YOU must experience this. Two weeks ago, Chef Rox whispered to me where I could find imported salmon belly. I immediately sent our purchaser to get a few kilos that we could offer in our food outlets. After trying out many ideas, we agreed that the best was to prepare something very basic. Nothing sophisticated.

Before bringing the new discoveries to my outlets, I decided to serve it to some friends. We had a small gathering at my assistant Greg's hut to celebrate the last day of our badminton tournament plus to see if the idea of the salmon belly had potential.

The belly was cooked sinigang-style with a slightly sour soup base. From the reactions of those who tried it, I am confident it will do well in my outlets. Problem is, this type of meal consumes a lot of rice. You drown your rice in the sinigang soup, add a few drops of patis with a squeeze of calamansi juice, crushed finger sili and eat away.

What's nice about this meal is that it is guilt-free. With that, we had some crunchy ukoy with a sweet vinegar-chili sauce and adobong kangkong. Everyone loved everything, unless they were just being polite.

The second dish I came up with was a barbecue salmon belly with a chili bagoong sauce on the side. We marinated the fish, then stuck the belly in a barbecue stick and broiled that over charcoal. With white rice, it is a simple feast--the type that makes you hum while eating. I had this last week at Enterprise and I was so happy I kept talking to myself. I did all this experimenting last week to make sure these items were out by today.

Because of limitations in my variety of meals, only Galing-Galing Express at Robinsons Galleria and Sandy's Cuisine at Enterprise bldg. in Makati will be serving the Sinigang na Tiyan ng Salmon. All other outlets of Mai Thai in Robinsons Galleria, Shangri-La in Shaw, Glorietta 4 in Makati and Robinsons Place Manila will be serving the Thai version of sinigang--Tom Yam Pla. All these outlets will be offering the Barbecue Tiyan ng Salmon with Chili Bagoong Sauce.