Cebu

These days, sushi has become mall fare, a bowl of Vietnamese pho is common winter comfort, and pad Thai has been tamed into ready-made box meals on the shelf at your local Acme. So it's a thrill to encounter an Asian culinary tradition that has yet to be reinterpreted for the American mainstream.

The food of the Philippines remains one of those final underexplored frontiers, at least on the East Coast. But I'm not entirely sure why. There are plenty of Filipinos in the region, especially around Cherry Hill. And unlike the fiery, fermented flavors of Korean cuisine (another misunderstood gem still awaiting its American culi-missionary), dishes from the Philippines are only mildly funky, with a warm salty-sour tang at the base of national dishes like adobo-stewed chicken. It borrows from the Chinese, Thai and Indian palettes, much as nearby Malaysia does. But the added Latin influence of Spanish cooking, due to Spain's long occupation of the archipelago, only heightens the tradition's accessible appeal.

What's not to like about the grilled garlicky sweetness of longaniza sausages, purple yam cake for dessert, and a crisp San Miguel lager to wash it all down?

And yet, when it came time to figure out what to do with the forgettable nightclub lounge that World Fusion had become - its ornate and soaring Old City bank space soggied beneath a steady flow of lurid pink and blue cocktails - owner Wilson Encarnacion was admittedly a bit hesitant to take the chance on interpreting his own birthright.

His family has for several years operated one of the region's only authentic Filipino eateries, Manila Bay in Northeast Philly. But would Old City really take to tokwa? Would it go gaga for seared shrimp Gata?

The answer ultimately lies in the hands of executive chef Guillermo Veloso and restaurant chef Willie Encarnacion (Wilson's brother). And though the notion still seems rife with potential, their early efforts at Cebu are flawed.

Veloso, who also runs Isla Ibiza, Encarnacion's tapas restaurant in Northern Liberties, might seem a prime candidate to conduct Filipino food's upscale face-lift. He spent years as the chef behind Cuba Libre nearby, revamping down-home Cuban cooking for the Nuevo Martini masses.