Rare Pizza Philippines — Pinakbet Pizza
Pinakbet. It’s a regional dish in the northern Philippine province of Ilocos Norte composed of chopped native vegetables — bitter gourd, okra, string beans, eggplant, sweet potato, tomatoes and bits of either pork or fish simmered and seasoned with fermented anchovy sauce.
Now fish sauce has a funky, salty smell packed with umami flavor and the dish, eaten with steamed rice, is a taste that might might take some acquiring. In the Ilocos region, however, it is a staple much like the humble Ratatouille is in the south of France. Although Ratatouille is seasonal, Pinakbet is eaten year-round and quite frequent — the at least once in a week kind of frequent.
Pinakbet Pizza was born and the local topsy turvy
A typical pizza dough, a bit of tomato sauce and mozzarella, then topped with half-cooked pinakbet (to give them further time to shrivel in the oven). Sam specifically puts the mozzarella under the vegetables to give them visibility. From his oven comes a crispy, thin crust, perfect pinakbet pizza. In his restaurant he serves it accompanied by chili oil and bagoong (anchovy sauce) so people can drizzle their pizza to taste.
Upon hearing about the Pinakbet Pizza, question marks flailed and indignations grew. The confused locals asked — how can you turn pinakbet into Pizza??? How can that be possible??? Pinakbet with mozzarella cheese??? Pinakbet on a Pizza dough??? Pinakbet baked in the oven??? Does it have fish sauce???? Where is this made???? Who is this Sam???
The man who created the Funky Pizza
In the year 2000 Sammy Blas, born in this same province, came back to the country after 17 years of work in San Francisco, California. He grew up in Ilocos but studied and worked in Manila before moving to the United States. In the melting pot, his experience in the culinary expanded and so did his palate. His stint in the hotel and culinary scene prompted him to start his own hotel in Laoag City, the Balay de Blas and a restaurant he setup with friends in the City of Paoay called the Herencia Café. Eventually he created his very own restaurant called Saramsam. The restaurant was meant to serve local dishes but Sam, armed with a wealth of food knowledge and experience, wanted to forego the usual ways and he decided to jazz things up. After some kitchen experimentations he finally perfected a fusion: Pizza and Pinakbet among other deconstructed traditional dishes.
The new pride of the locals
Sam said there was a very low acceptance of the dish in the get go. Many of the locals were adamant not to try his Pinakbet Pizza as some kind of silent protest but Sam was unperturbed. It was a TV show that changed the minds of the people. This when a national news crew from Manila (Philippine Capital)-based TV Patrol came by his restaurant, a reporter named Nina Corpuz, together with Mark Logan (who provided the comedic segment at end of the news show) tried the Pinakbet Pizza and they were absolutely impressed. They featured it on the news and the word of mouth went like wildfire.
The tourists flocked to the restaurant to have a taste and to personally deliberate. The local resistance crumbled and they, too, got into the fray. The Pinakbet Pizza is actually, quite right tasty! No, it’s exquisite! Reviews and photos of prominent people with the Pinakbet Pizza started circulating and a new icon was born. As it is only available in Saramsam, Herencia and Kamarrin Cafe restaurants in Ilocos Norte, no trip to this province is complete without a stop to enjoy the Pinakbet Pizza — Sam Blas of the Philippines’ contribution to the Rare Pizzas of the world.
Catherine Kirchhoff a.k.a. Pizza Surimi
