple of months ago, I am sure this warm, friendly restaurant will stay for a long time with great, tasty, authentic delicious food! Thank you Tasting Collective for having this great event at F.O.B.!
For those of you who are interested in joining this great dining club, Tasting Collective, you can use this link to get a discounted annual rate of $115 (over 30% off the normal $165/year) for the first year: https://tastingcollective.com/?invite_code=JUN4346
F.O.B. – 271 Smith St, Brooklyn, NY 11231