Satisfy Your Taste Buds with the Best Filipino Cuisine in Manila

Over two years ago, Andrew Zimmern of Travel Channel’s “Bizarre Foods" said that Filipino food was destined to soon dominate the culinary zeitgeist. It’s 2014, and Filipino food hasn’t quite topped kale as the trendiest thing Americans digest. If you can’t wait for the deluge to come to you, just buy a ticket for the Philippine capital of Manila, where you’ll immediately realize that the Filipinos’ love for food is only seldom eclipsed by their obsession for singing and going to the mall. Here’s a guide to the dining scene in Metro Manila to get yourself prepared for the next big food craze, when it eventually gets to the U.S.

If you’re going to select your hotel based on the strength of its breakfast service, book a room at either Raffles or Fairmont in Makati, the business hub of the Metro Manila region. They share the same building and breakfast operation at Spectrum, a restaurant on the ground floor. Here, you can really dig into the satisfying tradition of starting your day with garlic fried rice. Such a simple, fragrant treasure, garlic fried rice (white rice and garlic tossed in a wok) goes perfectly with everything else. Starting bright and early in the morning, Filipinos are ready to eat foods such as tapa (cured or dried beef), tocino (thick, fatty cuts of sweet pork), and daing na bangus (fried or steamed milkfish). These plus much more are available at the buffet at Spectrum. Sprinkle calamansi, the teeny-tiny lime-looking souring agent, on any of them, and you’re already eating like a local.

Be sure to save room for dessert. If it’s tropical fruit you’re after, there’s a station dedicated entirely to mango desserts such as tapioca with mango, mango cheesecake, and even mango chunks on a stick.

Because of the horrible traffic in Manila, no one wants to travel far for food, which might explain why there are so many restaurant chains in town. One of the most popular is Kanin Club (kanin means rice in Tagalog), which boasts no fewer than six supercasual locations in the capital district. The menu is packed with some of the country’s most iconic dishes, including kare-kare, in which a rich, peanut butter sauce anchors a stew of tripe, pork (though oxtail is more commonly used), eggplant, bok choy, and green beans. You eat this with bagoong, which is fermented shrimp paste that adds the right amount of saltiness to every spoonful. It may make you question your commitment to jelly as peanut butter’s rightful partner.

Kanin Club has more than 10 different kinds of rice, from regular, steamed white rice to a most wonderful aligue fried rice. Aligue is something most people usually discard, but Filipinos love the briny sweetness of crab fat, and here it’s sauteed with white rice for a truly high-cholesterol indulgence.

Chef Tatung is another Pinoy favorite, with a twist. Founder and chef Myke Sarthou used to host private dinners in his dining room and backyard in Quezon City before business got too big. He opened the restaurant in Taguig in 2012. This is where you should try adobo, the most well-known Filipino dish of all. Adobo is made by essentially cooking meat in its own marinade; in this case, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, black pepper, and bay leaves.

Adobo is prepared differently in different areas of the Philippines, and Chef Tatung offers four kinds. You can try all four in a sampler portion to get a sense of how adobo became the unofficial national dish of the Philippines. The Ilonggo style might be the most flavorful because there’s both pork and chicken in the dish, and its sauce is laced with mashed chicken liver; but the adobong Bisaya, which hails from the central region of Cebu, has its meat slow-crisped in lard, adding an unexpected crunch to every bite.

If you want some tried and true Filipino comfort food, check out one of two locations of Romulo Cafe. This restaurant was opened by the granddaughter of former Philippine presidential hopeful Carlos P. Romulo and is guaranteed to please your taste buds. The Mixed Bicol Express, which has long been a crowd pleaser, is a combination of pork, squid, shrimp, and clams cooked in coconut milk and kicked up with chopped green chili. Try cuisine from the country’s Ilocos region, in the northwest reaches of the archipelago, at Victorino’s in Quezon City. The year-old restaurant goes for a homey vibe with tiled floors, wooden armoires for decor, and authentic Ilocano cooking. The thing to get here is the incredibly addictive bagnet, which are deep-fried (who knows how many times) chunks of pork belly. The only way to eat it is with KBL, a savory mixture of kamatis (tomatoes), bagoong (fermented shrimp paste), and lasona (red onions). With your stomach full of delicious food, cap the night off with one of Henry Sison’s cakes. Sison is one of the premier pastry chefs in the country, and there’s a massive selection of his creations at Victorino’s, such as the extravagant mango and chocolate torte.

Another thing to know about Filipino food, it’s not for the health-conscious.

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