I had never heard of Bulacan cuisine until an email from Raine landed in my inbox on a Monday morning, and now I have opinions about it—good ones. Very good ones.
The subject line read CMD Supper Club: ILUSTRADA Bulacan at Bar Thyme. The only part I know was the where. Bar Thyme is five minutes from our place. Everything else was new for me. But she addressed me (us) collectively as “friends”, which was lovely, so I parked it to read properly later.
Later, I read the email:
ILUSTRADA is a celebration of modern Filipina. women who demonstrate that culture is not simply inherited. It is continually created, shared, and lived. For one night, Chef Morris Danzen brings the flavours of Bulacan to Melbourne through a four-course contemporary dining experience that pays homage to one of the Philippines’ most culturally significant provinces.
Culture is not simply inherited; it is continually created.
I mean… Sold.
So what is Bulacan cuisine, exactly?
Quick explainer, because I had to look it up too. Bulacan is a province just north of Manila. Its food carries centuries of Spanish and Chinese influence, and the province is best known for its sweets: pastillas de leche, ensaymada, inipit, and a whole universe of kakanin (rice cakes). It is also famous for chicharon and for doing meat properly. Bulacan cuisine is Filipino food with a sweet, celebratory, and historical accent.
At the same time, I reflected on my own experience with Filipino food to date: sisig, ube, halo-halo. That was the entire list. Time to level up in Filipino culture, through what I love the most, the food. Weekday date night it is, then. We have not had one in ages, what with winter and work both being a bit much lately. So I clicked the link, paid, put it in the calendar, and forwarded the invite to Fafa.
Bar Thyme
We arrived half an hour early, in drizzling rain, just as the cocktails started coming out. I ordered the Kawayan. Fun cocktail names are a weakness of mine. And Fafa got a pandan-based cocktail.
Then Raine came over to say hello, and I finally worked out where I knew her from; she was one of the speakers at the 2026 MFWF’s Musings & Merienda: Filipino Tea & Culture at Halaya. I remember liking her immediately back then, and tonight was a reminder of why. She is enormously personable. She greeted us properly and actually stayed to talk. She explained the concept. CMD Supper Club is a pop-up she runs across Melbourne, working with a different venue in a different neighbourhood each time, so Filipino food and Filipino culture land in more corners of the city instead of just one. How cool is that?
Naturally, my brain immediately went: Is there an Indonesian supper club in Melbourne? Would I follow it religiously? Yes. But that thought got parked, because we were in a dark, buzzing room, and it was time to feast.
The Four Course Bulacan Cuisine Feast
The Chef’s Kiss
Three bites, none of which I had before, which was most of the excitement.
First, the Ensaymada with cured egg yolk and Reggiano. Raine described it as an egg yolk brioche. It was savoury, salty, and cheesy. What is there not to like? I want to sleep on a bed made of it.
Second, scallop crudité with strawberry, pickled daikon and a sinigang leche de tigre—my favourite of the night. Sinigang is the Filipino sour soup, leche de tigre is the punchy Peruvian ceviche marinade, and putting them in the same spoonful is exactly the kind of thing this dinner was about. It took me straight back to a scallop I ate in Iceland that I still think about at random times ever since, which is a high bar for one mouthful to clear.
Third, baked Conchiglione with smoked eggplant purée and Calumpit longganisa ragù, which was Fafa’s favourite. Pasta shells, Italian technique, and a sausage from a town in Bulacan doing the work of a Bolognese.
By now, the energy in the room was full and buzzing, two birthdays were being celebrated at other tables, and the whole thing felt less like a pop-up restaurant and more like someone’s very stylish family gathering.
Duck Hamon Bulakenya, inspired by French Estonian Cuisine
Then the semi-main was served, which I had been calling the chocolate duck in my head all night. Duck breast hamon with purple cauliflower risotto, duck and cherry jus, and dark chocolate.
Hamon is the cured, sweet-glazed ham, so doing it with duck and finishing it with dark chocolate was interesting. It is also the signature dish of the evening’s guest of honour, an Estonian woman who attended the previous CMD Supper club event.
Hometown Memories
Partway through, Raine handed out slips of paper with three questions. Where is your hometown? What food is your hometown known for? What is the best thing about coming home (I am paraphrasing that last one)?
My answers: Cirebon. Tahu Gejot, aka Stinky tofu. Family.
One-word answers each, essentially. Fafa, meanwhile, wrote actual sentences. The slips go into a raffle, and the winner gets a free seat at the next supper club, where the chef will cook his interpretation of a dish from their hometown, which is such a good prize.
Pesce de la Reyna
The main was Rockling fish asado, roasted tomato emulsion, spiced coconut milk turmeric aioli, zucchini textures, and black lemon powder.
Ilustrada
Desserts shared their names with the night: Bulacan custard, hazelnut, and dirty ice cream with sapin-sapin. Sapin-sapin is a layered rice cake, one of the kakanin, and dirty ice cream had Ube at the bottom. Fafa declared it his favourite of the night.
Fitting, really. If you are going to end a Bulacan cuisine dinner anywhere, it should be with the sweets.
The chef
Closer to the end, Raine introduced Chef Morris, who used to live in Sicily and ran pop-ups in restaurants around the island out of his own pocket, purely to introduce Filipino food to the Italians 🙂 I have so much respect for him!
He gave a short speech, but the part I remember most is how he beamed when he said his mum was in the room to support him.
My heart is full.
CMD Supperclub Slay
The food was genuinely good. But what made the night stand out was how it was run. The small details, the handwritten names on the menu, the warmth of the whole evening.
Well done, Raine, Chef Morris, and the whole CMD Supper Club team. Here is to introducing more Filipina culture through food.
PS. Otw home, Fafa wondered out loud how good it would be if Melbourne had a Tamil supper club. Foodie minds think alike.
PPS. I did it for Google for him. Aside from Tamil Feast, much-loved but closed in 2020, there is a Rajasthani supper club. Shall we, Fa?
PPPS. I need to go to the Philippines and feast on more Bulacan cuisine.
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