Have you met the food truck king?

September 13, few Saturdays ago, I couldn’t believe the food truck king would come to Manila! Yes, I’m a fan of his wit and culinary skills. The fan girl in me had to say “Yes” immediately after receiving the invitation to attend the private dinner with Toronto’s pop-up and food truck king. I cleared up my schedule and enthusiastically sent my Yes message to attend this event.

Wait a minute, I know you’re quite bothered who am I blabbering about. For those of you who follow my instagram regularly, I believe you’ve seen some of my food posts about this dinner. I’m not gonna drive you to the left and to the right anymore. Ladies and gents, let me introduce to you Toronto’s Food Truck King, Matt Basile!

I’m a big fan of the movie “Chef.” Matt Basile resembles to what I saw in the movie, all about making Cuban-styled sandwiches popular through his pop-up cooking and food truck. Priscilla, his food truck, roves around the city supplying hungry customers with delectable and robust sandwiches with equally delicious sides. Matt’s food truck is well-loved in Toronto. This genius idea became a hit! He also opened his flagship restaurant Lisa Marie, one of his pride and joy. And look at Matt now, making waves with his own show called, “Rebel Without A Kitchen.”

Asian Food Channel (AFC) brought Matt to Asia, including the Philippines, as part of the “Matt Basile’s Kitchen Revolution” tour. For his first night with us Filipinos, he appeared at a private one-night only dinner at Chef Jessie Rockwell, supported by The Balvenie, handcrafted single malt Scotch whisky. The Balvenie is also the only whisky distillery in Scotland to still employ the five traditional crafts in making a single malt Scotch whisky.

According to Matt, the challenge in cooking for us was to source local ingredients for his ideal 5-course dinner. I know what he means. Being used to cooking in Toronto would be a big adjustment here in the southeast portion of the world. The hype didn’t take too long. After a short while, the awaited 5-course meal began.

Tangy sweet flavors of baby octopus merged with citrus pulps coming from blood orange. Thumbs up for a starter!

No, they’re not heart-shaped meat. Literally, we’re talking about beef hearts. I wouldn’t know they’re seriously beef hearts if I won’t read the dish description. You’d probably identify it like a tender beef skewer.

Served with bread, a soothing soup to take a pause before entering the main courses of the night. While I listened to the strong raindrops from the outside of Chef Jessie, the soup kept me warm and loose on my seat.

O and I were mesmerized with the large chunk of Moroccan Beef Tenderloin. As it was uniquely partnered with pistachios and edamame mash, the fresh idea of Matt Basile raised the bar in how tenderloins are served.

O shared with me half of this medium cooked steak.

I thought the steak was enough to enchant me. It continued as I was magically engaged in the huge serving of Salt & Vinegar Prawns with Pickled Cipolini.

Matt Basile perfected the blend of sweet & spicy and how Asians will positively react to this type of plate.

Assumed instantly that peanut butter was going to be used in my dessert, from the word Elvis alone. As we all know, the sensational Elvis Presley’s favorite snack was peanut butter and banana (with or without bacon) sandwich. Matt used a mason jar to put a kick on how desserts are supposed to be eaten. It wasn’t that impressive but I still say it’s a good way to finish the 5-course meal.

The 5-course meal surely matched the setting of Chef Jessie’s sophisticated theme. But you know what I think Matt could have cooked better, his legit Cuban-styled sandwiches!!! I hope he made one for us, Pinoy style!

What is it with us pinoys and balut? Well, it’s the challenge that we love giving to foreigners visiting our town. For us, it’s an easy peesy pie to eat and finish our exotic balut, a developing duck embryo that is boiled alive and eaten in the shell.

Matt Basile accepted the challenge of finish one whole balut!

Added a little salt to taste.

Placed the entire balut inside his mouth like a winner! To wash it all down, he gulped a shot of whiskey.

Now I can’t figure if he enjoyed or not with a face like this after eating. Hehe.

Dinner with smart and witty chefs and foodies made my Matt Basile experience more special.

Join Matt Basile in his action-packed food adventures through the city of Toronto.

Catch Rebel Without A Kitchen (Season 2) on Asian Food Channel. You would love to add another show to your list of favorite foodie shows.

Cheers,

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Twitter: @fidelgastros

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