“Singapore, to me, has an amazing, rich, mature dining scene, and Singaporeans have very high standards for food. I feel if we can do something here that can resonate, maybe we can resonate in other markets, as long as we pass the Singapore test,” Napa chuckled.
Hayop ni Manam’s local partners are Russell Yu of Iki Concepts and Gwen Lim of Patisserie G. Manam’s R&D chef and junior executive chef are currently in town, and The Moment Group’s founders plan to be here often. Napa herself has family here, whom she has been visiting regularly for many years.
“I always say Filipino cuisine is magical because it makes so much out of so little,” she mused. “I think that’s what’s special about our cuisine – it’s a heritage of flavours more than a heritage of meat. We haven’t tried to mess with that. I think there are amazing global Filipino concepts you’ll find in other markets that take advantage of all ingredients from other cuisines. And that’s wonderful. I love going to them. But, we kind of wanted to stay true, for the most part, to the pantry list that the Filipino household has.
“There are very few ingredients we have here that don’t belong in that pantry list – one would be extra virgin olive oil, because that’s yummy; butter, which we’ve used with a lot of discipline; one dish has red wine; and one dish has honey. Other than that, every Filipino mama will have our ingredients.”
And, each dish is complex in its components. “We only have around 30-plus dishes on the menu, but we have over 100 sub-recipes for those dishes, so, there’s a lot of effort that goes into making them,” she said.
Hayop ni Manam is at 104 Amoy Street.
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