Tapsilog's 'Royal' Family

It’s been said countless times, the simplest meals are usually the best. For the most part, this is true. Take the case of the tapsilog. It takes its name from the items that make up this particular dish: “tap” from “tapa”, “si” from “sinangag” and “log” from “itlog”. Tapa is simply jerky (either beef or pork, it doesn’t really matter), itlog is an egg (usually fried sunny side up but some people argue that it can be cooked any way), and sinangag is fried rice, Filipino-style, with lots of garlic. The sinangag is an important ingredient here. It definitely has to be sinangag, otherwise the dish would be called tapkalog if plain rice was used, the “ka” coming from “kanin” or “kan-on”. But that’s beside the point, best left for another article.

Three simple things making up a great and filling meal: tapa, sinangag, itlog. Who wouldn’t enjoy these three all at once? And the question arises. Where do we get this? Where else but Tapa King, at the Banilad Town Centre. A pioneer in the industry, with over twenty years experience in serving great tapsilog, Tapa King can probably be considered tapsilog royalty.

Several versions of tapsilog are served at Tapa King. The house special, called Tapa King, is actually the regular kind, with ordinary beef jerky. The Tapa Queen is served with a combination of sweet and spicy jerky, while the Tapa Prince comes with a slightly sweet version of beef jerky. A considerably bigger serving, christened the Tapa King Royale, comes with two fried eggs and tapa that’s a bit crispier than the regular kind. Whatever version you choose, you’ll certainly get the kind of tapsilog that’s been famous in Manila for the past two decades. Portions are very generous, and simple as the meal is, you’ll find it very enjoyable.

While tapsilog is the specialty at Tapa King, other silog items are also available. There’s the Longsilog (with longanisa), tocilog (with tocino), which some purists insist should be spelled “tosilog”, and dangsilog (with danggit, the local dried fish), something that is usually out of stock in the Manila branches. Fortunately for Cebuanos, running out of danggit here in Cebu is practically impossible. Again, all these are pretty good.

Those who don’t need a whole lot of meat to go with their rice can opt for a solo order of Mixed Rice, which is rice with shreds of scrambled egg and tapa and tocino (highly recommended!). Still with the unique Tapa King flavor, it kind of resembles Chinese-style fried rice and is a meal on its own. Not only that, it won’t make a dent on your pocket. Besides the silogs and the Mixed Rice, rice toppings, corned beef and burger steak meals are also offered, as well as salads, merienda and dessert items.

Choice merienda items are the palabok, which is really tasty and is big enough for two to share, and the champorado with tapa or danggit. For dessert, the sago’t gulaman, chocolate cake and leche flan will certainly please your sweet tooth. Highly recommended though, is Tapa King’s Flanna Banana, which is sweet banana with leche flan.

Of course, there is no way it can be considered a gourmet meal. Even with a name that denotes royalty, it is basic and uncomplicated. Still, the humble tapsilog does the job of satisfying one’s appetite. And when it’s as tasty and satisfying as Tapa King’s, then you can perhaps say it’s a job well done.

Sinulog Specials

One of the celebrations Cebuanos look forward to is the annual Sinulog festival. Meant to honor the Santo Nino, the image of the Christ child, the Sinulog festival is a spectacle that draws thousands of people. Involving themselves in the festivities are not just the Cebuanos, but people from all over the world. With all that celebrating, people can, and will definitely get hungry, and while there is no shortage of eating-places in Cebu City, it’s always a good idea to dine at restaurants that offer not only great tasting food, but also great value for money.

The Port Seafood Restaurant

Located inside the Waterfront Hotel complex in Lahug, The Port Seafood Restaurant offers both a lunch and dinner buffet. Touted as “Cebu’s favorite buffet”, The Port gives customers a wide selection of native and international dishes. The buffet at The Port is not limited to seafood, though. It also features salads, meat dishes, pasta, soup and desserts. Noteworthy items in the buffet are the native salads like the mango salad and the puso ng saging salad. The baked mussels make for great appetizers, as well as the crispy Teriyaki dilis. On your “to taste” list should be the sizzling bangus. Milkfish in coconut milk, garnished with sliced peppers, topped with bagoong (a pungent shrimp paste), and served on a sizzling plate, this is one delicacy diners will surely enjoy. Evening patrons have the added bonus of the tasty lechon Cebu is famous for. A short presentation of the Sinulog dance ritual will also be held during lunch and dinner for the month of January.

Golden Cowrie Native Restaurant

Tourists looking for an authentic Filipino dining experience, complete with eating off a banana leaf, should head over to Golden Cowrie Native Restaurant along Salinas Drive in Lahug. Among the dishes that stand out is the adobong kangkong, a leafy vine sautéed with onions and garlic and seasoned with a little soy sauce and vinegar. Golden Cowrie’s version differs slightly from the usual with the addition of a little bagoong, considered by some to be an important part of Filipino cuisine. Another dish to try out is the adobong talong, an eggplant-based dish that’s slightly sweet, really tasty, and truly Pinoy. Of course, Golden Cowrie would not be as popular as it is today without their crispy pata. A deep-fried thigh of a young pig, the crispy pata, as the name implies, is crisp, golden, and very succulent.

Chika-an sa Cebu

Another iconic restaurant, Chika-an sa Cebu, also along Salinas Drive, offers a menu that features a variety of Cebuano dishes and desserts. A definite “must try” is their crab with garlic. A huge crab, steamed and sprinkled liberally with garlic and curry powder, it will give seafood lovers something to smile about. For a taste that’s truly Cebuano, be sure to try Chika-an’s ampalaya with dilis salad. The bitterness of the ampalaya, or bittermelon, is offset (or is it enhanced?) by the flavor of the dilis, a tiny fish deep-fried to a crisp, and gives diners a crunchy, crispy and flavorful experience. As meal enders, the bico, or sticky rice cakes drenched in a sweet brown sauce called latik are definitely tops, as well as the turron with latik, which can be likened to deep-fried banana and jackfruit crepes.

Café Marco at the Marco Polo Plaza

From Salinas Drive, take a short trip up to Nivel Hills to the Marco Polo Plaza, and indulge in Café Marco’s Cebuano Foodfest. Dubbed “Cebuano Cuisine at Café Marco”, it’s ongoing up to the 27^th of January. The buffet features a wide variety of traditional Cebuano delicacies, from salads to main courses, as well as a nice assortment of international dishes, plus a well-stocked dessert station complete with a chocolate fountain and ice cream. One of the highlights of the buffet is balbacua, or oxtail stew with vegetables and peanuts. Beefy and very filling, meat and stew lovers would probably give this one a thumbs-up. Adobo, a traditional Filipino dish, usually present in a Pinoy feast, appears in the buffet in the form of adobong nukos, sautéed squid in vinegar and garlic. Tangy and tasty, this dish shouldn’t be missed. The ubiquitous bagoong makes an appearance once again in the hinipunan nga baboy, or sautéed pork in salted shrimp paste. Café Marco’s take on this Pinoy favorite is excellent, with the bagoong (lacking the distinctive offensive smell) adding a vitality that’s not usually found in pork.

Cocina Ysabella

With a name like Cocina Ysabella, you’d think this eating place came straight out of a telenovela, but no, you’re not gonna find Judy Ann Santos working the stoves and pots and pans. You’d find another Santos working Cocina Ysabella’s kitchen, though with no relation to Juday. Bong Santos, together with his better half Pia, give you the kind of food that makes you keep coming back for more. Serving mostly Filipino food, with a smattering of foreign dishes, Cocina Ysabella, located at the Paseo complex in Mabolo, gives diners a good selection of tasty and affordable treats.

Salad lovers looking for something out of the ordinary should definitely try the Kamayan salad. It’s actually the traditional Pinoy salad of mangoes, tomatoes and onions mixed with bagoong, a very pungent shrimp paste. At Cocina Ysabella though, grilled eggplant is added into the mix. The Kamayan salad is a cacophony of flavors and textures: crunchy, pulpy, soft, pungent, sharp, sweet and sour all at the same time. It provides the diner with a zesty and flavorful introduction to Filipino food.

Cocina Ysabella’s take on the Bicol Express will most likely leave diners gasping for breath after a few bites. Made from coconut milk-marinated pork and peppers sautéed in oil, the coconut milk gives the distinct flavor typical of dishes from Southeast Asia. Beware of the peppers however; at first taste, the hotness is not readily apparent, but it slowly creeps up on you and lets go with a kick a few mouthfuls later. It tastes great eaten with rice, as a viand, or as a beer match.

Another Pinoy favorite available at Cocina Ysabella is the chicharon bulaklak. Made from pork innards, specifically from the membranes holding pork intestines together, this deep-fried and crispy delicacy is popular all over the Philippines, especially among beer drinkers. Seasoned with salt and pepper, it tastes best when dipped in spicy vinegar and paired with a really cold bottle of San Miguel Pale Pilsen. Those with high cholesterol levels should be careful, though, as this particular dish is pretty much habit-forming.

If you’re Tagalog and you’ve been hard-pressed to find a decent sinigang here in Cebu, you should definitely try Cocina Ysabella’s sinigang. It’s got just the right amount of sourness sinigang is famous for, and comes complete with radish, stringbeans, okra, kangkong and gabi, with the gabi boiled down almost into mush. Of course, it should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: sinigang shouldn’t have cabbage or pechay, and Cocina Ysabella’s sinigang certainly doesn’t have these. An order is usually good for two people, so it wouldn’t hurt to bring a friend to share it with, if only to show how real sinigang is supposed to taste like.

A variety of other dishes are also available, among them beef caldereta, which is a stew made with meat, carrots and potatoes; burger steaks, fried chicken and Thai spring rolls. Of course, soft drinks, iced tea, beer and some kinds of liquor are also offered, so quenching your thirst or getting a buzz isn’t much of a problem at all.

For those who love Pinoy food, especially dishes from the island of Luzon, or for those who simply want to have a change from the regular sinugba or tinowa or ngohiong that’s available practically everywhere, a visit to Cocina Ysabella would surely be a good idea. Who knows, Juday might think so too.

Bountiful Repast

It’s that time of year when the weather gets colder, the mood gets festive, and parties come one after the other. The Christmas season has always been a joyful occasion, and Christmas Day, probably the most important day in Christendom. Food has always been an essential part of Christmas celebrations, and it has been the tradition of Filipino families to celebrate the eve of Christmas with a meal called the noche buena, a Spanish phrase roughly meaning “bountiful night”.

The Christmas Eve get-together acts as a prelude to the Christmas Day festivities. Families usually gather at the ancestral home, bringing special dishes to share with their loved ones. As much as possible, the more affluent families try to prepare a lechon, or roast piglet seasoned with salt and several kinds of herbs, since in the Philippines, a feast is not considered complete without one. Crisp golden brown skin on the outside, with tender juicy pork on the inside, many consider the lechon as the highlight of the noche buena meal.

The humble Lechon manok, a chicken seasoned with salt, pepper and herbs, has also found its way to the Christmas table. For the less prosperous, it acts as a substitute for the lechon itself, while for others, the lechon manok is a complement to the roast piglet. Other families, especially those with more Western tastes, serve turkey on Christmas Eve. Usually stuffed with wild red rice, onions, potatoes, carrots and herbs, baked for several hours and served with gravy, cranberry sauce or applesauce, the Christmas turkey provides an American touch to the otherwise traditional Filipino noche buena.

The Philippines’ strong Chinese influences also play a major part in the selection of food for the Christmas Eve meal. Lumpia, a spring roll containing vegetables, heart of palm, or ground pork, is often served, either fresh or deep-fried. Sometimes, both kinds are served during noche buena. Pancit, usually served during birthdays to signify long life, are also a popular choice for most people. Whether it’s Canton, bihon, palabok, Malabon or any one of its many versions, you can more often than not find it on many a Christmas Eve table. Spaghetti, which some say is the Italian version of pancit, is also another popular dish served during this meal.

The noche buena, a Filipino tradition, might be considered as being actually international cuisine. Aside from Filipino, American, Chinese and Italian dishes, some of the food served during noche buena can trace their roots to other countries. The ever-present queso de bola, while having a Spanish-sounding name, is basically Dutch Edam cheese. The different kinds of Christmas hams, though most of them are produced locally, are more or less European in origin. Apples and chestnuts, also very popular during the Christmas season, are obviously brought in from somewhere else, with the bulk of the imports probably coming from China. There is really no hard-and-fast rule in what foods to serve during noche buena though; any kind of food can be served. What’s important is those who will partake will enjoy whatever is on the table.

But probably even more important than the food is the spirit of Christmas itself. Christmas has always been the season for giving, and what could be more in keeping with the Christmas spirit than sharing our blessings with others? Think of those who won’t have as much, or none at all, on their tables this Christmas Eve, and spend a little less this time around. Buy a smaller lechon, or just buy three instead of four lechon manoks, or buy lechon manok instead of turkey. A smaller ham would probably do just as well as a big one, or a smaller bilao of pancit Malabon in place of the large one that’s not going to be eaten completely anyway.

Use the extra money to prepare several gift packages. A couple of packs of noodles, a few kilos of rice, a can or two of sardines (or corned beef if you’re really feeling generous), some sugar, salt, milk, coffee or juice, a few sweets (such as candies or cupcakes) for the kids in each package. Share them with the less privileged, the less fortunate this Christmas, and let the good feelings season and flavor the Christmas Eve banquet you’re planning to have. Believe me, your noche buena will taste much, much better.

Seafood to Savor

Anybody who’s ever seen “Ratatouille” will definitely do a double take when they see Maribago Bluewater’s new executive chef. Portly, with a knack for coming up with fantastic tasting dishes, Chef Jose Miguel Lontoc is a dead ringer for the movie’s fictional yet celebrated Chef Gusteau. Exuding a charm and grace typical of an old-world gentleman, Chef JoeMike exhibits a culinary skill the cartoon chef and his creators can only dream of.

Chef JoeMike moved to Cebu from Manila about half a year ago, to take charge of culinary as well as administrative duties in Maribago Bluewater. Educated in Australia and having done consultancy work for several hotels both abroad and in the Philippines, the move to Maribago was a perfect one, both professionally and on a personal aspect. He says the laid-back lifestyle in Cebu is a welcome change from the hectic pace and pressure he was accustomed to.

The Cove is a seafood restaurant, and Chef JoeMike’s rule of thumb when it comes to seafood: fresh is always best. At the Cove, the seafood isn’t just fresh, it’s live! Crabs, prawns, lobsters, fish and mollusks are kept in aquariums, taken out only when they are ready to be prepared and cooked.

Dinner at The Cove was a multiple celebration: my wife Chacha’s 33rd birthday, my third year of writing for Sun.Star, and a reunion between Chef JoeMike and me. We had been classmates in grade school in LSGH and it’s been 23 years since we last saw each other. Incidentally, it’s also Sun.Star Cebu’s 25th Anniversary on November 25, so please allow me this opportunity to greet the Sun.Star family a very happy Silver Anniversary.

So back to the food: my wife and I started out with a simple clam chowder. Unlike most cream-based soups that tend to be heavy on the stomach, The Cove’s clam chowder was very light, yet still creamy. With diced potatoes, small pieces of clam as well as a whole white clam in the center, for both aesthetic and gastronomic purposes, it was a great way to begin a meal.

Raw oysters came next, with three different kinds of toppings. Sushi lovers will like the oysters with uni and tobiko roe, with the orange fish eggs and a sweet and sour taste. Those with more European tastes might prefer the horseradish and caviar topping, with the horseradish giving the bite and the black caviar a bit of a crunch. The topping I found most to my liking was the cocktail sauce. Most Cebuanos would find the taste very familiar, spicy and vinegary, perfectly complementing the taste of the oyster.

Abalone with jellyfish followed, tasting somewhat like mushrooms in oyster sauce, with a light undertone of pepper. It’s a great-tasting dish that’s not really part of the menu, although I’m sure Chef JoeMike will gladly prepare it for you as long as you ask nicely.

Diners will probably find the gambas al ajillo at The Cove a bit different from what they’re used to, although they’ll definitely be satisfied with what arrives at the table. Using huge prawns instead of the usual small shrimps, prawn lovers will be able to savor the flavor of the prawn meat itself, not just the sauce. When ordering, be sure to specify whether you like it mild or spicy, and Chef JoeMike will adjust the taste accordingly.

Another round of oysters was served, this time baked, with different toppings: creamed arugula and cheese, blue cheese and garlic, and lemon-butter sauce. The creamed arugula with cheese was interesting: while cheese is usually a mainstay when baking oysters and mussels, the cream and arugula provided a counterpoint to the saltiness of the cheese, not to mention a dash of color. The blue cheese and garlic topping was also different, yet comforting: images of grilled tahong with cheddar cheese and garlic at our back yard came to mind. Of course, you can never go wrong with a good lemon-butter sauce on seafood, and Chef JoeMike proves this with his own version of the ever-popular sauce.

The main courses were lobster cooked two different ways, and an incredible steamed lapu-lapu. The Chinese-style lapu-lapu, which practically melts in your mouth, has actually been part of the menu at Maribago Bluewater even before Chef JoeMike arrived. According to him, it’s the only item whose recipe he didn’t touch, save for making a few adjustments for consistency. He explains, “I don’t fix things when they aren’t broken, so there was no reason for me to alter the recipe of the lapu-lapu.”

Both the Lobster Thermidor and the Asian-style Lobster were delicious, giving my wife and me a chance to compare which way of cooking suited lobster better, European or Asian. The cheese perfectly accented the flavor of the meat in the Thermidor, and the lobster being fresh, it was no surprise that the meat was tender as can be. Traditionalists will definitely enjoy the lobster cooked this way, while those with more adventurous palates should try the Asian-style lobster. Cooked with coconut milk, lemongrass and chili, it gives diners a whole new perspective when they look at lobster. The lobster meat still tender and succulent, the coconut milk and chili gave a Southeast Asian twist to the already delectable lobster. If made to choose between the two though, I would pick the lobster, Asian-style.

The Cove sets a pretty good table, with Chef JoeMike, Food and Beverage Manager Douglas Berido, Daisy, Bert, Christian and the very efficient staff, cooks and all, working together to give guests a great culinary experience. As a matter of fact, a lot of people, me included, can honestly say that the food at The Cove Seafood Restaurant rank among the best in Cebu.

Food writers really have a tough job, weeding out the good from the bad, the bland from the flavorful, and writing about it. Chef JoeMike and his staff has made my job in this instance very easy, serving me and my wife a fantastic meal, and making our visit to The Cove a memorable one. I may not be an Anton Ego, the critic in “Ratatouille”, but I find myself paraphrasing him: “I will be returning to The Cove soon, hungry for more!”

Pinoy Pleasers

Walk into a restaurant that offers Filipino food and more often than not, you’ll find crispy pata on their menu. Having that, there’s also a big possibility that the crispy pata’s younger brother, the lechon kawali, will also be included in the menu.

The crispy pata has long been a popular food in the country. Simply put, it’s just the pata, or thigh, of a young pig, seasoned with salt, pepper and marinated in vinegar, or is it the other way around? It’s then dumped in a pot of boiling oil and deep-fried for as long as it takes to cook. The lechon kawali is practically the same thing: a portion of pork belly prepared the same way, and cooked the same way.

But just what is it about these two dishes that they always have to be served in a place that offer Filipino dishes? Perhaps it’s the contrasting textures one gets when biting into a slice: the crispy pork skin, the tender meat, and the fatty region in between. Or maybe it’s the taste of the tender meat and skin dipped in a mixture of vinegar, soy sauce, Philippine lemon, red peppers, garlic cloves and onion bits: meaty, yet sour, sweet and spicy all at the same time. Or is it because these two dishes are typical of the way Pinoys love food, simple yet satisfying? Or maybe, just maybe, it’s all of the above.

SerJos, at the ground floor of Mango Park Hotel along Mango Avenue, is not exactly a purely Filipino restaurant. As a matter of fact, about half of their menu feature international dishes, but among the Filipino dishes they do serve, the crispy pata and lechon kawali certainly stand out.

SerJos’ crispy pata is definitely a no-brainer for lovers of Pinoy food. Unlike the oily and not-so-crispy examples found at other establishments, the crispy pata at this restaurant is cooked and served the way it should be. It’s dry on the outside, with almost no trace of oil, and very juicy on the inside. The skin is crispy, yet not cooked too long that it becomes as crunchy and tough as chicharon. The meat itself has a slight crust from being deep-fried, but it serves to keep the juices in. Expect the same thing when you order the lechon kawali. Crisp, yet tender and juicy when you bite through the thin crust that is the result of deep-frying. On their own, these dishes already taste good, but a drop or two of the vinegar-soy sauce mixture can make things more interesting, especially when you throw in a lot of red chili peppers into the mix. As viands, both the crispy pata and lechon kawali are perfect with rice for a great meal. As bar food, however, these two can serve as fantastic pulutan for beer or hard liquor.

While these two dishes are definite palate-pleasers, the other items on the menu are also worth a taste. Baked mussels, grilled stuffed squid and other well-liked international dishes such as ebi tempura and steak are offered as well. Still, for most Pinoy food lovers, a wide variety of international dishes wouldn’t really matter at all, if there’s something as wonderfully satisfying as crispy pata and lechon kawali on the table. And at SerJos, you absolutely won’t go wrong ordering these two.

Magnifico!

“Ask a thousand Italians to cook lasagna and you’ll end up with a thousand different versions,” says Rico Matta, a transplanted Italian and proprietor of Rico’s la Trattoria, an Italian restaurant located in the Century Plaza complex along Juana Osmena St. He goes on to clarify that though Italian food has its basic recipes, most Italians have their own ideas of how each dish or sauce should taste like. That being so, there is actually no right or wrong recipe when it comes to authentic Italian cooking.

Like most Italian men, he puts his mother on a pedestal; he relates that he learned a lot about cooking from his mother, and most of the food he serves at the trattoria are versions of the dishes his mother used to cook. And like most Italians, he prefers to make his own pizza dough and pasta. Of course, his sauces are also made from scratch; homemade is the key word in Rico’s kitchen.

Pizza is essentially a choose-your-own-topping affair: starting with a basic cheese pizza with real mozzarella cheese, customers can choose from different toppings like pepperoni, ham, bacon, mushrooms, onions and peppers, among others. Diners can also specify if they want their pizza crispy or not.

Homemade pasta is the norm at Rico’s, by way of a pasta machine, and is always cooked al dente. Raviolotti, a slightly larger version of ravioli, is also available at Rico’s. Stuffed with spinach and ground beef, and swimming in a rich meat sauce, this dish would be a great introduction to Italian food for people whose experience with pasta is limited only to spaghetti Bolognese and the occasional fettucini ala carbonara.

The pesto and Bolognese at this restaurant are both, to quote an old popular TV commercial, “magnifico!” The pesto is made fresh, from basil, olive oil and pine nuts. It tastes the way it should: just the right blend of sweet and salty, just a little nutty, and definitely not so oily as to be uneatable, even though pesto sauce is composed mostly of olive oil. The Bolognese is made from tomato paste, not tomato sauce, and given the nationality of the cook, the code of Omerta automatically kicks in. Rico’s secret way of cooking the sauce remains exactly that: a secret. Nevertheless, the richness of the tomatoes and the flavor of the meat blend together perfectly, and give diners an idea of how la dolce vita is supposed to taste like.

Rico’s marinated pork in brown sauce is a sure winner for diners looking for meat dishes, while the gnocchi in cream sauce is also worth a taste. Aside from the food, the restaurant also offers live music on most nights, and has an outdoor dining area for those who prefer it al fresco. Given the Cebuanos’ propensity for good food and leisure activities, Rico’s la Trattoria is undeniably a welcome addition to the city’s dining and entertainment scene.