Crafternoon at Pino Resto Bar

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A few weeks ago, I was invited by super creative guru Alessa Lanot and her husband PJ to partake in two of my many favorite activities: eating good food and dabbling in crafts.

The event was held in Pino Resto Bar and had Alessa and PJ’s guests get cozy while we tried a number of Pino’s new dishes and attempted to make temporary tattoos.

Alessa invited me to sit with some very talented crafters. I honestly wondered what I was doing there. Haha. But we had a great time getting to know each other and trying our hand at doodling on special paper to make temporary tattoos. I highly recommended clicking on their personal sites, their skills put many to shame.

Not to be confused with Pipino Restaurant (their sister establishment in QC), Pino focuses on fine Filipino food with fresh ingredients and unique flavours. Here are the dishes we were invited to try from their new menu:

Mixed lettuce greens served with grilled chicken nasal and fish sauce-calamansi caesar dressing. This hearty plate could be a healthy lunch for one person.

I’ve always loved the versatility of quinoa. This plate of quinoa with organic greens, dried berries, grapes, and tofu ricotta was a lovely feast for the eyes and tongue.

Breaded squid rings coated with squid ink, served with crab fat lemon aioli. You’ll certainly wonder what other restaurants do with the tasty squid ink after trying this.

Cajun-spiced avocado wedges, served with vegan mayo. Definitely an interesting way to have avocado. If you’re looking for the crunch that comes with a potato fry, this isn’t going to be it.

Lovely bites of warm chickpeas, mushroom, carrots baked in pockets, served with curry-chilli sauce.

Spring rolls stuffed with bagnet, chinese chorizo, salted eggs, vermicelli noodles, fried and served with calamansi vinaigrette. As you can see from this photo, we promptly dropped our pens to partake in this delicious dish.

I love kale chips and these babies baked with nutritional yeast were no exception.

Shrimp cooked in crab fat. What a deadly combination.

We actually thought this was a dessert when it came out. What it actually was is pork sausage topped with bagnet (crunchy pork) and grated coconut.

We capped of our meal with a delicious macaron with proudly Filipino flavours. The rest of the world is clearly missing out.

Thank you for inviting us to take part in such a wonderful afternoon Alessa and PJ. A big thank you as well to Canon for the very cool tattoo printers and Craft Carrot for all our craft tools.

Pino Resto Bar can be found along 38 Jupiter Street, Makati.  (02) 550-1781

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