People from different age groups recently trooped to the Joy Ride! by NutriAsia food truck in Luneta, eager to have a taste of both traditional and new Filipino comfort food made with quality products of NutriAsia.
According to Dang de Leon, corporate marketing consultant at Nutri-Asia Inc., the food truck goes around the metro serving reimagined local food fare.
"We tweak classic Pinoy comfort food to make the taste more appealing to millennials,” she explains, saying that the brand has partnered with GalaStars Culinary, which is headed by renowned chef Ernest Reynoso Gala, “because they know what young people want.”
Chef Gala is very excited about collaborating with NutriAsia. He points out, “They have so many wonderful products and as a chef, I have a lot of fun being creative with the recipes I am developing.”
The chef appreciates the fact that the leading condiments brand in the Philippines offers well-known products like Datu Puti and Mang Tomas, and that its excellent pre-mixes make cooking a lot easier, especially for harried homemakers.
The Joy Ride! by NutriAsia’s bill of fare offers meals like Adoburrito, with a choice of Spicy Adobo and Humba Adobo, a dish popular in the Visayas. The Adoburrito wrap is a combination of the popular adobo and burrito, created with highly mobile young professionals in mind.
Acknowledging that each and every region in the country has its own version of adobo, NutriAsia, de Leon avers, puts their Datu Puti adobo series to maximum use.
Crowd favorites
Other food choices at Joy Ride! are based on crowd favorites, usually a combination of dishes that are well-liked in the metro as well as in the provinces.
De Leon recommends the Pinoy Chicken Slider served with pan de sal and the Siga Bagnet Wrap, which is prepared using Mang Tomas Siga, a spicy version of the regular Mang Tomas sauce. It also has Datu Puti vinegar and cucumber to give it a kick.
One of the crowd favorites, Skinny Chix, is street food made crunchier and more flavorful by using NutriAsia’s recently launched, Golden Fiesta Big Crunch Fry and Shake, a first in the market. The breading mix comes in smoked barbeque, cheese, and sour cream variants.
According to Chef Gala, the food is prepared in GalaStars Culinary and then brought aboard the food truck, where "We cook everything on-site so that the food is fresh when served.”
Chef Gala has nothing but compliments for NutriAsia’s products. “When one has excellent condiments to work with, it is easy to adjust the taste and formulate the recipes. Cooking becomes ‘masarap masaya’.”
Affordable prices
Prices are affordable too, as meals at Joy Ride! range from P40 to P80. Servings are larger than average so each meal can be shared. This is so everyone may have a taste of the creations offered by the food truck.
Apart from making condiments and sauces, NutriAsia, de Leon reveals, has ventured into beverages. “We have pick-me-ups in mangosteen, guyabano, kamias, dalandan and kalamansi. These are locally sourced Pinoy fruits that we have bottled into natural juices.”
Watch for the Joy Ride! by NutriAsia, which started rolling out in Metro Manila this month, serving people at food parks, employees of business process outsourcing (BPO) companies, and customers at bazaars, events, and universities.