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Hapag Heads North With Its New Cordilleras Tasting Menu

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dFor its newest tasting menu, <a href="https://www.hapagmnl.com/?utm_source=ig&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_content=link_in_bio&amp;fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQPOTM2NjE5NzQzMzkyNDU5AAGnz_awGssGugwfCRf6eVMUInQ_4hZj2kCPSAvXCFVX9R6qL8np_DzNB6i7NmY_aem_yrR9XHao3Vvp-Qa-_Ja_jA" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hapag</a> turns its attention to the Cordilleras, drawing from the ingredients, culinary practices, and communities found across the highlands of Northern Luzon.Simply called Cordilleras, the eight-course menu was developed following the Hapag team’s research journey through Ifugao, Mountain Province, Kalinga, and Baguio City. Along the way, chefs Kevin Navoa and Thirdy Dolatre (together with Erin Ganuelas-Recto and more Hapag team members) encountered farmers, home cooks, weavers, cultural workers, and local tourism advocates who offered a closer look at the region’s varied food traditions.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1784086046027DFP03640.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Cordilleran ingredients that inspired Hapag&#x27;s newest tasting menu | Photo: Dre Ferrer </div>“For me, the Cordilleras remain largely unknown and undiscovered,” Navoa, or Chef Nav, shared. “It’s a place you need to experience firsthand to truly understand.”Chef Thirdy similarly admitted that his earlier familiarity with the region’s cuisine was largely limited to Baguio. Traveling beyond the city revealed distinct ingredients and techniques across the different provinces, many of them shaped by mountainous terrain, communal life, and the need to preserve food.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17840860576531.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Dining room ready, Chef Thirdy Dolatre hard at work in the kitchen | Photo: Dre Ferrer </div>Rather than reproducing traditional dishes, Hapag interprets these discoveries through its own contemporary cooking style. Smoking, fermentation, preservation, and rice appear repeatedly throughout the menu, connecting the individual courses without reducing the region’s cuisine to a single narrative.The meal opens with Duck Lini’ku, inspired by a meal shared in Kiangan and by the Cordilleran practice of cooking poultry over fire. A clear duck consommé carries a subtle smoky character, balanced by citrus oil. It is served with a delicate and almost-too-pretty-to-eat Duck Pining tart layered with chicken skin tuile, pickled beetroot and singkamas, and roasted garlic mousse.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17840861261492.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Duck Lini&#x27;ku and Pinunnog | Photo: Dre Ferrer</div>The following snack course looks to familiar Cordilleran and Baguio pasalubong (or souvenir). The Kinuday Tartare combines fresh and smoked beef with salsa macha, garlic aioli, and caviar on a gamet cracker; the Mushroom Dinakdakan Tart uses Sagada mushrooms with a creamy, acidic dressing, while the savory Ube Cheese Tart pairs bubud-fermented ube with borracho cheese and black pepper pastry.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17840861482483.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>The snacks: Kinuday Tartare, Mushroom Dinakdakan, and Ube Cheese Tart | Photo: Dre Ferrer</div>One of the menu’s more unconventional combinations arrives in the form of Etaglaw, which brings together etag (salt-cured meat from the north) and kinilaw. Cured mahi-mahi is accompanied by melon, kamias, pickled vegetables, and a gamet dressing. The pork belly etag shows up in the form of an ice cream, which contrasts the smoky, salty character of the preserved meat with the sharper acidity associated with kinilaw.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1784086176907DFP03159.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Etaglaw | Photo: Dre Ferrer</div>The menu also acknowledges the Cordilleras’ culinary relationship with surrounding regions. Pansit à la Pogi takes inspiration from Tuguegarao’s pancit batil patung, with homemade noodles, chorizo, liver, crispy pork karajay, and egg drop soup. The chefs thoughts the dish’s name, derived from the Tagalog word for “handsome” and also the northern locals’ term for an overloaded pancit, also applies to them and saw it fit to add to their menu. And if the strong savory flavors were any indication, we completely agree with this observation. We later learned that for the pansit course, guests can enjoy it two ways: the Nav way, which mixes the egg drop soup with the noodles; or the Thirdy way, which prefers drier noodles and sipping the egg drop soup in between bites. The noodles are served with a vinegar-shoyu sauce, which add an umami-rich brightness to the dish.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1784086206750DFP02452.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Pansit a la Pogi | Photo: Dre Ferrer</div>Rice was among the most important ingredients the team encountered during its travels, according to Chef Thirdy. Beyond its role as a staple, it appeared in preserved foods, breads, drinks, and delicacies such as inandila, a traditional rice preparation that communities in the region continue to safeguard. Fermentation becomes the focus of Buro, Hapag’s bread course. Its centerpiece is Pan de Kalinga, the restaurant’s sourdough infused with fermented black rice sourced from Kalinga. The bread is topped with sugpo and taba ng talangka cream, and fresh local dill and marigold — the open-faced toast almost looks like a beautiful untamed garden. It demonstrates how the menu uses traditional preservation practices as a foundation rather than a mere reference.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1784086273267DFP03395.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Buro | Photo: Drę Ferrer</div>For the palate cleanser, Hapag reworks one of the country’s most familiar street foods. Its Taho features homemade tofu with sampinit arnibal, pickled roselle sago, and pickled scoby. While this writer saw it more as a mid-meal dessert, we see how its tanginess can restart the palate. <div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17840862928284.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Taho | Photo: Dre Ferrer</div>The main course, Salu-Salo, shifts the experience toward communal dining. Served family-style, this course was inspired by meals shared at the famed Baguio establishment Farmer’s Daughter. Their hosts Irene and Ruel Bimuyag, prepared a Cordilleran breakfast for the team — one of their most memorable experiences during their R&amp;D trip up north. The spread includes a ridiculously tender piece of beef tongue kiniing, house-made pork longganisa, prawn pinuneg with duck and chicken liver sauce, a refreshing fruit and vegetable salad with local greens, and heirloom black and red rice cooked in mushroom stock. This course reflected the true essence of Hapag: a shared table as an essential part of Filipino culture.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1784086439467DFP03103.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Salu-Salo  (clockwise from top left): Prawn Pining, Smoked Pork Longganisa, Beef Tongue Kiniing, Heirloom Rice, and Green Mountain Salad | Photo: Dre Ferrer</div>Much to this writer’s delight, the dessert arrives as a collection rather than a single plated dish. Toasted brown rice ice cream is served with black sesame and puffed black rice crumble, alongside puto bumbong sweetened with caramelized white chocolate (sincerely the best puto bumbong we’ve ever had); traditional Kalinga inandila — thin as can be — is paired with latik; and wild Baguio blueberries served in a house-made lengua de gato tart with what else but strawberries. The course is served with tsokolate de batirol topped with an espuma made from their seven-year red bean cacao miso — ending the meal with flavors associated with kakanin, merienda, and hearty Filipino celebrations.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1784086504367DFP03353.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Dessert (clockwise from top left): Puto Bumbong, Local Blueberry Tarts, Toasted Heirloom Rice Ice Cream, and Kalinga Inandila | Photo: Dre Ferrer</div>For those who’d like to pair the menu with wines, Hapag’s head sommelier and partner Erin Ganuelas-Recto selected predominantly French wines intended to provide a familiar structure without overpowering the food. Guests may also add a coffee pairing selection, featuring beans sourced from farming communities in the Cordilleras that continue to preserve traditional cultivation practices.Throughout its development, the Hapag team worked with the Pasil Slow Food Community, GAFA Agri-Tourism Farm, traditional weavers and home cooks in Kalinga, and farmers and cultural workers across the region. The restaurant also credits community leaders and advocates including Rowena Gonnay, Irene and Ruel Bimuyag, Detchie Enkiwe, and National Living Treasure awardee Apo Whang-od Oggay for contributing to the team’s understanding of the Cordilleras.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1784086534468breakfast at the glass room .jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>The Hapag team over breakfast at Farmer&#x27;s Daughter&#x27;s Glass Room, Baguio | Photo: At Maculangan</div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1784086556668with apo whang od.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>The Hapag team with National Living Treasure Apo Whang-od Oggay | Photo: At Maculangan</div>“The more we explore regional Filipino cuisine, the more we realize how diverse it truly is,” shares Chef Thirdy. “We’re still only scratching the surface.”Hapag’s Cordilleras tasting menu is priced at P7,500+ per person. The wine pairing is available for P3,000+, while the non-alcoholic beverage pairing is priced at P2,200+. An optional Cordilleran coffee pairing is also available.<div>Hapag is located at the 7th floor of The Balmori Suites, Hidalgo Drive, Rockwell Center, Makati City. Reservations: hapagmnl.com </div>

Michelin-starred Hapag heads to the Cordilleras for its newest tasting menu, transforming the ingredients, traditions, and communities of Northern Luzon into an eight-course dining experience inspired by Ifugao, Kalinga, Mountain Province, and Baguio.

Michelin-starred Hapag heads to the Cordilleras for its newest tasting menu, transforming the ingredients, traditions, and communities of Northern Luzon into an eight-course dining experience inspired by Ifugao, Kalinga, Mountain Province, and Baguio.

Hapag Heads North With Its New Cordilleras Tasting Menu

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Hapag Heads North With Its New Cordilleras Tasting Menu

Ching Dee

Published July 15, 2026 11:47 AM PHT

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