I’ve always been of the opinion that part of the joy of food, as well as eating, is its power to trigger memories long past—of a happy tummy and the events, as well as the ambience surrounding the moment. In such cases, taste may take a backseat to nostalgia…yet, knowing me, taste does not completely disappear from consideration.
KFC and Jollibee
MMM. Was going to meet up with my cousins for dinner, but got to the mall a few hours early to go have some lunch and walk around. First stop was the food court, where we immediately picked out Jollibee and KFC as our cheap eating destination. One might question the need for even going to KFC, given that it is available everywhere, especially the US, yet I still wanted to go because of one item in their menu that I’ve only ever seen in the Philippines—KFC Hotshots. Hotshots are crispy and spicy chicken nuggets that you eat with KFC’s delicious gravy. I remember craving for these every so often when I was living in Manila—even though I was allergic to chicken at the time (a further testament to how satisfying they are). The combination of crisp, spicy batter and tender chicken with the salty KFC gravy is delicious.
Jollibee on the other hand is the top fast food chain in the Philippines, a triumph over the ubiquitous McDonalds that is number one in most countries all over the world. Although I’ve tried the Jollibee in California (pricey and quite dirty in my opinion), nothing beats eating Jollibee in its home country and we split on the Spaghetti and Chickenjoy combo, which came with a drink. One thing to note about Jollibee spaghetti, or Filipino spaghetti for that matter, is the sweetness of the bright red sauce—they add sugar to it, as Filipinos like the sweet-salty combination. The Chickenjoy on the other hand was just as I remembered it—every bite came with a loud crunch.
Probably one of my first stops in Manila for good Filipino food, as I have food memories eating here since elementary school—maybe even younger (my dad’s office had this restaurant on the 4th floor and sometimes we would come here for lunch).
Filipino Breakfast—Crispy Tapa with Garlic Rice, 2 Eggs and some Atchara (pickled vegetables) As I’ve said before, I CRAVE Filipino breakfasts every once in a while in the US. I’ve been used to eating relatively savory foods for breakfast, and dislike eating pastries and the like in the morning. In any case, a traditional Filipino breakfast consists of the following components: (1) sinangag, or rice tossed in a pan with garlic, egg or some meat; (2) a meat/fish component—bangus (milkfish), tapa (marinated beef steak), longganisa (sweet/salty pork sausage), tuyo (salted fish), tinapa (smoked milkfish), Spanish sardines, or corned beef sautéed with garlic and onions, etc.; (3) eggs—or sometimes also a sarciado, which is like scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions. The traditional beverages that come with a Filipino breakfast are Spanish chocolate or coffee.
For dessert, we ordered the bibingka, which is a cake made out of rice flour, coconut milk and sugar. Traditionally, bibingka is cooked in a pan lined with banana leaves, which is placed over a charcoal heating source for it to rise—similar to a pancake. For bibingka in Via Mare, they let you pick what type of toppings you want on your bibingka between salted egg and queso de bola (“ball cheese”: salty Edam cheese); however, I discovered that you also could put in quesong puti (“white cheese”: milky, spongy cheese), because I said quesong puti instead of queso de bola before, so my special bibingkas come with all three toppings. Also, bibingkas come with desiccated coconut. Eating my bibingka was like heaven—fluffy, subtly sweet and coconut-y bibingka with the salted eggs and salty, melted cheese on top. The contrast of textures between fluffy bibingka and spongy cheese with the cheese and coconut topping was also yummy. I had my “happy food face” on—closed eyes, small smile on my face, me savoring my delectable food. What can I say—I don’t know if it was just my feelings of nostalgia and comfort, but I felt that the bibingka was pretty much perfection.
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