Adobo-flavored chocolate chip cookies? Count us in! This month, Guevarra’s by Chef Laudico has collaborated with Filipino-American chef and author Abi Balingit to bring recipes from her James Beard-awarded book Mayumu to life. Chef Balingit’s recipes feature Filipino desserts with innovative twists that will pique your curiosity.
While Guevarra’s is known for their traditional Filipino menu, this partnership between Chef Balingit and Chef Jac Laudico is an exciting marriage of beloved Filipino desserts and American innovation. However, it’s not only a collaboration of chefs, but a fusion of traditional and modern concepts. “The dishes showcased, which are featured in Abi’s book, reflect a fresh and exciting take on Filipino flavors. We’re thrilled to have these desserts as part of our offering,” Chef Laudico shared excitedly.
“It was such an honor to travel to Manila and collaborate with Chef Jac,” Chef Balingit expressed gratefully, mentioning how this collaboration was special to her as it happened during the week of the second anniversary of Mayumu‘s release.
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Adobo Chocolate Chip Cookies
The key ingredients of your standard adobo are soy sauce, vinegar, and bay leaves. At first glance, mixing these savory flavors in desserts such as a chocolate chip cookie feels almost sacrilegious. However, it’s almost a similar situation to how salted caramel is made. Salt emphasizes the sweetness of the caramel, and we can expect the same emphasis with soy sauce, but this time with added umami.
Chef Balingit is meticulous with the making of this cookie. She infused brown butter with bay leaves for a delicious herbal quality, added soy sauce and a touch of vinegar to the cookie dough to create a savory and umami depth, used pink peppercorns—more floral and fruity than the traditional black peppercorns used in adobo—paired with bits of dark chocolate. The result is a mouthwatering fusion of flavors that could rival the salted caramel. It is such an irresistible treat that you might just want to skip the main course for it.
Halo-halo Baked Alaska
The appeal of the halo-halo is its many ingredients in shaved ice, topped with ube ice cream and a slice of decadent leche flan, making it the perfect summer treat. A Baked Alaska, on the other hand, is a dessert that consists of ice cream, cake, and the beautiful browned meringue layered all around the dome. Combine these two desserts and you get layers of chilled decadence that will melt in your mouth.
This dessert is your traditional Baked Alaska with torched Swiss meringue, but with the flavors of halo-halo. Inside are layers of tempting tropical flavors such as ube and mango ice cream. It’s definitely a refreshing and creamy treat, especially with the heat index rising.
Thai Tea Kutsinta
Whether it’s biko, sapin-sapin, ginataang bilo-bilo, or palitaw, there’s a colorful kakanin for everyone. During the collaboration of Chefs Laudico and Balingit, they took the sticky kutsinta and swapped out the annatto with Thai tea, not necessarily Western but is popular outside Asia, to keep the kutsinta’s color and introduce a new flavor profile.
For a bold and earthy taste, Thai tea leaves are steeped in hot water and mixed into the batter with the rice flour, tapioca starch, brown sugar, and lye water for the chewy texture. Chef Balingit’s re-imagination of the kutsinta is more of the familiar combination of brown sugar boba and Thai tea, finished off with a drizzle of condensed milk and a generous amount of coconut shavings.
These three desserts are products of Chef Balingit’s deep connection to her heritage, mixing her Filipino roots with her American identity. Having her creations reach the traditional Filipino menu of Guevarra’s is a significant step toward the endless possibilities for innovation in both Filipino desserts and cuisine.
Don’t forget to reserve a table at Guevarra’s in San Juan before March ends to get a taste of Chef Balingit’s reimagined Pinoy favorites!
Photos courtesy of NYOU PH
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