I know you’re always on a sugar high at Christmas, but if you must be picky, try and make room for the Bonete Donuts at Hapag Private Dining, the restaurant in Quezon City you’ve been hearing about, which is taking Filipino food fast forward into the future.

I’ve met two of the three chefs behind the progressive restaurant, Thirdy Dolatre and Kevin Navoa, and I don’t know why I refer to them as boys, except that I keep thinking of them playing around their lola’s kitchen and somehow coming up with dishes their lola would not frown at, but would also consider something refreshingly different.

The Bonete Donuts are just like that, like the past running into the future right in the present. There are currently only two flavors available, the PB&J or peanut butter and jam, filled with crunchy peanut butter pastry cream and blueberry jam frosting, and the turon that’s packed with grilled banana pastry cream, langka frosting, and crispy turon shards. They’re good and they’re new, just dropped about a month ago, yet they will remind you of breakfast or merienda as lola or mama would serve it.

Bonete or pan bonete or pambonete might have originated in Batangas, though Laguna also claims it, or it might have come all the way from Yucatan, Mexico or Costa Rica, where it is so named because it is shaped like a bonnet, more like a chef’s toque, if you ask me. At any rate, since it isn’t as common as pan de sal, Thirdy’s first encounter with it was in Lipa. “Mukha nga siyang bonnet talaga (It does look like a bonnet)! And traditionally, they glaze it with mantikilya (butter) after baking. Super sarap and soft!” beams Thirdy. “We really like the recipe of our Bonete and how versatile it is. We use it also for slider/burger buns, and soft sandwich loaf.”

At the height of the lockdown, he and Kevin Navoa, whom we call Nav, and Kevin Villarica, started making Bonete donuts for Hapag Family Meal. “Ang daming nag order kaya tuloy tuloy lang kami (So many were ordering so we decided to keep doing them),” says Thirdy. In fact, they even did a limited Bonete special devoted to Baguio and its heartwarming memories, which they expressed in two flavors—the Choco-late de Batirol with

There are currently only two flavors available, the PB&J or peanut butter and jam, filled with crunchy peanut butter pastry cream and blueberry jam frosting, and the Turon that’s packed with grilled banana pastry cream, langka frosting, and crispy turon shards.

Auro dark chocolate-tablea pastry cream, stuffed with suman sa lihiya and chocolate miso soil, and the Strawberry Taho with sago simmered in strawberry-sugarcane vin-red wine arnibal, soymilk diplomat cream, and strawberry-rosé and kaffir lime frosting.

If you should order now at Hapag, you only have PB&J and Turon to choose from, but the Hapag boys are coming up with more flavors. “We’re doing macapuno with pineapple frosting, and an interesting take on Gamet (local seaweed from Ilocos, similar to Nori) pastry cream with soy caramel frosting.”

I don’t know why I associate these Bonete donuts with Christmas. It’s not just the memories they evoke, it is in fact their taste and the way all the goodness oozes out of the bread with every bite.

Order from Instagram at hapag.mnl or book a table. Hapag Private Dining is at Katipunan Extension, 201 Katipunan Avenue, Project 4, Quezon City, 1800 Metro Manila. Or call 09475601853 (Phone or Viber)