‘Food Hero’ winner Sarah Huang Benjamin talks about the Filipino dishes she loves

Sarah Huang Benjamin

Five years after winning the Asian Food Channel’s first “Food Hero” tilt, Sarah Huang Benjamin continues to prove why she was snug fit for the coveted title. You’ll love eating even more just by listening to her talk about food and how they’re prepared and created.

The Singapore-based celebrity visited the country last month to grace the TLC Festival held at Bonifacio High Street.

In this interview, Sarah talks about how winning the “Food Hero” tilt and her mixed heritage (her father’s British, her mom’s Chinese-Peranakan) have influenced her adventurous palate, the extraordinary taste that sets Asian food apart, the Filipino dishes she loves, and what it was like growing up with her Ilonggo nanny, who “smuggled” balut for her.

Our Q&A with Sarah:

How have you and your taste evolved since being declared “Food Hero” five years ago? I think I have experienced a lot more cuisines because since I won “Food Hero,” I’ve had the opportunity to travel a lot and that was really special for me because even just through filming, I went to places I hadn’t been before, like Hanoi in Vietnam.

A lot of those experiences were quite life-changing for me because it really introduced me to different flavors and ingredients I wouldn’t have known otherwise. Through my job, I get to actually interact with stall owners and restaurant chefs, ask them questions and watch them work.

That’s very special for me because my dream is just to learn about all the cuisines in the world. So, my taste has become a lot more open-minded since then because I know so many ingredients now.

What do you think makes Asian food special? Just the sheer number of flavors that are put in together, you know? Don’t get me wrong, I love European food. I love French, Spanish food and Italian food, for sure. But when you really look at it, they’re pretty similar, like the ingredients they use, and the flavors can be quite similar.

But in Asia, you can go to Thailand and across the border to Malaysia—they have the same ingredients, but the flavors are so different. To me, that’s really special. I don’t think that anywhere else you can travel such a short distance and find something so different.

Can you name three Asian dishes you’d gladly recommend to non-Asian foodies? The No. 1 dish I’m always very excited to tell people about is this Vietnamese dish from Hanoi called cha ca. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever eaten in my life. It’s catfish that they marinate in turmeric, white pepper and lard, then grill it so it’s smoky. Then, they serve it to you in this pot on the table in oil, with a lot of herbs—spring onions, dill and all that.

So that’s fish with herbs, then you have rice noodles, and this very smelly shrimp paste on the side, like bagoong. It’s very strong when you mix it altogether. I’ve never seen anything like this dish anywhere else!

For Singapore, I always recommend this one pork dish that people know less of—it’s called bakcho mi. Bakcho is minced meat in Hokkien. So, it’s minced meat noodles—it’s something Singaporeans are crazy about, but not a lot of tourists know. But we have a stall that has an actual Michelin star that sells it. It’s an amazing dish, like comfort food.

Third one, this is tough. I have to say I really love Indonesian food. But it’s hard to just pick one dish. I actually am a noodle person, so I love soto. It’s also like chicken noodle soup, so it’s very comforting. It isn’t spicy, but it’s very flavorful.

What famous Filipino food have you tasted and liked? I love adobo! We came to film a show here and worked with Chef Tatung (Sarthou), who explained to me that adobo isn’t just about the soy sauce. They marinate pork belly in vinegar, then they deep-fry it. So, when you eat it, it’s sour but dry. That was mind-blowing.

I love tortang talong, that’s my favorite.

I don’t know if this is like a real thing, but, so I was brought up by a Filipino nanny like for 20 years. She always used to make this Filipino food, it’s like salted egg and tomato. That’s my favorite ever, I just eat that with rice. It’s so good.

Her name is Jobel, who’s from Iloilo. She works in Hong Kong now, but we’re still in touch. She would always cook us fish, but she didn’t eat the fish because her father’s a fisherman. She said, “I’ve had enough fish for a lifetime,” so that was funny.

What else do you want to try? I want to try a lot. So, this is the first time I’m extending my trip so I can at least experience Manila. Otherwise, I just come and go. My only request to my friend here, who’s taking me around, was, “I want to try bibingka!”

I actually [tried balut] when I was quite young; I was always curious about food. So, I asked my nanny, who smuggled one balut when she came back from vacation. You’re not really supposed to do that, but she did it for me. She said, “I don’t even eat this.” I was like, “OK.” I tried it, but when I bit it off, there was too much [stuff] that you could really see the feathers! It was like a mature one, so I was like, “I can’t!” But the flavor was nice and savory, but I couldn’t get past the sauce.

Another thing I want to try is buko pie. I heard the best place to get it is in Tagaytay.

Oh, I have to ask you guys. OK, this is embarrassing. ’Cause we went to Cebu, but I’ve never eaten lechon. Because we were filming in Cebu, and we can’t film lechon because it’s pork.

Why did you choose to take the ambassadorship for the “brand refresh” for the Asian Food Network? It [gives me] the opportunity to talk about Asian food because I come from a mixed background. So I’m really interested in different cultures. I want to explore that more and share that with other people. Like, when I visit my British family, it’s totally different. British food is very good, but not my aunt’s cooking (laughs)! It’s just that my dad’s family is Jewish. He’s not religious, but his sister is, so there are so many things you can’t eat—you can’t eat cheese with meat, can’t eat cheese with seafood. Oh, my God, what a sad life!

So, the ambassadorship is interesting for me because I get to share parts of Asia with other people around the world. I want to change people’s perceptions, I don’t want people to just say, “Oh Asia—Chinese. Whatever.”

Asia is a melting pot. I’m as Asian as anyone else. So, I’m very proud to represent Asia in that way.

My mom is Chinese-Peranakan. Peranakan is also a mixed culture. It’s when Malay and Chinese intermarried like few generations back but didn’t convert to Islam, so their culture is more like a mixture. So, Peranakan food is a very unique part of Singapore and Malaysia, and that’s why you have dishes like laksa, which is a Peranakan dish. It’s really a fusion. That’s my mom’s heritage. My grandma, her mom, is from China. My dad is British.

My dad went to Singapore in 1964. People are always like, “Oh, your dad is an expat.” I’m like, “Is he? He’s been there longer than you.”

Both my parents are anthropologists, so he actually moved to do research in the Malayan jungle. He’s an expert on the orang asli, which are indigenous tribes. He actually lived with them for a few years and just ended up staying.

Which food experts do you look up to? I look up to David Chang, who created the culinary brand Momofuku, because of the way he explores his Korean heritage. The way he and his restaurants cook, that’s like the kind of food I enjoy.

I love Nichelle. I love her shows. She’s so “joyful,” that’s what I like. Even if she’s eating alone, it’s about how she really enjoys her food. She’s not trying to show off her cooking. She’s about enjoyment and pleasure.