SALT OF THE SEA
AN EXCITING NEW CULINARY PROGRAM INTRODUCES LUXURY-CRUISE PASSENGERS TO THE SOUL OF A DESTINATION VIA ITS FOOD. BY ALEXANDRA CARLTON.
Exploring the dramatic coastline (left) and white-sand beaches (above) of the island of Palawan in the Philippines
I’m bItIng into the squeaky, shiny flesh of something that looks almost exactly like a raw capsicum – but isn’t one. It’s the fruit of the cashew tree. And until this moment, standing in the dusty central square of a rural village on the island of Coron in the Philippines’ Palawan archipelago, I had no idea cashew nuts grew from firm orange and yellow fruits the size of small apples. Or that the fruit is tart on the tongue, especially when you juice it with a bit of salt and vinegar as the locals do here. And if no-one had told me the stubby little cashew protruding from the top of the fruit is poisonous in its raw state, I probably would have eaten it and not been around to tell the tale.
Thankfully, I’m here trialling a culinary experience called Sea and Land Taste (S.A.L.T.) that will be offered by cruise line Silversea (silversea.com) in 2020. I’m chaperoned away from the deadly nut and handed a wedge of floury kurot (white yam that’s been cured in seawater for three days) followed by a slice of sweet just-picked mango and a mug of chocolatey coffee. The entire experience is exotic – and teaches me that the people around here can make coffee that would put any Roman or Melburnian barista to shame.
“This is not the sort of place tourists come,” we’re told by our guide for the Filipino part of our journey, local-food evangelist Clang Garcia. In many ways, she could be talking about S.A.L.T. itself, which allows guests to get elbow-deep into regional cuisines with chin-dripping, lip-smacking gusto. In our case, it’s aboard the luxurious 298-cabin Silver Muse, which travels from the Philippines capital, Manila, past the islands of Palawan and on to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia before finishing in Singapore.
The program began when the company realised its guests are united by a love of food. But where another cruise line might have used this information to retro fit its ship with yet another celebrity-chefstamped restaurant or an upscale champagne bar, Silversea had grander plans. The company called on former Saveur magazine editor-in-chief Adam Sachs to curate an optional program that will launch on its newest ship, Silver Moon, in August 2020. It brings a destination’s food on board via cooking demonstrations, special menus and lectures by local experts and includes premier culinary adventures. “The idea is that you can do as much or as little as you like,” Sachs explains. “If you’re really into food then you do it all. If you just want to dip in and out, you can do that, too.”
You can also decide exactly how intrepid you want to be. Pampering is part of Silversea’s DNA – it always comes first – so my game of cashew roulette in Palawan is about as gonzo-gourmet as S.A.L.T. gets. The other land excursions we take could only be described as exquisitely, extraordinarily lavish, from visiting fivestar restaurants and enjoying bountiful banquets to lively market jaunts, all designed to take guests “deeper into luxury”, according to the Silversea representatives.
Even before we board the Muse, the small group of S.A.L.T. taste-testers is reeling, our food expedition having started with a bang: a seven-course dégustation at Manila’s Toyo Eatery. The tiny concrete-floored restaurant holds 43rd position on the 2019 Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list and we soon see why.
The group is guided through a playful maze of reinterpreted Filipino flavours. A tomato meringue with jackfruit and dried fish
and a trio of pork cuts with vinegar dipping sauce is accompanied by colourful, translucent cocktails made with ginger, whisky and basi (sugarcane wine). We exclaim in surprised delight over every curious morsel. During the final course our servers burst into song, which they somehow manage to make more charming than cheesy.
On the paradisal island of Coron, under the rowdy guidance of Nicole Ponseca, a New York-based Filipino-American restaurateur and author, we’re shown upstairs to the sunny terrace of The Funny Lion resort. A 20-seat table is covered in a river of white rice spread on banana leaves and overflowing with waterfalls of prawns, squid, swordfish, grilled pork belly and vegetables. It’s a Filipino style of food presentation called kamayan, which loosely translates, as far as we can tell, to “eat as much of everything as humanly possible with your hands”.
“Have you tried the sea grapes?” urges Ponseca, her eyes bright with the excitement of showing off the food she loves to make and eat. “Drag them though the vinegar like this. And this? This coffee is brewed right here with local cashew milk.” It’s a privilege to not only feast on this magnificent produce but also have it demystified by someone so passionate.
In Malaysia we perch on plastic stools to breakfast – breakfast! – on thick spicy laksa and ipoh noodles. Then we walk off approximately five per cent of our consumed calories with a wander through a lively fish market piled with parrot fish and fat tuna. For lunch, high in the mountains, there are yet more tables laden with curries and rice.
When we disembark in Singapore, we make a beeline for a hawkers market, where we descend on plates of Hainanese chicken rice as though we haven’t been eating constantly since we left Manila seven days ago. Then we drive to a cooking class and another banquet, this time served from ceramic dishes salvaged from an 18th-century Chinese shipwreck. There’s an almost Lewis Carrolllike wonderment to these new sights and tastes.
On board, between daily classes – where Ponseca teaches us about the “funk” of Filipino food (mostly derived from fermented fish) and Singaporean-food expert Annette Tan unlocks the secrets of the delicate local sweets known as kueh – we’re strongly encouraged to keep eating.
Bottomless champagne, endless caviar and a generous roomservice menu are available night and day as a voyage inclusion. They can either be sampled on deck, in any of the eight dining venues or delivered to your suite by a personal butler.
Our journey must end in Singapore. As I farewell my shipmates, I think back to something Tan told us about how people in her country eat every day. “In Singapore, you put something in your mouth every 20 minutes,” she said with a laugh. “You eat. You get stuffed. And three hours later you eat again.” After seven days of S.A.L.T., we’re all Singaporean now.