Wooden Spoon

Sandy Daza knows it. That the two best things for a life worth living are laughter and good (not necessarily expensive) food.

With Sandy Daza's mom, culinary legend Nora Daza. God bless her soul!

I reviewed Wooden Spoon way back in June 2013.

I remember entering the tiny restaurant with just a row of seats and one chair for four by the door and hoping against hope that Sandy Daza would not recognize me because he was under review.

Thankfully, he didn't! Probably because I had only met him once before that, during the frou-frou cocktails at an event. Also because I didn't "put on my face" that morning.

He was very hands on. He served us the dishes myself and I swear he looked me in the eyes but did not recognize me at all. Whew!

And I was relieved to honestly write a good review. I wrote -

What Daza does is he gets institutional Pinoy dishes but puts his own Asian-influenced spin to it. The adobo, for instance, does not bask in fat as Tagalog adobo usually does, but maintains the deep savory flavor of adobo sauce that you cannot mistake it for anything else. Meanwhile, tuyo is used as stuffing alongside ground pork in a pechay roll. This is made to sit in a spicy coconut cream sauce, and successfully blends sweet, salty and spicy; meshing together flavors of Asia in a simple pechay roll. The dinakdakan, an Ilokano specialty, made a friend convert back from vegetarian to carnivore, pig’s ears and all, by its tempered sourness and “tamang-tamang anghang (just the right level of heat)!”

Since then, Wooden Spoon in Katipunan has expanded to open a second floor with an extension. And just last August 31 opened at the Powerplant Mall in Rockwell.

This time, on my first visit, Sandy recognized me. Also because since then, he had arranged for my interview with the legendary Nora Daza (God bless her soul) and we had a day-long bonding session when he visited our ancestral home in Bulacan for his new TV show on the Lifestyle Channel called FoodPrint (like footprint but with food!)

 

It was such an honor to have him and his team in our home, enjoying our everyday food.

We were assigned to serve breakfast - they did a tour of Bulacan and shot lunch, merienda, desserts elsewhere - so my mom, sister and I served them our traditional breakfast fare. We either have suman with tsokolate (now Nana Meng Tsokolate); pandesal with kesong puti (and tsokolate!); or pindang with rice. So these are what we served.

We had them try different kinds of suman, too, just to showcase the various sumans of Bulacan: suman antala, moryekos and suman pinipig. Suman antala is what we have in Sta. Maria. Moryekos and Pinipig are more the territory of Marilao.

A couple of weeks later, I saw Sandy again on a really sad occasion: the wake of his mom, Nora Daza. But you know what, it was the kind of wake you would want for yourself! First of all, a line of flowers greet the visitors. Then - as we approached the coffin - there was Sandy with his dear friends - laughing out loud!!! They were truly comforting him in this time of sorrow. And as we paid our final respects to this amazing culinary mother, wow - her make up was flawless! She has to be one of the most beautiful corpses I've ever seen! Then when Sandy and Nina made time to sit with us - all we talked about was food, food, food. This was when Sandy reminded us that it was his mom that brought Paul Bocuse to the Philippines. Paul Bocuse!

A week later, I'm holding a meeting at Wooden Spoon Rockwell. Honestly, I think I would've gone incognito had my voice not been so loud as I showed off my photo op with Tony Bennett that morning to friends!!! I was too excited and dinig ata sa Edsa boses ko. 

Sandy came over with this marvelous salad. "You have to try this!" he said. "And eat everything together. May style yan." I have never tried this take on century eggs before. My best experience with Century Eggs, which I am not a huge fan of, was in Yung Kee (Hong Kong, famous for its goose), with pickled ginger. But here, Sandy mixes it with salted duck egg and your regular chicken egg. ("You have three eggs!" I teased him.) Plus spiced peanuts, onions, and ginger for a most unique yet still refreshing experience. It's a brilliant concoction!

Very much enjoyed as well the ginataang sigarilyas that was slightly spicy.

And while I'm partial to our family's dinuguan, I also thoroughly enjoyed his sweet take on this classic Pinoy dish, as well as the crunchy pork bits that he incorporated. The sour kind of says hello in the end, parang kinakalablit ka, "Pssst! May asim ako!!!" This must have been influenced by his trips to Ilocos. 

He also serves a mean liempo with various sauces, which he took the time out to explain.

"This one is wansuy," he explained. 
"This one," pointing to the second sauce, "is ginger, garlic and spring onions."
And this one? my colleague asked.
"Oh, that one is a very authentic Filipino sauce," he said with a straight face. "That is Mang Tomas."
LOL!!!!!

We were treated to these pandan crepe and tapioca cake that are favorites at Wooden Spoon Katipunan.

All in all - well done, Mr. Daza. Yo mama would be proud!!!

Wooden Spoon
Concourse Level
Powerplant Mall, Rockwell. 
024260044
Reservations one day before recommended. 
Casual.