The last leg of the anniversary fundraiser of Mulberry Door and nawwTy’s Kitchen served a generous helping of local cuisine, with a side of community-building and women empowerment.
Trish Panlilio partnered with GREAT Women, a platform that supports women enterprises and economic empowerment, for the third dinner collaboration of nawwTy’s Gives Back which started in October until December 2019. The restaurateur showed her support for the women weavers by cooking up a menu featuring homegrown ingredients.
“We are happy to be partnering with the GREAT Women platform, because our rich indigenous Filipino culture is something to be proud, of and its preservation is something that we openly ought to support,” enthused Panlilio.
In the Philippines, the brand platform, led by Jeannie Javelosa, focuses on the sustainable supply chain of yarns, textiles, lifestyle apparel, and gifts. It works with nearly 40 weaving communities, many of them indigenous peoples around the Philippines.
The fundraiser allowed diners to purchase a select dish from the existing menu of Mulberry Door from which 20 percent was donated to GREAT Women to help fund for eyeglasses or spools of thread for the Bagobo Tagabaw (in the south) and Ibaloi (from the north) community weavers.
“We can help enhance the productivity of our weavers by having their eyes checked and giving them new eyeglasses,” said Javelosa.
Javelosa continued, “We had wondered why our GREAT Women weavers were so slow and realized it was because many of the older weavers could not see anymore. The handloom weaving process is so intricate that they need eyeglasses to see.”
She also said any additional funds from the partnership with Mulberry would go to purchase spools of threads for the indigenous weavers.
The selected menu from Mulberry Door includes Chipirones, Bone Marrow Onion Soup, Mushroom Chicken Asiago served with Sourdough Bread, Callos with Garlic Baguette, Luca’s Chicken Kiev with Mashed Potatoes, Eggplant Parmigiana with Ciabatta, and Lemon Carbonara.
In addition, the restaurant also served a full four-course meal inspired by indigenous cuisine. The special lunch menu consisted of Kalabasa Soup with Coconut Cream and Bagnet Chicharon, Tomato and Arugula Salad with Salted Egg Vinaigrette and Chicken Skin, Roasted Turkey Adobo with Kamote, Haricot Verts, and Sampinit served with Adlai Paella.
It was capped off with a delightful Ube Cupcake made by Joey Dyhianto of Doughmestic Botanicakes who has been collaborating with Panlilio at numerous events since last year.
With the success of nawwTY’s Gives Back in 2019, Panlilio said a second installment is in the works for 2020.
“We have so much to be grateful for the continued support from our patrons who have helped us grow from my home kitchen to custom catering business and eventually our first restaurant. We are inspired to continue offering quality dining experience with luxe comfort food and new dishes that we will develop to continue to delight our guests,” she said.
