Gastronome Giving is an admirable initiative that combats involuntary hunger, and comes from Globe Platinum and the Fine Dining Club Philippines in collaboration with the Hapag Movement. In this year’s edition, which commenced in June and goes on until Aug. 31, when we dine at six pre-selected establishments and partake of their promotional menu, we contribute to the movement, giving noble purpose to our fine dining. This year, the partner restaurants are Kasa Palma, Goxo and Taupe here in Metro Manila; Mrs. Saldo’s in Cavite; Anzani in Cebu; and Roots in Siargao.

Along with two of my sons, we headed to Kasa Palma, as only Matteo had previously sampled the creations coming from an Aaron Isip kitchen, when it was still Balai Palma. And Matteo had been enthusiastic about Isip’s thoughtful renderings of his French-trained techniques blending with Filipino ingredients and cuisine, complemented by his travels and other influences. That this was an eight-course dégustation menu, primarily composed of local seafood bounty, had me wary at first, but I was ready to give it a try.

Wary because with a good majority of the dégustation menus I’ve had here, there will only be two or three courses that I would actually order if I returned to the restaurant. While the other six aren’t bad, they aren’t outstanding — and two out of eight isn’t a batting average to write home about. More often than not, I’m underwhelmed and underfed, so I often think twice when a tasting menu is thrust in front of me.

The Kasa Palma dégustation — all named in French — kicks off with a trio of hors d’oeuvres: a croquette, a ceviche and a tartlette. The croquette is spider conch, with bilimbi tartare and papada Ibérico — so this is like a sea snail/escargot croquette, flavored with kamias and pork jowl. It works wonderfully and sets us off on the right note of being something familiar, but with a new flavor.

The ceviche is sea mantis, cotton fruit leche de tigre and bisque tapioca crisp. So that’s again with a fruit element, this time santol, and the crisps providing texture. The tartlette is Manila clams, seaweed tart, a clam custard and topped with ikura. These are all fresh takes on how seafood is presented and served up. The visual works hand in hand with flavor profiles that are on a subtly spicy side.

The next course is Aaron’s Tartare — his take on a personal favorite of mine, the often-ignored cold soup. It’s horse mackerel crudo, Japanese cucumber salad, cucumber gazpacho snow, seaweed and yogurt-mint aguachile. Besides looking so pretty, the great thing here is how when you mix all the things up, it’s just a refreshing play of perky flavors and diverse textures, with the overlay of being a semi-frozen delight.

The Croque Madame is Isip being whimsical, adding a brunch or afternoon snack favorite to his tasting menu. It’s yellowtail tuna and sea urchin in chili-calamansi, uni Mornay, their sourdough shokupan toast, Parmigiano Reggiano, quail egg and caviar. So it’s literally a mini-Croque, but with a quail egg, and with the ham replaced by tuna and uni, plus all these elements like the caviar. It’s the most indulgent Croque I’ve had, and I loved it.

The Boudin Noir is the “pasta” dish made with somen, squid à la plancha, boudin sausage in cuttlefish ink, sigarilyas and topped with crumbled chicharrón. So this would be like the black paella dish of the house, and represented the courses toning down from the sharp, citrusy aspects of the previous courses. I would have been curious to taste this with the chicharrón not as crumbled.

The bouillabaisse is three kinds of fish, all flavored with ube, and in traditional bouillabaisse form, accompanied by rouille and toast. It’s grouper, tilefish and red snapper, and I appreciated how different the three morsels of fish were. The ube worked beyond expectations, and I liked the touch of the rouille.

The last main course was the pithiviers, a baked creation of French squab, foie gras, pigeon confit, beetroot, adobo jus, shisito farci with pigeon liver mousse and heart, and a tamarillo gastrique. For me, this was Kasa Palma’s answer to Beef Wellington, and I liked the addition of the beetroot within the crusted creation, and the shisito pepper on the side.

The two desserts were a sorbet and a glace. The sorbet was dominated by the longan and lychee, to which a cashew frangipane, longan crème and coulis were added. The glace was purple sweet potato ice cream with soy cereal crunch, foie gras salted cream and ube tuile. I liked the sorbet, while one of the boys raved about the glace and the touch of cereal crunch.

On the side, we sampled the Palma tupig, curious how caviar had been added to this very homegrown food item. While Chef Aaron was not around, I’m more than happy to say the service and staff were excellent. Even the pacing of the courses was on point.

In retrospect, this was a dégustation experience I would heartily recommend. If I were to return, only two of the courses would be dishes I would not feel a great need to revisit or share with others. I also perused their à la carte menu, pleased to discover how most of the offerings did not form part of the tasting menu — giving me more great reasons to return.

Kasa Palma is a true elevated dining experience, their eight-course dégustation a Gastronome Giving winner.