Everyone loves a bit of gossip. Juicy, piquant, tart, and tangy, served with gusto and a side of discretion everyone is welcome to whet their appetites by the morsel or the mouthful. Sizzling or steamy or smoked to perfection, the right kind of rumor lingers on the lips and keeps one coming back for more. And as with all manner of mental comestible, gossip is best shared with bosom buddies.
Such are the entrees and cocktails of the restaurant-cum-wine bar namesake, Tsismis NYC.
Tsimis, the Tagalog word for
“gossip” -- derived from the
Spanish chisme which means the same thing -- is the brainchild of
restauranteurs Stephen Young and Reggie Aguinaldo. Nestled in the storied heart of New York’s lower East Side, Tsismis is part of the landscape of the Garment District which has evolved through the decades to suit the needs and tastes of the upwardly-mobile
New Yorker.
From dresses to dressing, from seams to searing, and from garments to garnishing, the many boutiques and fashion centers that lined the streets of this Manhattan borough gave way to restaurants, speakeasies, and other playgrounds of the Big Apple’s culturati. It was here in 2017 where Young and Aguinaldo decided to strike while the iron was hot and dive into the excitement of fashionable dining. And what better cuisine to showcase than Filipino food?
The Philippines is blessed with a wealth of ingredients that its 7,100 and more islands have to offer. It is an archipelago flanked by both the Philippine Sea and The South China Sea and bolstered below by the Celebes Sea. It is from here that Filipinos have discovered an abundance of seafood. The land has no less rewarded its faithful stewards with the fruits of honest labor: fruits and vegetables, coconut by the carts, bananas by the bushel, and the gift of overflowing rice granaries. Add to this its rich, colorful, diverse, and even tumultuous history – influences from its Southeast Asian neighbors, the Chinese, Indian, and Malay trading companions, as well as colonizers from Portugal, Spain, Britain, Japan, and America – and you have a multi-faceted flavor palate as complex and diverse as its people and history.
Young and Aguinaldo sought the expertise of John Paul Diego “Jappy” Afzelius, a proud son of Dumaguete city in the Philippines, and a product of Enderun Colleges in Manila in the École
Ducasse tradition. His experience has seen him shine in some of the celebrated bistros and restaurants in Pollenzo, Paris, and New York. This experience continues to serve him well as the mastermind behind Tsismis’ bestsellers, many of which are taken from treasured recipes from both Aguinaldo’s and Afzelius’ families, and flipped, reinvented, and revamped to tickle the New Yorker palate.
Beloved and time-honored family dishes are given a Manhattan twist. By swapping out traditional ingredients for locally-available substitutes, the resulting dish pairs excellently with a bracing, ice-cold beverage of one’s choice. As the saying goes, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and Afzelius’ cooking demonstrates a daring, charming ingenuity that just won’t quit.
Take, for example, the Kale Laing, one of Tsismis’ iconic entrees. Back in the old country, Laing is a dish of dried taro leaves sauteed in indigenous aromatics, spiced with shrimp paste, smoked fish or pork,, and bay leaves, and finally simmered in creamy coconut milk. The version offered up at Tsismis’ could very well be the exciting, offbeat way to eat your greens, as Chef Afzelius
swaps out the traditional simmered taro leaves for kale leaves, blanched to remove the bitterness. Once this entree is topped off with a sprinkling of baby shrimp, diners are in for an earthy, spicy treat, full of umami
and character.
Consider also Tsismis’s entry for the hotly-debated national dish of the
Philippines, adobo. The dish may take its name from the Spanish word, adobar, meaning “to preserve or marinade in vinegar”, but make no mistake, Philippine adobo has as many variants with practically every region, island, or even family branch having its jealously-championed version. Where one region will boast of a tangy, sweet, saucy entree, another will take pride in the spicy zing of native chilies as the sauce’s secret. The northern provinces may assert that a good adobo is one soused in puckersome vinegar and cooked sticky-dry, while the Muslim provinces to the south will enrobe their adobo in spiced coconut cream. Meanwhile in Manhattan, one will brook no argument with the resto’s signature adobong dilaw. Chef Afzelius whips up his version with fragrant French-cut roasted chicken garnished with a special liver-turmeric sauce and plates it together with a steaming cup of rice and greens as a side.
Let’s not forget a dish that has very much become a globetrotter in its own right, the Bistek Tagalog. The beloved homestyle dish has its roots in the Spanish Bistec Encebollado. The Philippine Bistek is made from thin cuts of beef marinated and braised in soy sauce and citrus juice, usually that of the calamansi, the
celebrated Philippine lemon. It is meant to be eaten with rice, hence the deep and rich flavors in the sauce. Chef Afzelius takes this homey recipe and gives it the Manhattan treatment by utilizing nothing less than a hearty New York cut of steak, seared and flame-grilled to perfection. This crowd-pleaser is at last paired with roasted baby potatoes and topped with pan-fried onions.
Tsismis NYC is as much a wine bar as it is a restaurant. Beverage Director Philippe Segura keeps Tsismis’s
copper-toned bar well-stocked with choice spirits and has crafted a number of signature cocktails to pair well with each meal.
The A La Bira is a medley of sake, vermouth, Aperol, artichoke liqueur, and bitters, garnished with a slice of orange and a bruised sprig of rosemary. The Tsismosa, another of Segura’s creations, is the restaurant’s version of the sangria.
Segura’s decision to use sake as a base for all his cocktails falls in line with the license Tsismis has to serve only wine and beer. In contrast, Filipino drinking culture is fueled by the people’s innate curiosity and eagerness to try any liquor at least once. Beer is one of the standard-issue pastimes considered to forge the bonds of male friendship – basta’t may pinagsamahan. The National Artist Nick Joaquin was appeased by cracking open an ice-cold bottle of San Miguel beer and handing it to him right as he walked through the door of a party, lest he flees the scene. Philippine rhum, smoky, full-bodied, and strong, owes its characteristics to the rich earth of the province of Negros and its many sugarcane fields, aptly nicknamed Sugarlandia. Philippine ingenuity has also created such singular types of liquor from fermented palm and
coconut sap – basi, tuba, and the
formidable lambanog, just to name a few.
Tsismis NYC is a creature of the New York food crawl, rubbing shoulders and engaging in tête-à-tête with its peers and seeing Manhattanites come and go in the bright lights of this iconic city. However, in the rush and hubbub of the dining crowd, it has not forgotten its roots and is proud to share with
everyone a taste of home.