ANNOUNCER: And now Signature Dish, a WETA original series SETH: Today on Signature Dish, it's a Filipino festival.

We'll first strike up the wok.

JULIE: Can you smell that?

SETH: Oh my goodness.

That is just an attack of bold flavors.

Enjoy a colorful breakfast spread.

ALVIN: And you can see that color.

SETH: I hope the cameras can pick up just how beautifully purple this thing is.

And finish with some French and Filipino fusion.

IRENE: And while this is marinating, I think we can get some Hollandaise.

SETH: Everything about this dish is your own unique spin on it, I love that.

IRENE: Yes.

SETH: Oh, wow.

I'm Seth Tillman, WETA producer and DC native, and I love good food.

That's why I'm traveling to restaurants across the DMV, at each stop looking for the one thing you just got to try, that Signature Dish.

Over the last decade or so, a handful of high profile restaurants in the DMV has sent the popularity of Filipino food sky-high.

The Southeast Asian archipelago of almost 8,000 islands plays an outsized role on the global food scene.

And today I'm on the hunt for three great restaurants that showcase just how colorful and vibrant Filipino cuisine can be.

♪ ♪ My first stop is to H Street Northeast.

I am visiting Hiraya whose kitchen is helmed by two rockstar chefs of the Filipino food movement, Paolo Dungca and Julie Cortes.

JULIE: Filipino food is like an influence of each and every part of like, the world.

We incorporate the flavor of the people who colonize us.

We were colonized by Spaniards, we were colonized by the Chinese, so it's very diverse, but it's our own thing.

SETH: Hiraya is part of DC's trend of all-day eateries.

A casual cafe and coffee bar downstairs by day, with, by the way, some of the most beautiful latte art I've ever seen.

And a fine dining destination upstairs by night.

PAOLO: Hiraya means fruits of one's hopes and dreams and aspirations.

As a chef, you've always wanted to create a place of your own, where you can welcome people and showcase where you're from and introduce them to a whole new culture, that's why we play, like, loud Filipino music downstairs.

The coffee's from the Philippines and our whole staff is Filipino.

It's a fun little Filipino trip.

JULIE: Instead of saying, how are you in the Philippines or in Tagalog, you always ask to people, "kumain ka na ba?"

It means like, "Did you eat already?"

Parties in the Philippines is like a buffet of food.

So I grew up having that feast every time there's like, a celebration.

PAOLO: And that's the kind of experience we want.

We want them to feel like they're coming into our house.

And just the hospitality, I mean, I think the food speaks for itself.

What I really want to showcase is basically like, how hospitable we are, how rich and diverse our culture is, and enjoy the vibes.

SETH: I'm off to Hiraya to try their modern take on adobo, an iconic dish of the Philippines.

Chef, nice to meet you.

JULIE: Nice to meet you too.

SETH: Some really nice aromas happening right here.

What are you making today?

JULIE: So this is um, our signature dish, duck adobo.

SETH: Duck adobo, all right.

Oh, and is that the duck right here that I see?

JULIE: Yeah, so we use the confit duck legs and we use the breast as well.

SETH: Oh wow, okay.

Well, because I've had chicken adobo many times, but duck confit is the protein.

JULIE: It's really different, yeah.

So there's a lot of variety of adobo.

What we're doing is we base it in a regular adobo, like the soy sauce and vinegar.

And then this is the black garlic, this is one of the secrets, so it's like an aged garlic.

SETH: There is a uh, a nice aged aroma to it as well.

JULIE: Yeah.

SETH: So how do you put this dish together?

JULIE: We sauté it using the wok.

So we put the garlic first.

This is really hot, so... SETH: Oh, it's like already brown.

Immediate sear on that garlic right there.

JULIE: And then black garlic.

Can you smell that?

SETH: Oh my goodness, yeah.

JULIE: Yeah, and then we're going to use this pot with a little bit of oil too.

Hot pot.

And then we're going to put it here in the sauce pan.

This is the soy sauce.

We use Filipino soy sauce here.

And then the key flavor, this is a coconut vinegar.

SETH: I'm not sure I've ever had coconut vinegar before.

JULIE: Coconut vinegar.

SETH: But vinegar itself is the key part of adobo, right?

JULIE: Yes, yes.

And then our own duck stock.

A lot of people in the Philippines doesn't use coconut milk, us, we're going to use coconut milk.

We love coconut here in this restaurant.

Sugar, use mushroom seasoning.

SETH: Give a little depth and umami flavor.

JULIE: Umami flavor.

And then one of the key ingredients too is bay leaf, fresh bay leaf and then black pepper.

And then we're going to bring it to a boil.

We're going to cook it down and then get all the flavor.

And then we're going to blend it all together and then strain it.

And then this is the finished sauce that we have.

SETH: Oh, wow.

It's such a beautiful color on that.

JULIE: Very silky.

And then if you want to take one taste.

SETH: Have a taste?

Oh, I would love to take a taste here.

Ooh, instantly hit with that vinegar, that aged garlic.

Just a lot of really bold flavors in there.

That's terrific.

JULIE: And then after that, we're going to sear the duck, the duck breast and the duck legs.

And then we're going to plate it.

Under is the duck adobo sauce.

And then we're going to finish it with scallions, garlic chips.

We fry our own duck skin.

To get along with that, we're going to fry some heirloom garlic rice.

And then we're going to sit down and enjoy the duck adobo.

SETH: Julie, this looks incredible.

Start with a little bit of duck breast.

I'm sure I got to get a lot of that adobo sauce.

That is phenomenal.

And it makes perfect sense to have a nice garlicky vinegary sauce with all that nice fat and crispy skin.

That just works together so nicely.

PAOLO: Yeah, you have to say sarap after that.

SETH: Sarap?

PAOLO: Yeah, "sarap" means delicious in Tagalog.

SETH: Oh, sarap.

Sarap indeed.

JULIE: Thank you.

PAOLO: It's just a fun little take on a classic staple dish from our motherland.

SETH: And how did you decide to take it up to the next level with the uh, with the duck?

PAOLO: I've always been a fan of uh, game meat, so we figured it'd be such a good protein to kind of, um, combine together.

Duck's really fatty, and then the sauce is kind of acidic and cuts through the richness of the duck.

JULIE: You should try it with the rice.

SETH: All right, and tell me about this uh, this rice here.

JULIE: So we call it heirloom garlic fried rice, so it's a mixture of jasmine rice and a forbidden rice.

SETH: What's forbidden rice?

JULIE: So forbidden rice back then, only rich people can eat the black rice in China.

SETH: But now it's available to the common folk here in DC?

JULIE: Yeah, yeah.

We're all equal, you know.

PAOLO: Now we want to make them feel like they're royalty.

JULIE: Yeah.

SETH: I think it's cool too, that both of you are chefs, but you clearly collaborate really well on putting this menu together.

And I think I've found that just through this whole process of this episode, the Filipino community, the chef community, it just seems like it's a really tight-knit group.

PAOLO: Yeah, most definitely.

For me, the restaurant is not about myself.

I think it showcases a deeper story than just mine.

That's what I really want to highlight here at the restaurant.

SETH: And also, you know, with the Philippines, so many islands, so many like, subspecialties.

PAOLO: Right.

SETH: I'm sure everyone's going to bring what they know from their background growing up.

PAOLO: Yeah, this is definitely not their mom's adobo for sure.

SETH: Well, as someone who doesn't have a lot of adobo in my background, this will be my new benchmark.

And I would happily come back for this time and time again.

Thank you so much to both of you.

PAOLO: Thank you for having us.

♪ ♪ SETH: I am next off to Herndon and a destination a bit off the beaten path, the Herndon Centennial Golf Course.

In the clubhouse of this public course, besides the usual golfer fair, Filipino breakfast dishes are being served up at Egg Karne.

ALVIN: While I was younger, my grandma and grandpa would live with us quite a bit.

And I would wake up in the mornings and smell garlic and onions and salt and pepper.

Based on that, I have great memories of breakfast Filipino foods, hence Egg Karne.

SETH: Egg Karne opened up shop in 2018.

ALVIN: This actually used to be a barbecue spot for decades.

And the town of Herndon wanted something new in here.

And they put a solicitation out there, I decided this could be a perfect opportunity to showcase Filipino cuisine, huge Asian community in this area.

And we thought, let's mix a little bit of Filipino and American, which I am, and see, see how it takes.

Filipino food has somewhat been an underdog in the Asian cuisine and done in the right way, it's amazing.

So I do think it's nice to see that the cuisine is really taking to the next level and it's getting recognized.

I have some golfers coming here, they order the Filipino food, you know, once, and then it's nice seeing them ordering it again, and they're getting away from the traditional golf food fair.

The Filipino foods are now their staple, their norm, right, that they order all the time.

SETH: I am heading to Egg Karne to try the signature dish made with ube, the purple yam native to the Philippines that's often used in desserts and is all the rage on social media.

But first, I can't resist the urge to take a few swings.

Not good ones though.

Maybe the practice green's a bit more my speed.

♪ ♪ Yeah!

Alvin.

ALVIN: Hey, welcome Seth.

Welcome to the Herndon Centennial Golf course and the restaurant Egg Karne.

SETH: Well, thank you so much.

It was a blast trying to hit some golf balls out there on the course, but I'm definitely hungry.

What are you guys making today?

ALVIN: Oh, we're making our signature dish, the ube burger, which is a Filipino breakfast sandwich.

SETH: Oh, I love breakfast sandwiches, so I'm excited to see the Filipino take on it.

Should we head in?

ALVIN: Yeah, let's go.

All right, Seth, now we're going to prep the ingredients for the ube burger and we're going to start with the ube potato right here.

SETH: Now I would've guessed an ube is purple.

ALVIN: No it's not.

When I cut it open, purple inside.

SETH: All right, let's see it.

Oh, wow.

That's like when you break open a rock and find the amethyst inside.

ALVIN: Yeah, it's been very popular lately here in the States, but it's always been used in the Philippines.

SETH: It's kind of a staple ingredient in Filipino cooking.

ALVIN: Yeah.

SETH: And how is the ube actually going to get into this burger?

ALVIN: What we're going to do is we're going to use the ube as the pancake batter and then use the pancake batter as the two buns.

SETH: All right, so we're talking about a Filipino McGriddle here?

ALVIN: Exactly.

My kids love the McGriddle and I made this dish because of my kids.

Before you got here, what we did is we went ahead and peeled the ube, boiled it down, mashed it up, and now we're going to put it into the blender.

SETH: All right.

ALVIN: As I'm doing this, I'm going to mash it down so it can blend a little bit better.

(whirring) So right now I'm just going to just scoop this out into the bowl.

It's very starchy and it has that beautiful smell and the color is amazing.

So right now let's, let's, let me add the rest of the wet ingredients.

So I'm going to start with the ube extract to give it a little more ube punch.

SETH: That's got a nice color.

ALVIN: Then some egg yolks, some condensed milk, egg whites, and some oil.

Now I'm going to grab this whisk and start mixing ingredients together.

And you can see that deep purple color.

SETH: I hope the cameras can pick up just how beautifully purple this thing is.

ALVIN: I'm going to mix it and mix it till it's somewhat smooth.

So let's go ahead and add our dry mix now.

And within the dry mix is flour, baking soda, and some brown sugar and a little bit of salt.

I'm going to give it a little mix.

SETH: Oh, this is a glossy, glossy batter.

ALVIN: Keep on mixing.

SETH: I love it.

ALVIN: Now the ube batter is done.

So last step, here's the homemade fresh longanisa.

It's made out of pork, some brown sugar and some garlic and some salt and pepper.

And we make it fresh homemade every day.

In the Philippines it's typically eaten for breakfast.

The garlic in this is the real key ingredient.

You get that punch.

So I'm going to flatten this out, make it into patties.

And then it's going to be ready for the cooktop.

You can actually see the garlic popping out of this.

SETH: Oh, nice.

ALVIN: You can smell it.

SETH: Oh yeah, everything here is so aromatic.

ALVIN: Now that it's done, I'm going to take the longanisa patties, cook them on the grill.

I'm going to cook the ube pancakes using ring molds.

Fry up two eggs.

Because it's the breakfast sandwich, we got to have some American cheese.

To finish it off, we're going to sprinkle some powdered sugar on top and then be ready to enjoy.

SETH: All right, Alvin, I can see why you call this thing ube burger and not an ube sandwich.

This looks substantial.

Can't wait to dig in.

Get outta here Alvin, all those flavors, the way the garlicky longanisa plays with the sweetness of that ube bun, to that runny egg, it's pretty, but also delicious.

ALVIN: Yeah, you should try it with the ube syrup that we have there, made with some of our ube extract and some powdered sugar.

SETH: Drizzle it right on top?

ALVIN: Drizzle right on and just go ahead and eat it.

SETH: Oh my god.

ALVIN: It's not the cleanest dish in the world when you bite into it, but it's really delicious.

SETH: Well, it'll be a true miracle if I can get out of this segment without getting any of that ube on my shirt.

This is easily the messiest thing I've ever eaten on this show.

But the ube syrup gives it that really nice extra little burst of sweetness.

That's great.

So is breakfast, is that just a really big part of Filipino cuisine and culture?

ALVIN: Oh, yeah.

And going through some of the dishes.

This is a silog bowl, which is just a garlic fried rice with adobo pork belly with lumpia, which is a Filipino egg roll and a runny egg.

And this is very typical of what you see in a Filipino breakfast.

SETH: And this is pork belly in there?

ALVIN: Yeah, it's adobo pork belly.

And there's some pickled vegetables there.

Another dish right here is spam fries.

It's just literally spam cut up and deep-fried.

SETH: Well, that I definitely got to try.

I think I see the common thread here.

You got a little salt, a little garlic, but also the sweetness.

Nice real balance of flavors there.

So have you converted a lot of golfers to becoming fans of Filipino cuisine?

ALVIN: Yeah, when we first opened five years ago, we had people mispronouncing silog and lumpia.

They wanted to see the hot dogs and hamburgers.

And over time we've had some golfers that is their staple of Filipino dishes.

They enjoy it a lot.

SETH: Well, this is like no 19th hole that I've ever come to before.

And even though I'm not a golfer, I'm definitely going to have to come back and try even more of these Filipino foods.

Thank you, Alvin.

ALVIN: Oh, you're welcome.

♪ ♪ SETH: To wrap things up, I'm heading to the outskirts of the DMV and what I'd consider a real hidden gem.

My destination, Chantilly, Virginia.

In the food court of the Lotte Plaza market is F&F Filipino Fusion.

The stall is run by Irene Bautista Cuison, whose career began at a 7-Eleven before she decided to follow her dreams.

IRENE: When I was working at 7-Eleven, I was promoted to become a 7-Eleven store manager.

So I stayed there for 15 years and then I said, "Oh, time is up, we need to move on."

So I went to a culinary school.

SETH: After culinary school, Irene worked odd restaurant and catering jobs before deciding to open F&F in 2021.

IRENE: F&F was born it's because of the pandemic and catering in the offices, it went down.

So I told my sister, I said, "Well, we need to get out and find someplace."

So we went around, shopped around, and then we said, "Oh well this is our market."

Mostly restaurants in the area, Filipino restaurants they are called turo turo.

It's like a cafeteria style restaurant.

And I want to make it different.

I want to have a Filipino bistro.

But my Filipino food, it's got a twist of French, since I went to a French culinary school.

Sharing a Filipino food to the public is nice experience.

Before, if you get a job, you struggle to get up in the morning.

That's different to me, when I get up in the morning, yes, it's another day for the restaurants and serve people.

♪ ♪ SETH: Irene, nice to meet you.

IRENE: Nice to meet you Seth.

Welcome to the F&F.

SETH: Well, thank you.

Beautiful colors on the cutting board here and a shiny whole fish.

What are you making today?

IRENE: We are making a bangus sisig.

SETH: I've heard of sisig, but what's bangus?

IRENE: Bangus is a national fish of the Philippines.

It's also known as milk fish.

And it's mostly popular in my hometown.

And we even celebrated a festival for this.

SETH: A festival for bangus?

Well, that's pretty cool.

IRENE: Yes, yes.

SETH: I didn't even even know that a country could have a national fish.

And so how are you going to prepare this sisig dish?

IRENE: Oh, we have to sear this bangus with butter, because that's what I learned from France.

So we're going to use a little bit of a French influence to it.

So using butter is one of them.

SETH: All right.

And you're going to be cooking this fish up whole?

IRENE: Yes, yes.

So this is the clarified butter.

So we have to season the bangus, salt and pepper.

SETH: And everything stays on, head, tail, whole fish?

IRENE: Whole fish, we have to.

We're just going to have to cook the meat inside.

We don't want to overcook it.

SETH: It's a nice little gentle cooking that you're doing.

You're not looking for too hard of a sear on this.

IRENE: No, no, no.

SETH: So you're kind of basting over the top too, to make sure that the butter's cooking the top of the fish as well.

IRENE: Yes.

The meat is absorbing more butter.

SETH: Oh, okay.

Can never have too much butter in a dish.

IRENE: Yes.

SETH: And it's getting a nice color on top too.

IRENE: Yes.

When you want to eat the bangus, you have to call ahead two hours ahead or pre-order the next day, because we have to debone it.

SETH: All right, well that's a really important note for the viewers at home.

If you want the signature dish, make sure to let you know they're coming.

IRENE: Okay, Seth, this is done.

It's already cooked inside, so we're just ready to pick up the meat from the skin.

SETH: Beautiful.

IRENE: Seth, can you pass me that bamboo tray please?

SETH: All right.

IRENE: We have to be gentle because we don't want to break it.

Take that away.

Ready to take the meat out, separate it.

Bangus have so many bones so I make sure that there's no bones goes to the meat.

I reserve this belly part.

I don't want to mix it in there, because it's the most um, flavorful of the bangus.

SETH: Okay, perhaps you and I could snack on that while we're cooking?

IRENE: Try this.

There's always one in the family that always go for that.

SETH: Oh, that part is so tender.

Wow.

There's a lot of work just to make this one dish.

IRENE: Yes, yes, yes.

But it's worth it, it's worth the wait.

SETH: I don't doubt it.

Wow, I'm still thinking about that belly piece.

IRENE: This part of the fish, we're going to make it crispy.

SETH: Oh, nice.

IRENE: I'm ready to deep-fry this.

SETH: All right.

IRENE: So Seth, while this is cooking, now we're going to be adding the shallots.

I use this shallot because it has a light taste instead of onion.

SETH: Another little bit of French influence with the shallots too?

IRENE: Yes, yes, yes.

And we going to get some ginger.

Do you like more ginger?

SETH: I love ginger.

IRENE: All right, so am I. SETH: You know what?

Think I'm going to love whatever you put in this dish.

IRENE: Oh, okay, good.

And then just a little bit of garlic.

So we're just have to mix that.

And then a little bit more of seasoning.

And then we have some of this fresh lemon juice.

And while this is marinating, can you hand me that fresh bamboo tray, please?

SETH: Fresh bamboo, you got it.

IRENE: I'm going to go grab the skin now.

This is ready.

SETH: Oh-ho-ho.

IRENE: Now it's really crispy.

SETH: Beautifully deep-fried.

I love it.

It's got those nice tender chunks of belly meat too.

IRENE: Yes, yes.

Okay, now we're going to put some scallion, just half.

And then some capers, it came from French as well.

SETH: I think I've counted four or five different French influences.

IRENE: Hey, Seth, let's put some Hollandaise in here.

In the Philippines they use is mayonnaise, but since I got the French influence to it, I just put some Hollandaise.

SETH: Everything about this dish is your own unique spin on it, I love that.

IRENE: Yes, yes.

All right, what about spiciness?

SETH: Oh, spice for sure.

IRENE: Okay, let's put a couple in there.

SETH: Don't be shy.

IRENE: All right, I think we're ready.

Okay, let's just plate it.

SETH: I've seen a lot of dishes on this show, chef.

This is definitely near the top in terms of unique presentation.

IRENE: Yes, thank you.

Last thing I'm going to do is fry some eggs sunny side up.

And then we're going to put that on top of the sisig, garnish it with the three flowers.

And now I'm just going to add the steamed rice and we'll be ready to enjoy.

SETH: All right, Irene, this dish is beautiful.

It's almost a shame we have to take it apart to eat it.

IRENE: Oh, that's all right.

It's supposed to be, it's meant to be.

So what we are going to do is we're just going to break that egg to let that egg yolk melt all over the fish.

SETH: More mixing.

IRENE: Mixing like that.

SETH: So we get egg in the hollandaise.

IRENE: Yes, exactly.

And then now it's up to you, just to get in.

SETH: Dig it.

IRENE: This is the belly.

SETH: I'm going to go for some belly.

IRENE: You get the good part.

SETH: Oh, thank you.

Thank you, chef.

IRENE: There you go and get some rice.

SETH: Some rice.

IRENE: I'm going to put some on my plate here.

SETH: All right.

I'm excited to try this.

IRENE: How was it?

SETH: Oh, that is a stand-out dish.

The fish has such a nice mild flavor, but the egg and the capers, it has a really velvety, silky texture to it.

All that extra lemon juice you added really gives it a nice brightness as well.

IRENE: Thank you.

Be careful on those peppers though.

SETH: Are those Thai Birdseye chilies?

IRENE: Yes, yes.

SETH: They'll get you?

IRENE: I try to avoid them, because when you take a bite of that one... SETH: I'm going to be bold today.

Try a little pepper with it.

Ooh.

IRENE: Pretty spicy, huh?

SETH: Oh yeah.

The pepper will get you.

I just keep coming back to how luxurious that is with the Hollandaise.

IRENE: Well, you know, it's the French way of cooking, more butter.

SETH: Love it.

And I also love about this, I feel like every time I go to a Filipino restaurant, I try a new version of a dish, even if it's something I've had before, a new take on it, a new variation.

IRENE: Yes, because the thing is, Philippines have so many islands.

In my hometown alone is already have 100 islands.

So if you jump into a boat and go to a different island, you probably make the sisig a different way.

And then go to another island, it's going to be different way.

SETH: Well, I think I might have to make a little journey to the Philippines and just go island hopping, so I could try all the different variations.

IRENE: You know what the best part is?

It's this head.

Look at this head.

I usually eat this.

SETH: You just go right for the head?

All right, I'm going to give it a shot.

All right, we're eating fish heads today on Signature Dish.

IRENE: Crispy, right?

SETH: A lot of extra flavor in that skin as well.

IRENE: Because you got that cheek in the fish.

SETH: Almost as tender as the belly.

This is the second time on the show that I've eaten a fish eyeball.

IRENE: I was about to tell you to avoid the eyeball, but... SETH: It happened once before at a Malaysian restaurant, so I'm used to it.

IRENE: I see that episode.

SETH: Yeah.

Are people surprised when they come here?

I mean, you really raised the game for a supermarket food court.

IRENE: I mean, a lot of people are surprised when they come in here and they said, "Oh, the food is here is good."

They're just so surprised that it's inside the grocery store.

But, you know, I have to work on what I have.

But it's in my goal to just open up another restaurant close to Washington DC.

SETH: Well, I'll be looking out for you.

Thanks chef.

IRENE: Thank you.

Thank you, Seth.

(music plays through credits) ♪ ♪ ANNOUNCER: To find out more about great food in the Washington Metro area, visit weta.org/signaturedish.