The Lenten season brings discipline, control and moderation to the foreground. PeopleAsia shares a list of handpicked meals and dishes that are enough to nurture the body and can still leave you room for nourishing the spirit, especially after your Lenten sacrifice .
Bamba
The name of this quaint, little restaurant was basically derived from the popular upbeat ditty of Ritchie Valens, what with “La Bamba” being the favorite song of the restaurant’s patriarch. The menu shows off an array of appetizers, soups, salads, hot and cold main courses and desserts. Special requests may also be arranged! Bamba has been on the bucket list of overall food lovers and picky palates, categorizing it as a must-try restaurant. Tina Legarda, owner and executive chef, invites guests by saying Bamba serves comfort food that’s “brimming all over with ‘happiness’ to satisfy its discerning clientele” and that they “have a little bit of everything; all are different from each other.”
Must try: Grilled prawns with roasted tomato risotto and goat cheese berlinoise
Gusto Trattoria Siciliana
Gusto is meant to be a “trattoria,” the Italian counterpart of a carinderia – no gimmicks, no frills. So here, the food is at front and center of the experience. Gerlando Guilliana, proprietor of the restaurant, explains that Sicily produces some of the best seafood in all of Italy. He decided to move to the Philippines just after a few weeks of vacationing here, bringing all the flavors of Sicily straight to the Metro.
Must try: Spaghetti Carrettiera, and their take on Fish and Potatoes
Lung Hin
Award-winning Hong Kong chefs Cheng Yeung Kwan and Ka Ming Pun were brought in to act as main Chinese and dim sum chefs, for Lung Hin. Together, they create a style of food that is described as authentic, traditional and contemporary Chinese. Although initially confusing, this paradoxical description makes sense as diners see Cantonese dishes updated using ingredients that are not usually associated with Chinese food.
Must try: Three flavored prawns and stir-fried crab meat with egg white and milk
I am Kim
“Kim” is an every man’s (or woman’s) name in Korea, very much like “Juan” here in the Philippines. The name is hardly arbitrary. Chef Him, the man behind the new concept restaurant, wanted to bring the cultural wave of quick and easy food to our shores for everyone to enjoy. He says, he wants diners to “become Kim for a while when you dine here. To experience the quirkiness of new, hip Korea.”
Must try: Customizable bibimbap and salmon and tuna bibmbap
Century Seafood RestaurantÂ
The concept of making simple, home-cooked Chinese meals and transforming them into culinary masterpieces has always been a Century Seafood Restaurant trademark. The taste has always been consistent and savory, refining people that good food is not complex; just using the best ingredients and bringing out the flavor would suffice.
Must try: Hot prawn salad
XO 46 Bistro Filipino
But seeing as how so much of the country’s history is filled with colonial influences, one must wonder: what exactly is Filipino food? So much of our language is loaned from our neighbors and colonizers. Surely our food can’t be, in every sense of the word, native? Named after the year the Philippines became a self-governing sovereign nation, this restaurant is a truly innovative experience that highlights Filipino food in a way that no other restaurant has been able to approximate. Andrew Masigan, one of the restaurant’s creators points out that “there was no culinary influence to exert over our palate” at that time. “We eat what’s in our landscape,” he urges.
Must try: Sinigang na talakitok and Enselada de maiz
