Where Chocolate and Bagoong Meet

A very nice restaurant along Connecticut Street in Greenhills that has built quite a reputation is Angel's Kitchen. This restaurant serves home-style cuisine. However, its take on home-cooked dishes can be quite quirky, but definitely delicious, as we will soon find out.

 

For starters the fennel bulbs had a salad of mixed greens in mango poppy seed dressing with soft shell crab (~Php350). The dressing is a delicate balance of sweet and a bit of sour and goes very well with the crabs, which were fried well and are crunchy. 

 

Next is the pinakbet rice with bagnet (~Php380). This is the speciality of the house, and is definitely a must-try. In fact this dish is so popular it's actually award-winning. Pinakbet is a Filipino dish of Ilocano origins which primarily consists of vegetables, bitter squash (locally known as ampalaya) and okra sauteed in shrimp paste (bagoong). The rice is fried in the pinakbet and topped with bagnet (crunchy slabs of pork belly marinated in spices). But the quirkiness in this dish is really the condiment, which is chocolate bagoong! Bitter cocoa is mixed with sauteed shrimp paste, and the overall taste of their unlikely combination is something not to be missed.

 

Next is the beef pot roast (~Php420) in rich mushroom sauce. Perhaps a pitfall of ordering this dish is that they were quite overpowered by the pinakbet rice. Therefore it's highly suggested to eat the pinakbet rice last. The beef pot roast on the other hand was richly beefy. It seems quite likely that cream of mushroom was incorporated into the sauce. 

 

And the more delightful thing about Angel's Kitchen is that not only does it serve good meals, but it also serves great dessert. No one would have to go elsewhere to conclude a meal. 

And the very gracious daughter of the owner recommended the fennel bulbs to try a slice of Malakoff cake (~Php180). This is just sinfully delicious, with several layers of airy and crunchy cake, nuts, and dark chocolate. 

Angel's Kitchen truly lives up to its name.

Homely at Cafe Juanita

Many locals in Manila would prefer eating out in restaurants serving international cuisine, partly because a mindset has been formed that Filipino food can already be had at home, and there are too few restaurants with a concept that justifies the need for a dining scene serving Filipino cuisine. 

But one restaurant is definitely making a difference and the fennel bulbs would love to recommend the
place to anyone wishing to experience the dynamic flavours of Filipino food. Cafe Juanita is located at  
the corner of United Street and West Capitol Street in a quiet neighborhood in Pasig City's Kapitolyo 
district. 

The restaurant's interior is a rather eccentric trip back in time. A lot of antiquities adorn its walls, and a lot of interesting vintage accents add up to the place's overall quirkiness. These are memorabilia from the 1940's and the 1950's, from a time where cigarette packs were collected because their covers were too beautiful to be thrown away, and when magazine advertisements of products like Coca Cola were illustrated by artists. They simply had to be kept. 

The dish above is Cafe Juanita's version of Binagoongan (~Php385, Pork in Shrimp Paste Sauce). Crunchy bagnet (pork belly) was used. The bagoong (shrimp paste) has a sweet hint to it, resembling the flavour of hoisin sauce. The bagoong is not too salty to begin with. 

Next is the Laing (~Php270, pork and taro leaves stewed in coconut milk), which is a speciality from the Bicol region. Usually the dish is made with minced taro leaves (dahon ng gabi in Tagalog), and a considerable amount of pork fat is added to give the dish more zest. Also, chillies which are often used in dishes from the Bicol region, are added. Cafe Juanita's version is not very different, but the minced pork and taro leaves are wrapped in whole taro leaves, which is more aesthetically pleasing. This also seals the flavours inside the filling. 

Another inventive dish is the Ratatoy (~Php220), which is Cafe Juanita's comic take on the French dish, Ratatouille. The French version makes use of eggplants, courgettes, bell peppers, tomatoes, and herbs. This Filipinized version uses the same ingredients but makes use of local herbs like cilantro. The taste is reminiscent of Ensaladang Talong (Eggplant Salad) which is usually dressed in vinegar, fish sauce, tomatoes, and onions. 

Lastly is the heavenly Sansrival (~Php120 per slice). Sansrival is a rich multi-layered cake with nuts and creamy vanilla-based icing. This cake is quite popular among Filipinos because of its sweet, if not comforting, richness. This Sansrival in particular, is definitely sans rival.

If the fennel bulbs would be hosts to guests from a foreign land, they would definitely take them to Cafe Juanita for a memorable sampling of soulful Filipino food.