INSANE Filipino CELEBRITY CHEF Gene Gonzalez Cooks For Us! (Unique Manila Experience)

Good morning, guys. Good morning, welcome back to another daily juice. And then, yes, it is just the morning. Just the morning, 10 minutes left of the morning. Sunday for us here. And today, we're getting straight into the vlog today, guys. We're off to a bloody awesome place. We're off to a cool place. Lucy's got a hole in her sock. That's not a good start. And the towel is on the door. Not a lot changes around here. We're off to a 100-year-old ancestral Filipino house. Not what I expected over the last few weeks we've been kind of just in the apartment and around BGC. But we got a really nice invitation from a Filipino chef who's gonna be kind enough today to cook us some delicious food. I don't know, I'm not quite sure what to expect. It's a surprise on the food side. But the house, and I don't think the food will be 100 years old. I hope not, at least. But the house, yeah, we're gonna see this cool house. It's up the road in San Juan, so not too far away. So we're gonna hop in the car and get going. We're supposed to be there in like 10 minutes, so we need to leave. So welcome to the vlog. Let's go and see something cool. Wow, so cool with the contrast of some like newer buildings on the outside and then this beautiful home. So nice. 100-year-old. Wow, so cool. Paintings and the lights. Love it. Look at this stained glass. Wow, so much history. Hello. Chelsea. Hi, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Wow. I love this outdoor area. It's amazing. This is very peaceful. We've got some piano music on and they've set up a nice table for us. I wanna have a look out here quickly. Let's have a quick look. So nice. Very peaceful, isn't it? I love the big windows all the way along and I love all this stained glass and these beautiful, everything. It looks so nice. Let's have a seat. Yeah. That shot is so nice. We've got the stained glass. We've got a nice painting. And we have you. And we have me. We just learned that the paintings that I was filming earlier, all the things on the ceiling were from a painter called Carlos Egoa. Carlos Egoa. Is that a good pronunciation? I hope. Great. Sounds amazing. Thank you. So we've got an iced tea here, which is actually, this is called Cafe Isabelle and we'll put, actually I can put the logo here. And they have been around for about 40 years but this house, they turned into this cafe but the house is around 1911. It was built, which is, you can't even comprehend how the whole of the place looked back then. Imagine like out on the street, what was going on with like horse and carts and stuff. It's kind of crazy. Everything was black and white. Everything was in black and white. Exactly. We've got the house blend iced tea here, which is apparently the same recipe for 40 years. And they were making this before you could get powdered iced tea. So it's all home blended. Oh, it's really nice. Really nice. Really fresh. Home brewed. Yeah. I don't even think, oh, there's an AC unit, but I was going to say, it feels kind of cool in here because there's just a breeze going through the house because it's all nice and open. There's a slightly funny story about this invitation we got from Chef Gene. He sent me a message on Instagram around six months ago. And guys, we get a lot of Instagram messages. We get a lot of DMs and we can't reply to all of them. A lot of them get lost. And I don't even know how these came back. It kind of popped to the top of my inbox, like somehow. And I said, I replied and I said, hello, sorry it's six months late, but we'd love to come by and visit. So the invitation still stood and we're here now. We've got the first course on the way and I think there's several more coming afterwards. So it's going to be a good day. Yeah. Thank you. He advised us to have a very small breakfast today, which we did. We just had a little shake this morning. So we're ready to have a bit of a feast. Thank you so much. Smells really nice. It smells like Adobo. There has been a lot of food in these vlogs lately, guys. And I hope you're cool with it because I'm cool with it. I'm very cool with it, I have to say. We are trying first the gambas, freshly caught shrimps or prawns. Oh, the smell. Ooh, smells garlicky. I need to look up what exact sauce this is, but I'm going to take a couple here. They're already prepared. I don't need to de-shell or anything. All ready to go. Look at that. Mm. Wow. They have a kick, but they are, oh, delicious. Lucy's going to love them. Super spicy. That sauce, it's oily, but not greasy. A very, very rich flavor and a real kick. Super spicy. Mm. That is some of the best prawns I've ever had. Without a doubt. Lucy's just trying. I'm telling how spicy it is. I'm trying to describe the sauce. I'm having another one because they're so good. It's almost like Adobo sauce. It's rich. It's a bit tomatoey. Spanish sauce. Next up, four cheese pizza. We've got mozzarella, goat's cheese, Gruyere and blue cheese. I'm not the biggest fan of blue cheese, but I am going to try this. Thank you very much. And to accompany that, we have a homemade Caesar salad. Big fan of Caesar salad. Okay, so I feel like with pizza, we're going to have to go in with our hands. I have to say, I'm sorry. I'm that guy. Strong cheesers. I find difficult, but the way they blend together is actually delicious. So, so cheesy. It's quite a thin, crusty base. The base is incredible. That's really, you can really fold it up in half and just get in there with the cheese. Can have another bite. It's strong. I'll admit that bite was very strong cheese. Yeah, a little bit too strong for me. I'll be totally honest. But if you love blue cheese and strong cheese, that is a bloody good pizza. We're bashing through these courses. Caesar salad, delicious. He was telling us that Filipinos tend to like Caesar salad a bit more sticky, he said, as in the sauce. And it is a thicker sauce on here than I would usually have on a Caesar salad. Crunchy croutons as well. There's some bacon pieces and some more cheese on top. It's very, very cheesy Caesar salad. Guys, the food keeps coming. It keeps coming. We have some seafood pasta, which apparently is, what is it? Pasta Isabel. So it's like their, one of their signature pasta dishes. Again, recipe untouched and unchanged for years and years and years. They are soon going, yeah. They are soon going back to homemade pasta because they have in the past made their own pasta here. So we'll have to come back again. It'll be even better. Comment below if you don't like pasta. I've never met anyone in my life who- Comment below if you do. Well, comment below if you do as well, because then we'll get way more comments on the video and YouTube will love us. But if you don't like pasta, I'd love to hear it. Comfort food. The phrase that springs to mind straight away. Comfort food. It's creamy. It's delicious. There's mushrooms in here. There's vegetables. There's prawns. I feel like if I ate all of this, I would fill up straight away. A hearty meal. This actually really feels like somewhere that you'd bring your family, doesn't it? It feels like a real family feast place. You'd order a tonne of dishes. Amazing Sunday lunch spot. Sunday. Is it Sunday? It's Sunday for us. And you'd order a tonne of dishes. Everyone would be sharing, reminiscing, telling stories. I don't know. It feels like a real family. It's a home, isn't it? And I think they've given that across in the decor and the feel of this place and the food. Like you said, the comfort food. They've made it still feel like a home despite it being a restaurant. They've kind of kept that aspect, which is really, really cool. Wow, look at this presentation. It's beautiful. There's even little flowers on it. This is lapu-lapu with some capers. Is that some more pasta? Is that pasta? The little pastry looking thing. The lapu-lapu looks great. Oh, nice. Smells amazing. Really nice. Very salty. Very strong caper flavour. The fish is very flaky. Oh, it's delicious. Yeah. Look at this. So good. Every course so far has been top notch. Wow. This pasta, I don't know what it is or why. It's bright orange. It's delicious. It's so garlicky and oily. Oh, wow. What is it? Just a tonne of garlic butter. That's insane. I'd have a whole bowl of that. That's amazing. That's one of the highlights. Pesto, maybe. There's some sort of herb on it. This is the lengua. It's basically a very historical dish. We've been serving this in our family for almost 200 years. Wow. Yeah, it's a long-simmered tongue. Thank you. Ox tongue, and it's cooked with mushrooms and olives. Looks great. Great. We love this presentation. Thank you so much. Thank you. Look at this presentation. Now this is tongue. I've never eaten tongue before. So this is a first. Never had ox tongue. So this is honestly a first for me. He said it's soft. It's tasty and delicious. I mean, it does just look like meat. So let me try it with the sauce. A little bit of potato. So we have a nice bite there. Your tongue's on a tongue. Is that weird? Good? It's good. That is not as scary as it sounds. I think- Can you explain that we're British and we're not used to it? Yeah, I suppose we're not. I mean, we've got more adventurous over the years with food, but I have to say, tongue is something I've never eaten. It's hard to imagine that it is a tongue, but once you get that out of your head, the meat is really nice. Soft, tasty. They actually try and grow as much as they can here. There's a garden just behind us here and he has a mushroom shed in the back somewhere, which is controlled lighting, controlled temperature. And the flowers that you see on the presentation of these dishes are edibles as well. They grow them here. But I'm having more of this tongue. What you call the entraña, which is here. There's a lot of blood flow and there's a lot of flavor. So we have the chimichurri, the balsamic glaze, and then the meat glaze. Wow, look at that. Looks incredible. Looks great. Thank you so much. Again, look at this presentation. This is good. I like this. It's nice, soft. People in the West, in the US, would shoot the whole buffalo and just take the tongue out. Really? They just want that? And eat the whole carcass. Wow. I'm most intrigued by this. It looks like something that would go on a fancy headpiece or something. Nice, really soft steak. Looks amazing. So many flavors. Perfectly seasoned. Nice and salty. Nice and garlicky. There's lots of herbs on top as well. There's a balsamic glaze here, I think. Or is that the balsamic? Let me try. This is the balsamic. They all just complement each other perfectly. It's a real beefy taste. You can really get the flavor of the meat. Despite there being lots of sauces, the meat flavor really comes through. Very nice. This feels like a real Sunday lunch now, doesn't it? A nice bit of beef. So now we have a strawberry overload for dessert with a mango jubilee from the mangoes in the garden. I cannot even... Is there a cat? Speaking of cats, explain what's on the way for me. George is about to try a cat poop coffee. Civic coffee. About 30... Cat Puccino. It's about 30,000 pesos for a kilo. So about 800 pesos per cup. But chef has been kind enough to offer us to grind his own stash. From his own stash. Yes. He's got contact. He has. So he's gonna bring that over in a sec. But before it gets here, this is the dessert. It literally smells so delicious, so sweet, so fruity. So I'm gonna tuck into a little bit of it. I don't actually know what we've got here. Is it cheesecake? Oh no, it's like a... Ooh, strawberry shortcake. Award winning in the Philippines. This brings back childhood memories for me. There's a place called Pick Your Own, near where we live in England. You basically go to a farm, you pick fruits and vegetables, weigh them at the end and take them home. But the whole experience is getting to pick it yourself. And strawberries are the kind of main thing you go for. These taste exactly like them strawberries, like super fresh, home grown. As opposed... They've not had like pesticides on them and been through like a supermarket. These taste so fresh and so sweet, but not overly sweet. It's just that... I don't know how to describe it. It's like a homemade strawberry. I keep saying homemade. What do I mean? Homegrown, home picked. And this has apparently won several awards as best dessert in the Philippines. And I can see why. It's lovely. It's like a trio of desserts. Really good. Wow, looks good. Thank you so much. Interesting. Wow. Here it is guys. Wow. We've already told the vlog. The private stash. Yeah. Look at that. Thank you. It smells good. It does smell good. Thank you very much. Very generous. Do you like it? Oh yeah. I love it. I like the excelsa, which is the fruity. It reminds you of a lot of tropical fruit. This one is very foggy, very caramel, very round, very balanced. Wow. All right, I'll try it. Let's try it. First time trying this. Smells good. Smells strong. Got the beans next to you. That's good. Yeah. Yeah, that's nice. Very nice. As you say, very rounded, very easy to drink. Caramel? Strong, yeah, it is. Okay, we just got home and chef, before we left, Chef Gene presented us with this painting. It's a coffee painting. How awesome is that? Let me show you guys. Wow. Wow, nice. So good. It's a banana cube, Filipino street food. It's so cool. Look at that. It's a really nice texture to it. That's such a nice thought. And he wrote on it, George and Lucy. There. So, so nice. Really sweet. So this can be framed. We can put it in our new place. Yeah. Really nice memory. So that's cool. And also when we got home, there was a little gift from 325 Handcrafted. Designed and handcrafted in Manila, Philippines. And they're these little candles they sent over. Dear Lucy and George, rainy season is almost here and what better way to feel like you're back in the UK than scented candles and rain. Very true. We hope you enjoy our handcrafted candles made here in Manila from our family-run British Filipino business, from Connor, Melissa and baby Jamie. So we've got an English rose. Oh my goodness. That smells so strong. I love the smell of rose. Wow. Generous with the scent there. Really nice and strong. There's cafe mocha. They're 30 hours as well. These would be great in the new place. No, I can't wait. Are you going to like them tonight? I think so. All three. It smells amazing. Like a really strong coffee. It's really nice. And then the last one is strawberry shortcake. How fitting. We just had strawberry shortcake for dessert. Oh, wow. So strong. Oh, nice. So strawberry. So that brings this vlog to an end, I believe. Which one should we do now? I kind of want to do the rose one, I think. Okay. That brings this vlog to an end. And we hope you enjoyed coming along today. We had such a great day at the ancestral home with Chef Gene and the waiters there were all really lovely and the staff. And we had a bit of a feast. So we've got a lot of leftovers to enjoy this afternoon. You can check out his YouTube videos in the description. We'll pop his link to his channel down below because he's got his own YouTube channel where he does live videos and cooking demonstrations. He's got books. He's got a range of kitchenware, kitchen pro. A cooking school. Yeah, he's like a man of many talents, this guy. So if any of you are interested in that, we'll leave a link below. But we recommend you visiting because it was a really, really nice experience. The place was beautiful and the food was really, really good. So thanks for coming along on this vlog today. If you enjoyed it, don't forget to give it a big thumbs up. Subscribe if you're new and we'll see you in the next daily juice. Bye.