I n the process of producing my fifth cookbook, “Also Filipino: 75 Regional Dishes I Never Had Growing Up,” I often wondered what it would be like to have a restaurant offering items such as the pagulong at pasayan, which is a shrimp and sigarilyas in coconut cream delicacy from Sorsogon; bakas na papar, fish in turmeric coconut, which I learned in Tawi-tawi; and even chicken pepitoria, a liver and gizzard dish served in fiestas in Cavite. It would be the ultimate Filipino restaurant, I thought, as it culls lesser-known regional dishes, far from the usual suspects—sinigang, kare-kare and kaldereta.
Years later, I would revisit this idea when I got offered to open shop in Boracay, inside the Henry Hotel in Station 2. Since the establishment is a homegrown brand and champions anything and everything local, it made perfect sense for me to immortalize the cookbook in the form of a restaurant serving a better representation of our cuisine.
Last Aug. 12, together with my business partners, restaurateur Happy Ongpauco-Tiu, barista champion Sly Samonte of Lick in El Nido, and Subic-based businessman and café owner Julius Escalona, I opened Háin.
I surveyed similar restaurants on the island and found many to be serving the same fare. I wanted to attract the same Filipino food-loving crowd but offer them something familiar and new, and so I decided to turn to the regional items that, I believe, customers will come to love.
There’s chicken binakol, which many know as chicken cooked in lemongrass-flavored coconut water, but Háin’s is Aklan-style, which is soured with batwan. Other Háin iterations extend to desserts, where the palitaw is crowned with bukayo to form the delicacy called inday inday, enjoyed by the Malaynons.
Provincial food
Provincial food is some of the best I’ve ever had and so I made sure to include a handful. Hopefully, people’s curiosity will allow us to add more to the list.
As of the moment, there’s a boiled vegetable soup from Iloilo called laswa, Bacolod’s popular chicken inasal, the rich balbacua from Cebu, a Mindanao grilled chicken number that’s cooked in burnt coconut and oil called chicken pianggang, and a handful other Aklanon specialties such as linapay or shrimp and coconut wrapped in taro leaves, bindunggo or cow’s innards in a slightly bitter broth, and inubarang manok, a saucy dish made with banana pith.
Our sinigang relies on the sharpness of three agents—a balanced mix of libas leaves, batwan and pinya, while our pancit batil patung from Tuguegarao comes with a side of gravy, not the usual egg drop soup, to further lubricate the noodles.
For breakfast, we offer our localized version of the beloved nasi lemak where fragrant coconut rice is served as a set with spicy dilis, fried egg, sambal, peanuts, prawn cracker, vegetables and a Pinoy protein—a choice between inasal na liempo, chicken adobo confit, barako bistek or a bangus patty with laing sauce.
Whimsical cocktails, desserts
Not wanting to be constrained by tradition, there are some plates which we playfully reworked as well, such as kare-kare and Bicol express that primarily feature seafood, calamares covered with cereal, and pork chop dredged in crushed cornik. Our fall-off-the-bone ribs are smothered with a coffee glaze, the palabok has an aligue sauce, our fried chicken is sinampalukan, and our crispy pata is braised in humba broth before being deep-fried.
The beverages and desserts elicit the same whimsy. Our maruya is in the shape of a disc, topped with homemade coconut ice cream; our turon is filled with biko; and our brownie is injected with the flavor of tablea.
We carry a cocktail called Boracay Penicillin that fuses whiskey with ginger turmeric syrup and calamansi juice, and a Nasty Piñaholada that combines pineapple syrup, rum, horchata and coconut milk.
The café has its own space separate from the main dining area so guests have the option to choose their spot. Wherever it may be, they’ll be shaded by the lush greenery and tall trees that surround the area.
Háin may not exactly be the kind of restaurant I thought of when I was producing my cookbook, but it certainly makes for the best one given the conditions on the island. And my partners and I are very happy of the outcome. Hopefully, the guests will feel the same. INQHáin is located inside The Henry Hotel in Station 2, Boracay, up a small ramp across the Fiesta Outlet, in between Azalea and the Hennan Lagoon Resort; tel 0976-3630161.
Follow the author at @fooddudeph on Instagram.
Angelo Comsti writes the Inquirer Lifestyle column Tall Order. He was editor of F&B Report magazine.
