Heirloom dishes. You just cannot get enough of them. After feasting on modern or contemporary Pinoy dishes whipped up by unconventional young chefs, you somehow keep going back to the comfort food of your childhood. Besides being delicious, as they are prepared the old-fashioned way, which means a lot of them are slow-cooked to bring out the natural juices and flavors of the ingredients used, they also come with fond memories of years past. This is why chef Myke "Tatung" Sarthou always draws inspiration from heirloom dishes when developing new recipes for his restaurants, including Lore Manila by Chef Tatung, which recently rolled out its new menu additions.

Opened almost a year ago, Lore is a collaboration among Chef Tatung and his partners George Pua of Rico's Lechon and Jackson Go of The Vikings Group. It initially offered only degustacion menus, no ala carte, so the dishes that have been grouped together in a certain sequence can work together to tell a story and satisfy every diner's palate. Recently, however, the business partners agreed that it was time to transition the menu offerings from degustacion to family style and ala carte because there was a clamor for it.

For the new family style and ala carte menu, Chef Tatung drew inspiration from heirloom dishes both on and off his original menus. He cooked these traditional dishes with much respect to the ones prepared by the lolas and nanays in their places of origin around the country, but presented them in a fresh and contemporary Chef Tatung way. So, now, with the new menu, dining at Lore would be like dining back in their hometown, staying true to the way a dish is cooked where it comes from.

One of the new heirloom dishes on Lore's menu is pork kinamatisan.

"In the Visayan region, their pork kinamatisan is the same as the pork binagoongan in the Luzon provinces. Wala namang bagoong noon. This version is more tomato forward but cooked almost in the same manner," says Chef Tatung.

With strong familial ties to the Bicol region, Chef Tatung also presents the Bicol version of Gising-Gising (creamy string beans, finger chilies and chicken chunks in coconut sauce) which has pineapple chunks in it. The pineapple cuts the creaminess of the coconut, in the process deepening the flavors and giving the dish a sweet surprise. He aptly calls it Pininyahang Gising-Gising.

Then there is pritong itik, which is twice-cooked Peking duck and prepared Pateros-style. In Pateros, the duck is braised in a bath of aromatic Asian spices until it is tender and then deep-fried until crispy. It comes with spicy vinegar sauce and a playful Haw Flakes dipping sauce. Now that dipping sauce makes it even more exciting!

Also handpicked for Lore's new ala carte menu are Balbacua de Davao (tender and collagen-rich, slow-cooked ox tail, trotter and tendon stew with black beans and Asian spices); kansi na baka (a Hiligaynon signature slow-cooked beef shank with batwan and jackfruit in gelatinous and sour soup); pianggang (a Tausug grilled chicken dish stewed in flavorful and aromatic burnt coconut sauce); tinumok (fresh shrimps mixed with dried fish flakes, buko meat and bagoong, wrapped in taro leaves and boiled in coconut milk); and Lola's Adobo (old-fashioned pork adobo with chunky chicken liver, cooked with laurel leaves and whole peppercorns, served with twice-cooked potatoes and poached egg), among others.

Not to be missed is Tatung's Fried Rice, which is loaded with shrimps, vegetables, peanuts, eggs, and spring onion.

For dessert, the top new creation on the menu is Tres Leches. It is banana caramel tres leches cake with saba nilupak, finished with coffee reduction sauce. It is a good way to end a meal.

With the Philippines being an archipelago made up of more than 7,000 islands, countless heirloom dishes are there, just waiting to be discovered. The diversity of Filipino dishes is so inspiring indeed. Chef Tatung hopes to be able to continuously honor this rich culinary diversity and heritage by presenting them to the diners of Lore a few dishes at a time.

Lore is located at One Bonifacio High Street Mall, 3rd Avenue, Taguig City, with mobile 0977-8049888.