Philippines

Tinuno

We recently had the pleasure at Tinuno, located at 31 Howard Street, and it did not disappoint.  Philippino food is a mish mass of culinary traditions including Asian, Spanish and American and a combination of sweet, sour and salty flavours.  Along with everyone else that we observed at Tinuno, we had the boodle.  A boodle, or boodle fight, as we saw it called online, is a meal that is served on a banana leaf covered table with the food placed in the middle, running the length of the table directly on the banana leaves. Diners do not use plates or cutlery but rather eat with their hands.  Apparently this style of eating originated in the Philippino military as a quick and easy way to serve a large group of people.   In a nod to Western squeamishness and probably Toronto Public Health’s food safety program,  Tinuno provides gloves.  There is something so satisfying about eating with your hands, especially when you are pulling apart a whole fish or a large piece of meat – it really lets you get in touch (pun intended) with your food and engage another sense.  The boodle at Tinuno consisted of a tangy mango salad to start followed by a large mass of garlic sticky rice (which is available for  ‘refills’) on which was placed BBQed pork, grilled tilapia and milkfish, grilled okra and eggplant, pork belly, prawns and grilled squid; it was certainly plenty of food.  There were several different sauces to squirt on: soya, sriracha, vinegar and a spicy vinegar, but the food had lots of flavour on its own.  We saw people ordering crispy plates of lechon, or crispy deep-fried pork belly, which can be ordered by the pound and we didn’t want to miss out.  Despite being already overly full we somehow managed to stuff in some lechon.  The best part about Tinuno, in our opinion, is the whole experience of it all: the friendly and welcoming servers, the banana leaves, the food and eating with our hands made really made for a great time.  Hhmm, maybe we should we eat with our hands more often.