THE MANILA FOOD AND WINE FESTIVAL 2013: CHEF ROBBY GOCO OF CYMA RESTAURANT TAKES ON THE ORANGE TRUCK WITH ITALIAN PORCHETTA AT THE FOOD TRUCK CHALLENGE

Sinfully filling: Chef Robby's Porchetta is such a MASTERPIECE!

Chef Robby Goco of CYMA Restaurant (Greek Taverna) joins the very first Food Truck Challenge at the upcoming Manila Food and Wine Festival from February 22 to 25 2013 to be held at the SM Mall of Asia Complex, Block 12. Chef Robby along with other celebrity guests will be preparing sumptuous dishes with different twists. Foodies, gourmets and gourmands around the corner of this town will certainly be delighted as these chefs take on the challenge where creativity meets deliciously prepared foods on the Food Truck Challenge.

 For this special event, just for a change, Chef Robby introduces the concept of gourmet street food with his Italian specialty. Chef Robby will present his take on Porchetta--more popularly known as "Italian Pulled Pork" made of savory, fatty, and moist boneless pork roast of Italian Culinary tradition, spiced with garlic, rosemary, fennel and other secret herbs.

Chef Robby puts some twist into this Italian dish by using the Fiesta favorite Lechon, spiced and dressed with caramelized onions or shallots and wild arugula to suit the Filipino palate. To enjoy this Porchetta more, customers can add fried eggs on top of these deliciously filled hefty sandwiches that's sure to be enough for your lunch or dinner. An order of porchetta is enough to be shared by four because it's really huge in servings and size.

Deliciously filling and really tasty Lechon in this Porchetta.

"This version of Porchetta in a way brings together two worlds of culinary tradition--the Italian spiced pulled pork in a sandwich and Filipino's all-time fiesta favorite lechon. We serve Porchetta in a freshly baked bun with potato wedges to make it a complete sandwich meal that is very tasty and filling," said Chef Robby. 'We know how Filipinos love lechon, the Porchetta now comes another way for us to enjoy our lechon, " adds Chef Robby.

The Porchetta with its wild arugula filling.

As a food blogger, I had been one of the first few lucky ones who were able to try eating the Porchetta and I must say that this sandwich is literally bursting with flavors. It had everything you'll ever wanted to have: it could be sweet, sour, salty, bitter and even the umami taste falls off in every bite of this ciabatta sandwich with porchetta and wild arugula filling. Yes, it's like a rollercoaster of flavors on your tongue that pretty excites your tastebuds. No worries though because the wild arugula does seem to balance off the flavors as its cleans your palate. And it goes pretty fun trying to mix and match the porchetta with its different dips and sauces that goes along with each order--there's an aoili dressing, a roasted eggplant and red bell pepper based sauce, verde sauce (made up of parsley and coriander) and liver sauce. So in the end, this porchetta sandwich can either be spicy, subtle, sweet or salty--it all depends on how you mix and match the sauces that goes with it. But the porchetta filling in itself could be so addicting that you'll certainly come back and ask for more!

The Verde sauce that complements the flavor of the Porchetta.

Don't mistake this porchetta dish as somewhat similar to pritchon. The similarity ends with lechon being the filling. The crisp and crunchy lechon bites and the tangy sweet taste complements the sourness of the ciabatta bread. It's like giving customers a surprise--like opening a present on your birthday--the more you bite into the bread, the more it gets better in taste. I am terribly sorry that my photos doesn't seem to do justice for the Porchetta's taste. But to imagine its taste, just think of Cebu's finest lechon only this time it's herbed,  in a crusty ciabatta bread with sweet shallots or caramelized onion and on a bed of green salad (remember the wild arugula leaves). I could not simply explain how good it is. But it is the best tasting sandwich I had ever tasted in my entire life. You may forget everything I ever wrote about sandwiches here, but not Chef Robby's Porchetta. It'll surely be a hit among lechon-loving Filipinos.

The Italian Pulled Pork in all its glory.

 I wish No Reservations' Anthony Bourdain could also try to taste this Porchetta.  I'm sure since he loved Cebu's lechon, he'd definitely loved this dish as well.  The Porchetta, served as the Italian Roast Pork Sandwich, will be Chef Robby's offering at his Orange Truck at the Food Truck Challenge, which will be the kick-off events of The Manila Food and Wine Festival 2013. The Food Truck Challenge will pit some of the best Filipino chefs to test their culinary prowess, skill and food creativity.

Chef Robby gamely shows off The Italian Pulled Pork.

The Manila Food and Wine Festival 2013 carries the theme Cooking Revolution and is geared towards positioning Filipinos as the Global Culinary Revolutionists. It is only in the philippines where every other person you meet either cooks great food, peddles amazing dishes or loves great treats with or without occasions to speak of.

The Manila Food and Wine Festival 2013 is spearheaded by the Culinary Education Foundation founded by Annie Pascual-Guerrero.

When you go to The Manila Food and Wine Festival, don't forget to drop by The Orange Truck where you could eat Chef Robby Goco's Porchetta on Ciabatta with gusto. I assure you guys that you'll definitely love it!

Let's all support Chef Robby and his amazing Porchetta! Sinfully satisfying and you'll never go "umay", (read: tired of eating it.) I could vouch for Porchetta's taste--so fork tender and truly filling. It's a foodie's dream come true.

Tickets for Chef Robby 's Porchetta can be purchased online and on-site. Please visit www.mfwf.ph for more info on how to buy tickets. Be at the Manila food and Wine Festival 2013 in orange to avail exciting freebies! Online ticket is sold at P250, on-site ticket is at P350. 


Security Blanket thanks Ms. Lynda Consigo, Outbound PR, Cyma Restaurant and Chef Robby Goco. 

Disclaimer: I am not compensated for this post. Opinions expressed are 100% my own.