Filipino cuisine is often described through its regional identities, from Ilocano and Ilonggo to Maranao and Tausug. But another important part of the country’s culinary story is finding a larger place at the table: Tsinoy cuisine.
Chef Sharwin Tee, a Chinese-Filipino chef and advocate of Tsinoy culinary heritage, is putting that story front and center through a two-month dining experience at Marriott Café in Manila Marriott Hotel at Newport World Resorts.
The Sinagtala Famsgiving Tsinoy Cuisine Edition, which runs every Wednesday and Thursday evening in August and September, brings together dishes that many Filipinos may recognize from their own homes but rarely see presented as a distinct culinary tradition.
Among the dishes featured are Kiam Peng, rice cooked with soy-braised pork and mustard leaves; Diok Pit He or Camaron Rellenado; Tsinoy Lumpia; Hong Ti Ka or Pata Tim; Si Dit Misua or Misua Patola; Tao Meng Tsai, a braised seafood and vegetable dish; and Taro Sago.
For Tee, he tells FrontpagePH that the importance of the initiative goes beyond introducing diners to unfamiliar dishes. It is about recognizing how deeply Chinese-Filipino food traditions have become woven into Filipino life.
“I love to shine a light on Tsinoy cuisine because it underscores the contributions of Tsinoys to Filipino culture and history,” Tee explained, adding that Tsinoy cuisine can be viewed alongside the country’s established regional cuisines.
Many of the dishes featured are not necessarily restaurant staples. They are the kind of food prepared by mothers, aunts and grandparents—recipes passed down through families and served at home. By bringing these dishes into a major hotel buffet, the program gives them a wider audience and helps preserve culinary traditions that might otherwise remain largely undocumented or overlooked.
Tee said initiatives such as Sinagtala are important to the future of Filipino cuisine because understanding the country’s many culinary traditions is essential to presenting Filipino food to the world.
The program also gives Tsinoy cuisine an opportunity to be recognized beyond the Philippines. Marriott Café’s culinary showcase is part of Manila Marriott Hotel’s broader Sinagtala Philippine Culinary Arts campaign, which seeks to introduce Filipino gastronomic heritage to domestic and international audiences.
The hotel hopes to position Tsinoy cuisine alongside other recognized hybrid culinary traditions, such as Singapore’s Peranakan and Peru’s Nikkei, while showing that Filipino cuisine is not a single, fixed identity but a collection of histories, influences and regional traditions.
For diners, the experience offers more than a buffet. It provides a chance to reconsider familiar Filipino-Chinese dishes and understand their place in the country’s cultural landscape.
The Sinagtala Famsgiving Tsinoy Cuisine Edition is available for dinner every Wednesday and Thursday throughout August and September at Marriott Café, priced at P3,399 net per person.
(MAIN PHOTO: Chef Sharwin Tee (left) engaged Man Ho Executive Chef Chan Chi Fai (right) in the “Wok the Toque Cook-Off Challenge,” a friendly competition that celebrates both Tsinoy and Chinese cuisines, held during the launch of Marriott Cafe’s “Sinagtala Famsgiving Tsinoy Cuisine Edition. Also shown is Manila Marriott Hotel Director of Culinary Meik Brammer.