More pineapple stuff for the Pineapple Room. Michael made some pineapple ketchup using yellow tomatoes, the same with aji Amarillo, and another one with Panang Curry. We already have a red version of PR ketchup that has a charred pineapple in it, spiced up with sambal oelek. By definition, a ketchup has vinegar and spices in them. It doesn’t have to be red in color, nor made with tomatoes. You can make mango ketchup, the Filipinos even have banana ketchup in the stores. The earliest form of ketchup was kecap manis, a soy-colored and flavored liquid. The trend in restaurants today is to make as much as you can from scratch yourself, even ketchup and mustards. When you break the traditional ideas and concepts, coming up with your own flavors is fun, not only for you as a culinarian, but for the customers to eat. You also break their perceptions of things like ketchup or condiments when they try something new. That is why when people are more well-travelled than ever before and their palates are more sophisticated, they have eaten all kinds of global dishes and reinterpretations of classics, creative versions of old concepts------this is the reason why we need to keep abreast and keep moving forward with food and flavor.
