Sentro Sinigang na Corned Beef: A Tribute to 10 Years

Sentro 1771

It has been a while since I last dined in Sentro 1771 restaurant in Greenbelt. Now, I heard they are celebrating ten years. And as a tribute, Sentro's Siningang na Corned Beef will have a big role to play.

Sentro 1771 was not only able to make a unique spin on the Siningang na Corned Beef - a Filipino comfort food. Moreover, it’s a signature as dish certified every balikbayan’s favorite!

A brainchild of Executive Chef Vicky Rose Pacheco of Chateau 1771 Group of Restaurants, sinigang na corned beef is possibly the most creative take on the usual sinigang that everyone knows. In the Philippines where a full roster of vegetables and high quality meats are in play, cooking up anything is practically always in season for chefs. It’s like cooking at home, making sure each ingredient works from the little scraps and pieces and turn it into another dish you can call deliciously your own.

Like sinigang na corned beef, it’s one of the dishes that’s considered very special for its monumental discovery. While ever busy in the kitchen and thinking then of putting into good use excess corned beef broth from the first menu of Chateau 1771 then in El Pueblo, Ortigas Center, Pasig City, Chef Vicky came up with an idea: why not make the corned beef broth into sinigang soup?  All it needed was souring ingredient and the usual beef brisket could be substituted with beef cuts with sinews, fat and bones---these are what makes for a hearty soup.

Many have come to try emulating and reinventing it, but Sentro’s sinigang is the only stand out original especially for its rounded flavor. Although this recipe is accidental by nature, it was never a recipe by chance. Chef Vicky’s consistent and meticulous choice of ingredients is the way she starts everything in all her restaurants, particularly with the meat as the major element of the dish. The beef is exclusively sourced from a mix of local suppliers trusted for ten years. Plus, the pot is loaded with vegetables such as tomatoes, okra, taro corms (gabi), daikon (labanos), water spinach (kangkong), and eggplant stewed in tamarind, served hot and steamy. The broth from scratch is loaded with flavor-boosting natural spices and guests are asked to sip the delicate soup stock prior serving so the sourness, saltiness, and spiciness can be adjusted according to preference--another personalized approach that this dish had built  a reputation on.

Sinigang Na Corned Beef

Executive Chef Vicky proved that there’s more to Filipino food, especially if it’s reinvented with fresh ingredients which give that unique but homey experience. If you’ve been craving with something like this or your curiosity has been piqued, there’s no other better time than now to get to know this decade-old dish which can only originally be found in Sentro.

And no matter what the main ingredients are, the exciting part comes when it’s served. Sentro Restaurant is a member of the Chateau 1771 Group of Restaurants. It includes Chateau 1771 in Greenbelt 5, Café 1771, WineBar 1771 and Sidebar at El Pueblo Real de Manila, ADB Avenue cor. Julia Vargas Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City.

For inquiries and reservations, call Sentro Greenbelt 3 +632-757-3941 or Sentro Serendra (02) 856 0581. Sentro 1771 in Greenbelt 3 is open Monday to Sunday from 11am-11pm. The Serendra branch is from 7am to 10:00 pm (Sunday to Thursday) / 7am to 11:00pm (Friday to Saturday).