Cocina Filipina to serve authentic cuisine at Qatar extravaganza

By Joey Aguilar/Staff Reporter Invited for the second time by the Qatar Tourism Authority, Cocina Filipina will be serving a variety of authentic Filipino dishes at the Qatar International Food Festival, which will held be from March 28 to 31 at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) Park in Doha. The restaurant will showcase some of the favourite Filipino food items, which are popular among other nationalities as well, including Arabs, Indians and Pakistanis. In a food-tasting activity yesterday, Cocina owner Violeta Abdon told Gulf Times that they will be serving crispy pata and barbeque spareribs at the upcoming festival, two of their bestsellers. Culture attaché Richard Billedo and vice-consul Kristine Bautista  of the Philippines embassy, who were invited to the said activity, praised Cocina for making it to the food festival for the second time.   Besides these specialties, they will also prepare monggo and smoked fish, bistik (beef steak) pinoy, sisig, beef nilaga (boiled with some vegetables) beef kaldereta (with spicy sauce), lumpiang sariwa (thinly sliced fresh carrots, other vegetables and tofu), chicken barbeque, bopis (chopped beef), and pancit bihon (thin noodles with vegetables). Sisig is one of the favorite dishes among Filipino families and usually served in various gatherings both in Qatar and in the Philippines. “We can assure our customers that the food we serve is healthy because we use olive oil in cooking,” said Violeta. Cocina will also serve some of the native Filipino snacks and delicacies like halo-halo, sapin-sapin, ube, cassava cake and puto-kutsinta.   Dubbed as “Cooking is More Fun in the Philippines”, a Bahay Kubo (Nipa hut) will house Cocina during the four-day festival to make it more attractive and have a native touch. In the same event, she recounted that HH Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser visited their booth first and tasted some of the delicacies, such as sapin-sapin. “She even asked what are the ingredients used and how it is made.” They also thanked the Filipino community for its support in promoting the country’s native cuisine in Qatar.