_Is a bigger burger really better?  For me it depends on what you made it bigger with.  Now, if you're making that burger bigger with more real, high quality beef, then yes, a bigger burger definitely makes me happier!  If Pergola Mall were on my way home from work I'd probably be eating here more often.

My usual order here is the One Third Pounder, no cheese -- gotta watch the calories, and also because I usually want to enjoy the beef without diluting its flavor.  Normally this burger's enough to fill me up, so I don't even have to order sides unless I'm really starving.  BBB's burgers are thick, juicy, have the crumbly texture of an all-beef patty, and because they're grilled, have a lightly smoky flavor.  You may have to wait a bit for your burger on a busy day, because they grill each order fresh; me, I consider the wait worth it!

Taking Cat here for the first time -- she was in Davao when BBB opened -- we got the One Third Pounder, a side of Potato Wedges, and the Chicken Parmigiana rice meal.  We loved the potato wedges, nice thick slices of potato, skin on, crisp outside and perfectly cooked through inside.  Cat says if she can't have mashed potato, her fave potato dish, she'll gladly settle for this any time.  Me, I think my next order of burger will have to include this.  There goes the calorie count!  We also liked the Chicken Parmigiana, the sauce was nice and savory, and there's a generous topping of melted cheese on top.  I'm a sucker for melted cheese on rice, so again this dish is a winner for me.

_Still, if you're coming to Big Better Burger for the first time, you should be here for the burgers.  Yes, they're that good.  BBB's patties compare very well with the product of a classic Filipino chain we who're old enough to like retro stuff know well, but because it's grilled I'll have to consider BBB's even better. 

Big Better Burger is an up-and-coming chain with 10 branches already throughout Metro Manila, the Pergola Mall branch being their 8th.  The chain is owned and operated by the Teotico family, and interestingly enough is totally home-grown--it's not a US franchise at all.  Eric Teotico, who loves to cook, came up with the idea of opening a burger chain based on his own recipes.  Learning this story, I'm motivated to patronize BBB even more -- I like it when my peso goes to a local entrepreneur instead of a foreign corporation, and my palate tells me I'm getting value for my money. 

_I found another hidden treasure of BF Homes earlier this month when, on impulse, I decided to eat at Mexan one evening I felt too lazy to cook.  This little restaurant is tucked away on the side of The Pergola Mall facing the Ruins bazaar, a side I rarely go to, and would've slipped beneath my radar if not for the placard they'd put at the mall's front entrance.

First impressions on entering: the place will only sit about a dozen or so people at a time, but the interior is very tastefully done in bright pueblo colors; there's Spanish guitar music on, and the only occupied table (it was early for dinner) was occupied by an expat.  He looked happy with his burrito, so I got one too.  Surprise!  My Burger Burrito had a good proportion of meat to rice, wrapped in a nice fresh tortilla, and the flavors were bright and right.  The cook, whoever he or she was, knew enough not to hold back on the cumin and other spices, so the burrito's contents had a really nice aroma.  This was served with a side of sour cream for dipping and some fresh onion and tomato salsa.  I had to take Cathy here!  I also got to meet one of the proprietors, Dia Velazquez, so we scheduled a shoot with her.

_On our third visit, owners Dia Velazquez, Joanne Sta. Maria and Tess Vinluan were there to greet us and give us a sampling of their bestsellers.  We got to try the Chili con Carne, Beef Burrito, and Buffalo Wings.  The burrito was a known quantity - I'd had it before, and I knew I'd always have one when I eat here.  It's flavorful and filling, but my personal favorite remains the Burger Burrito -- also beef, but maybe the ground meat or the way they cook it makes it taste even meatier.  The Chili con Carne was exactly that -- hot!  Just the way I like it!  Again, I liked the fact that they didn't stint with the spices, and again, the proportion of meat to beans was just right.  And did I say it was hot? 

The best dish of the lot for both Cat and me, however, was the Buffalo Wings.  It's the kind of dish you dig into with your fingers, gnaw on the bones for as long as you can still get some flavor from them, then lick your fingers afterward.  Crunchy even when we ate it a little cold (in between the interview) and served with a sour-cream dip instead of the usual blue cheese or Cajun sauce, the wings had just the right blend of sweetness, a mild heat, with the tanginess of the sour cream rounding out the flavors.   It will keep you coming back for more.

I had to buy a take-home pack for my dad -- it made a good excuse to have a few more!  Also, the order is quite big; while on the menu it's describes as five pieces, Joanne says this is based on the number of wings that go into each order.  Since they halve each wing, an order comes to ten pieces -- if you're having this as appetizer, it's good for a group of three or four.  We had our food with iced tea, but for those who want it, there's also good old San Mig beer, Corona beer from Mexico, sodas, margaritas, zombies, and of course, tequila shots available.

_There are no Mexicans, or even Texans, involved in this restaurant at all.  Instead, Mexan is the brainchild of Dia and Joanne -- credit for the name goes to Dia’s son Migs -- who, along with Tess, share the responsibilities of running the restaurant, developing recipes and taste-testing, with one another.  Although they only opened at The Pergola Mall last April, they've been doing Mexican food for six years, with a food stall in La Salle Zobel.  "We were a hit with the kids, because the way we cook is we're always thinking we're doing this for our own families," says Joanne.  "We developed our recipes together, researching recipes then testing and combining until we got what we wanted. Being moms, we knew what kids wanted." 

The buffalo wings got added to the Mexican lineup, Dia says, when they were talking to the mall management.  Taking the suggestion of combining the concepts instead of getting a separate stall for the wings, they quickly found the wings to be a bestseller too, along with their burritos, and soft tacos.  The popularity of the latter two has led to additional sizes, junior burritos and large tacos.

Perhaps the best validation for Mexan's taste is the number of expats who've been coming back as repeat customers.  "There was this American who ate here one day and he kept whispering to his Filipina wife.  It turned out he was a Texan, and he liked the food so much he wanted to order another!" 

Perhaps, we have The Pergola Mall to thank for for offering them a bigger space than their initial plan for a just a food stall.  It's given the entrepreneurial moms the creative space to come up with their culinary best.

He said:

While admitting it inevitably betrays my true age, I just have to say that if there's one burger I think of when I'm nostalgic, it's Tropical Hut's Classic burger.  We rarely feature chains here in Good Living BF, since our focus is on 'homegrown' restaurants and enterprises, but we decided to do this as a fitting tribute to our favorite burger since the 1970s.   

Tropical Hut was a burger chain way before McDonalds came in, or Jollibee morphed from ice cream parlor to fastfood giant.  The BF Homes branch is up to now one of the longest-running Tropical Hut outlets in the country -- if I remember correctly it's their second or third branch.  When I was a kid studying at La Salle Zobel, I'd often badger my dad into taking me there after school before we made the long drive back home.  But Cat and I don't go to Tropical Hut to eat history.  We go because, very simply, Tropical Hut still serves the juiciest, most meatily fragrant burger we know.   

The Tropical Hut Classic stands out because it's cooked quite differently from other fastfood chain burgers.  I often find the meat patties from other chains rubbery in texture, probably from a combination of extenders and the dry cooking method they use.  In contrast, Tropical Hut's burgers tend to fall apart on you while you eat, while the buttery, utterly beefy juices run down your chin.  The secret is in the thickness of the patty and the pouring of a special sauce over the burger as it cooks.  As the outsides of the burger seal from the heat, the sauce gets trapped inside, keeping it tender and packed with flavor.  I'm drooling as I write this!  

Unfortunately, Tropical Hut was never managed with the same level of marketing savvy as its newer rivals, and the quality of its products can be uneven.  I've been to Tropical Hut branches that were badly maintained, that stank (I didn't eat at those!), and been disappointed with various menu entries.  The fries can be bland and soggy at times; at best, they're crisp but still rather plain, when compared to say McDonalds' fries.  Sometimes the staff are not as well-trained as they could've been.  

I hope one day to see Tropical Hut undergo a management renaissance.  Better training, better marketing, investment in more effective advertising.  But please, please, if ever this happens, do not change the Classic burger.  It's the reason why, despite all the warts, I still keep coming back to Tropical Hut.

She said:

As I am a few years older than Dariel, my memories of Tropical Hut burger go even more way back, back to where I think it started in Ortigas in the 70s.  But here I plead a senior moment because I cannot exactly recall the name of the place or the building.  But what has stayed indelibly in my mind was the experience of my first taste of the burger that was then making waves all over town.  
Simply put, it tasted like no other -- not that I could compare it with a MacDonald's or a Jollibee's because as Dariel said, they still had to hit town or hit it big at that time -- but that it had its own very distinct taste.  A taste that, thankfully, to this day has remained in the Classic Burger.

Part of its appeal was its bigger-than-normal serving size -- rivaled only by the equally famous Dayrit's hamburger -- which the Classic has kept; and part of it was the de luxe way it was served, with chips and potato salad if memory serves me right.  .

Over the years, as its rivals overtook it in popularity, availability, and visibility, it has tried to hang on stubbornly, sometimes perhaps too stubbornly for its own good as when it seemed to resist upgrading its branches, making them look like holdovers from the past century.  But at the same time, that stubbornness is what may have kept its loyal followers like me coming back for the Tropical Hut burger taste--it had kept the flavor that had made it an institution, a go-to for a burger fix, and a must-have for those midnight cravings.

The relatively few places it had branches in became my landmarks -- in Greenbelt and Crispa in Gil Puyat opposite the Makati Post Office; the Greenhills branch was another favorite stopover.  The first two are now gone; I haven't been to the latter in ages.  So I am happy that although as whimsical as the food industry can be, Tropical Hut has endured.  And that the Classic Burger is still a classic.

Now, my only quibble is why don't they have a branch in Davao?

When I was fifteen and living in New Delhi with my parents, I'd often get off the schoolbus a few blocks before our street and walk home from there so I could pass by the local bakery.  I'd pick up half a dozen piping-hot vegetable samosas, make half of them disappear, and arrive home with a cheery 'Hey Mom, Dad, look!  I got us samosas -- one each!'

My first bite of Raaz Mahal's vegetable samosas inevitably brought back this memory, as fresh and sharp as it was yesterday (Hey, it's not been that long ago! Uh, yeah riiiight.).  I guess another reason this memory got triggered was because our first visit to Raaz Mahal was at my dad's invitation, his treat for me on my birthday.  The two of us have had a real weakness for Indian cuisine ever since that stint in Delhi, and as Raaz Mahal serves Punjabi food, the same North Indian food we got used to, we're really happy we've now got a restaurant like this in BF.  A few days later, Cat and I visited again to interview the Arshad family, Raaz Mahal's owners, and of course to eat more samosas.

Ordering for the family, I went for the tried and true appetizers: Vegetable Samosas, Onion and Potato Pakoras, and cheese-filled Aloo (Potato) Balls.  We followed this up with the Chicken Dal, Chapatti bread to scoop up the dal with, Beef Kababs, Prawn Curry, and Chicken Biryani, and on our return visit, we tried the Goat Korma and Naan.  

The great delight of Indian food, for me, is the way the complex blend of spices, the masalas, create a cascading explosion of flavors on the palate and the nose.  This is exactly what we got with Raaz Mahal's food.  The Samosas were crisp on the outside, soft and delicately spiced inside, and served with a sweet and tangy chutney sauce.  The Pakoras were also crisp, really nicely done -- flavorful, not oily at all despite their being deep-fried -- and went great with the provided chili dip.  The kids went bananas over the Aloo Balls, which were like potato croquettes filled with an herbed cottage cheese, and also served with chili dip.  

I would've liked more lentils in the Chicken Dal, which was a lentil-and-chicken stew with curry spices.  You scoop it up with torn pieces of Chapatti bread or Naan.  The Beef Kababs and Prawn Curry came next, and disappeared very quickly!  The kababs were delicately spiced, still moist inside (ground meat kababs dry easily, so this tells me the cook has a light hand on the grill), and served with a yogurt-mint-and-coriander-leaf sauce that surprisingly turned out to be the spiciest thing on the table, heat-wise.  The Prawn Curry was buttery and had just the right amount of heat for the family -- strong enough that you could tell this was real Indian food, yet toned to the level that my sister and nieces could still taste everything.  And the prawns were very fresh -- they had that sweet fresh taste.  Because of the strong sauce of the kabab and the prawn curry, I'm afraid I wasn't able to really isolate the flavor of the biryani very well; it was very fragrant though, and yes, it was made with real basmati rice.  

I wish though that I'd thought to order the Korma while my whole family was there.  That was a knockout!  The yogurt-based sauce was very rich and creamy, nicely aromatic with the distinct yet far from overpowering mutton scent that tells you this isn't beef or pork.  (Raaz Mahal is owned by a Pakistani family and serves Halal food).  If I had to recommend a dish with which to break the common Pinoy aversion to goat or mutton, this korma would be high on the list, if not first.  We chose to have this curry with Naan bread instead of rice, and I'm happy to report that Raaz Mahal's naan is the kind made with sesame seeds, giving them a nice added crunch.  

I just wish the portions were bigger, a concern that manager Shala Arshad assures me will be dealt with when they come out with their new menu.  Now that they know their market and are more confident that their food sells, Shala says, they're ready to upgrade the 'sampler' portions to something larger.  Raaz Mahal is not a cheap place to eat, but given the complexity of their dishes, and the fact that all the spices they use must  be imported from Pakistan, you know what you're buying.

Shala, her brother Ismail (Ish), the chef, and their father Muhammad sat with us as we were wolfing down the korma to tell us Raaz Mahal's story.  The name Raaz Mahal means 'Secret Palace' or 'Mysterious Palace,' and fits right in with the tasteful, very Indian theme of the interiors.  The Arshads own the Orientique furniture and antiques stores, and it shows.  Raaz Mahal's interiors are painted in the gay hues of a bazaar in Rajasthan, and studded with plaques and statuettes done in traditional Indo-Persian motifs.  

Nor are the Arshads newbies at the restaurant business, having opened one in Jakarta sixteen years ago, and another in Lahore.  In fact, Shala says, the very reason for Raaz Mahal's existence is the love she and Ish have for their dad's cooking, which is based on traditional Muslim Punjabi recipes.  But when he finally caved in to their insistent clamor for a restaurant here in Manila, it was Muhammad Arshad who chose Aguirre Avenue as their first location; a tribute to the burgeoning BF Homes food culture.  

We finished our meal the same way we did on the previous visit, with a Strawberry Lassi.  This sweet iced drink, with just the right amount of fresh strawberry and yogurt tartness, clears the palate beautifully after a meal rich in heady masalas and ghee; not surprisingly it's one of their bestsellers.  They also offer Mango and Banana Lassi, and we also tried their Kulfi; an ice-cream like dessert made with milk steeped with intoxicatingly fragrant cardamom and topped with crushed pistachios.  Dairy-based desserts are very important when you eat hot food like Indian or Malay, as the milk clears the burning sensation from the tongue.  (Alcohol intensifies it though; which is why, spice freak that I am, I had my appetizers and main course with San Mig Lite!).  

Ish Arshad says, though, that we've yet to try their real signature dish, the Beef Nihari.  It's a rich beef curry that takes all of seven hours to cook, and I can just imagine how richly developed its flavors should be from that treatment.  Looks like Cat and I have something to look forward to!

A house built on soup.  That, in a nutshell, is Pat Pat's Kansi, a growing chain of Ilonggo restaurants whose core offering is a hearty beef soup called Kansi.  Cat and I got to visit the BF Homes branch and met owner Enri Rodriguez, who told us Pat Pat's story.

Pat Pat, it turns out, is an Iloilo lass who as a child kept asking for a particular beef soup from Bacolod.  It got to the point that her
mom, rather than taking the ferry to Bacolod just to buy the stuff, reverse-engineered the recipe and added her own touches to make the Kansi that would later take Makati by storm.  What's Kansi?  It's the Ilonggo version of Bulalo, beef marrow soup, but cooked with a sour fruit called batuan plus the secret herbs and spices added by Pat Pat's mom. It's so flavorful, says Enri, that there's no need to add soy sauce or patis to the soup as most Tagalog diners usually do with their bulalo.  Years later, the family put up a small restaurant along Kamagong in Makati.  It's now devilishly difficult to find parking along Kamagong at lunchtime, with so many of Makati's office workers heading for Pat Pat's Kansi.

Cat and I sampled the signature Kansi, the indispensable Iloilo/Bacolod favorite Chicken Inasal, Pork Barbecue and the Sizzling
Sisig.  First stop, the Kansi: we opted for the Kansi Laman (meat), an all-meat version, rather than the Bulalo (bone marrow) - I've been taking in too much cholesterol lately!  On my first spoonful of soup I could already tell this beef had been lovingly boiled into submission over a slow fire, the flavor was so rich.  Because we'd been shooting the other dishes the soup had gone cold, but Enri gave us fresh broth to bring our bowl of kansi back to steaming the way it should be enjoyed. The beef was very tender, and Cat, who usually takes her boiled beef with some kind of sauce, found she needed to add nothing at all as Enri smilingly advertised.  Me, I'm the guy who always likes fire on the palate so I used the provided calamansi, fresh chilies and soy sauce to make a hot dip.  Either way it went down great (had to try Cat's version too!).

The Inasal tasted just like those we had in Bacolod, smoky and tangy, while the Pork Barbecue was garlicky-sweet like the barbecue I grew up with.  Both went down very well, though I found a bit more gristle than I liked on one stick of the barbecue.  The Sizzling Sisig was a wow - really spicy the way I liked it, spiked with chopped chilies and fried to a crisp on a hotplate.  

You'd expect a place that serves sisig like this to be a beer drinker's haven as well, but here we found another unique aspect of Pat Pat's Kansi: in line with its original concept as a down-home, family-friendly place, alcohol simply isn't on the menu.  And because the owners want to keep the focus squarely on their strongest suits, the menu is restricted to only ten dishes, which if the four items we sampled are any indication they do really well indeed.

Speaking of menus, the place has been discovered by a new market--our Korean visitors.  A Korean traveler stopped by last year and found the food to be very much in line with the Korean taste.  So determined and enthusiastic was he to recommend Pat Pat's Kansi to his compatriots that he insisted to draw up a testimonial right there and then, which the Rodriguezes printed on a banner, and they now also have a menu with entries in Korean script.

Pat Pat's Kansi BF Homes branch is located at the lower level of Greenworld Plaza along President's Avenue.  The place has ample parking, a requirement which Enri says the franchisors wisely made a prime requirement.  The restaurant is Enri's first venture into the food business, and it's one he made based on his good relationships with the franchisors and his belief in the product.  As he narrates, he took his wife Lea to sample the Kansi, and she was sold on the idea immediately.  I have to say, after the first try we're sold on Pat Pat's Kansi too.

We've just discovered a new Japanese street food place along President's Avenue.  It's called Kushiten, which in my fractured understanding of Japanese boils down to 'heaven for everything on a stick.'  If you've a hankering for yakitori, this is the place to find it -- about a dozen varieties of it, and all of them made with an authentic, light Japanese touch.

Kushiten's secret weapon is owner/chef Kath Kaneko and her culinary blue blood - her father is a Japanese chef and their family used to own the Keiyu Japanese restaurant in Phase 3.  Kushiten's menu is a reflection of what Kath herself loves most in Japan, its variety of skewered street foods.  The menu was inspired by a street stall that she always visits when she goes to Tokyo.  Banking on the Filipino's love for grilled and fried dishes, Kath designed Kushiten to showcase the streets of Tokyo's best in a casual, relaxing atmosphere that welcomes Japanese expats and Filipino barkadas and families alike.

When I order yakitori, I usually know what to expect: tender bits of sweet-salty chicken on sticks.  That's it.  In Kushiten, though, there's a lot more to it than that.  Cathy and I sampled Momo (chicken dark meat), Tebasaki (chicken wings), Tsukune (balls of ground chicken), Negima (chicken with leeks), and Buta Aspara (thin strips of pork rolled around fresh asparagus tips).  I have to say Kath has a very light hand with her marinades, so you can savor every nuance of the ingredients' flavor without them being overwhelmed in sweetness or the saltiness of soy sauce.  I can see why the Japanese expats eat here.
The yakitoris went very well with a bowl of Chahan, Japanese fried rice.

After the yakitoris we tried a variety of kushiages, namely the Gyu (beef), Ika (squid), Sakana (fish), Ebi (shrimp,) and a surprise, the Uzura Tamago (quail eggs).  By default these are served with a sweet kushiage sauce, but Kath also urged us to try them with tartare sauce and her own Kushiten sauce.  One of the draws here, she explained, is that you can order kushiage with the sauce of your choice, including chili mayo and wasabi mayo if you want a hot kick.  Cat and I found that each kushiage tends to go best with a different sauce -- the tartar was great with the fish and squid; I found the Kushiten sauce was fantastic with the quail eggsl and the sweet kushiage sauce went very well with the beef.   If you're going to bring kids here, the kushiages are guaranteed to be a hit with them! Trust me - I'm very in
touch with my inner kid.

We also had a plate of fried Gyoza, an all-meat dumpling, again with Kath's own gyoza sauce.  Cathy's a gyoza connoisseur, almost never failing to order it when we eat Japanese; so when she says she likes a gyoza, I know we're going there again.  As for me, I liked that the gyoza sauce here has more ginger and is less sweet than usual; I find that it brings out the taste of the gyoza filling better.  We then had our vegetables in the form of an Okonomiyaki, a sort of savory pancake made with shredded cabbage and topped with a light, sweet sauce, Japanese mayo, seaweed flakes and dried bonito flakes.  This dish is surprisingly hefty, and can make a filling snack on its own or be a good side dish to go with the light yakitoris and kushiages.

As there's inevitably one big eater in every group, Kushiten is coming out with a line of donburis, or rice topping bowls, by next week.  We got a sneak preview of the Katsudon, a breaded pork cutlet on rice.  Kushiten's katsudon comes in a rather large serving, and is drenched in a special sauce that adds juiciness to the fried pork and makes the rice really savory.  I guess this is the Japanese version of comfort food, so comforting I didn't want to get up from my chair anymore after I finished it!  This friendly place with its delicious, authentic and surprisingly budget-friendly Japanese food is going to be among my top recommendations from now on.

When the first returning OFWs from the Middle East brought back shawarma, they knew they had a hit on their hands.  Such a hit, in fact, that we Pinoys very soon had our own versions.  One of the best-done versions I have to say is from Food Channel, a shawarma and snack chain that originated in a kiosk by an escalator at the ground floor of Virra Mall in Greenhills in the early 90s, spreading all over the metropolis and finally coming  to BF Homes, their first branch at the south.  Cat and I got to know Food Channel BF Homes franchisers JP and Joyce when we went to try them out.

At first I didn't recall that I'd eaten at Food Channel's Greenhills stall before, but the signage and the menu were somehow familiar.  Then JP told us its origins, and I had it -- I'd been noshing on Food Channel's shawarma since the 1990s.  They now offer a wider variety of very affordable, below Php100 food choices.  Aside from their signature Beef Shawarma with Cheese, we also tried the Shawarma Rice, the Korean Beef Rice, and the Barbecue Rice.

Food Channel's All Beef Shawarma is a real Pinoy shawarma, made to satisfy the bottomless hunger of students and late-night snackers.  It's literally bursting with crunchy beef, made heftier with the addition of cheese and a side of french fries (yes, shawarma and fries!).  For the size, amount and quality of beef you're getting, this shawarma is well worth its price of PhP 95.  It's not filled with as much onion and tomato like Lebanese shawarma, but the Lebanese-style garlic sauce - thick, smooth, and creamy -- is still there, and the spicy sauce is very good.  For those with a really big appetite -- note that the Beef Shawarma is already a meal in itself -- the Shawarma Rice is the same shawarma served with a cup of Java rice. 

The Korean Beef Rice is another meal for those days when you're desperately in need of something good to fill you up, fast.  Flash-cooked strips of tender beef, marinated in sweet Korean-style marinade and served on a bed of caramelized onion, this is a treat I can definitely go for after a long night of gaming or writing when the body inevitably demands some munchies. 

Same goes for the Barbecue, which to our surprise was cut really thick.  I've gotten used to barbecue from the neighborhood stall, which as typical for barbecue is cut thin for fast cooking; Food Channel's is thick yet very tender, the sweet-savory flavor of the marinade soaking through and through. You can literally sink your teeth into this one!

Other goodies you may like are their Tapsilog, Sisig, Korean Beef, Gourmet Tuna Wrap, and Fried Siomai to list a few.  This branch even serves breakfast comfort foods all day - the bestsellers are their Tuna Shitake Mushroom Melt Omelette, Blueberry Pancakes, and Chocolate Chip Pancakes.

Food Channel BF Homes has targeted the early morning risers to the late sleepers and everyone in between by opening its doors from 8 a.m. to 3 a.m.  Adding enjoyment to your dining experience is an entertainment set and free WiFi.  They’ve just opened their catering services in time for the Christmas season and will soon offer free deliveries as well.

Back in my misspent youth, I would often use the long breaks between my classes in DLSU to hop the jeep to Binondo for lunch.  Among our favorite destinations there was the Panciteria Lido, which my Chinese buddies told me had been a fixture in their dining experience as long as they could remember.  I of course had to agree with them and their honored ancestors - I loved the place!  However my photography habit then always left me with money only for either one of two things --Asado Rice or the Chami Special.  Fast forward quite a few years, and to my great surprise, I spotted a familiar name along President's Avenue.  Panciteria Lido was still alive!  Is the food still as good?

The answer is a resounding 'Yes!'  Cat and I visited to sample the food and there found out the story behind Panciteria Lido, from its founding by Chinese chef Mr. Lido in 1936 to its new direction in franchising under current proprietor Annie Go.  BF  Franchisee, Mr. Paul Ting, notes that BF Homes was one of their first targets for a branch, based on the size of the community and its growing reputation as a foodie mecca. Cat and I tried the signature Pork Asado and the Chami Special, both exactly as I remembered them; the Poached Tofu; and also took home their Familia Feast which contains, aside from asado and chami, some frie dumplings, lumpiang shanghai, and buttered chicken.  To top off our meal, we also tried their Syphon Coffee.

Our first course was the Poached Tofu, a soft, silky beancurd dish served swimming in a light but savory sauce.  The tofu was very fresh and light, a perfect appetizer, side dish, or even a main viand if you're planning to eat light.  Next came the Pugon-Roasted Asado.  Though the Lido labels itself as a 'Panciteria,' its true signature dish is its mouth-watering Pork Asado roasted in a 'pugon', a wood-fired brick oven.  Still using the traditional recipe handed down from Mr. Lido, this roast pork is basted with a secret Chinese sauce and baked to a succulent, juicy tenderness with just a slight hint of smokiness.  It's not as sweet as the more Filipinized version of asado that you might get elsewhere; the flavors are more subtle, and so tender it almost melts in the mouth.  Cat and I didn't believe we could finish the platter served to us, but we did!

The Chami Special was another nostalgic treat for me, a reliably hefty comfort food that I know will satisfy me even when I'm really hungry.  I've always been more partial to Chami than to pancit canton or pancit bihon, loving the thick chewy noodles and the sweet-savory blend they're sauteed in.  I've yet to taste the chami in Shanghai, where this noodle dish is said to have originated, but I've tried Hong Kong's version; let's just say that over here I consider only two restaurants to have chami as good as in HK, and Panciteria Lido is one of them.  Their Chami is neither oily nor salty, two defects that often mar the noodle dishes of lesser restaurants.  I commented to Cat that they probably don't use MSG, and found to our delighted surprise it's true: All of Panciteria Lido's offerings have no MSG added. 

We finished our lunch with the Syphon Coffee.  Now you normally wouldn't associate coffee with a Chinese restaurant--you'd think of tea, right?  But the Chinese like their coffee too, and they like it fresh and strong.  They use their own secret blend of coffee beans, and the full body and rich aroma remind me of Batangas' best.  I usually sweeten my coffee, but this one tastes great even as plain black.

The contents of the Familia Feast--great for Christmas season--we served the next day to our family.  The kids predictably loved the Buttered Chicken, lightly breaded chicken pieces flash-fried in a wok.  I had to remind them I had a restaurant to review just to get a bite! The lumpia and dumplings also went fast, my Chinese sister-in-law commenting that the flavor was indeed, still very Chinese.  And that's why I'm glad Panciteria Lido is now in BF.  Because when I want that real Chinatown taste, I know where I can go.

High concept modernity and the homey familiarity of Filipino comfort food rarely feel they belong together.  At Big Plate restaurant, however, they've made it work.  From the tasty fusion approach they've taken with old Pinoy favorites to their chic but comfy interiors and the way they're recycling energy from their aircon to heat water, this is one restaurant that's serious about bringing the Filipino dining experience into the 21st century.  They’ve even invested in their own organic farm and commissary, on top of state-of-the art technology for their kitchen.  All of these serves as a foundation for a restaurant the owners hope will become part of the Filipino tradition.

So how successful are they? Only time will tell but they certainly are off to a good start.  Just in the midst of their soft opening, phase, they have already attracted a steady crowd.  Why? 

Let's start with the ambiance.  Yeah, I know you never order it, but you pay for it anyway -- and it really does affect the pleasure of eating.  There's a clean, casual, modern-but-organic feel to Big Plate's interior with its mostly green and white scheme, accented by colorful Maranaw vinta themes on its quirky furniture , runners, and its walls.  There's a very family-friendly vibe to the place.  The tables are also big -- as CEO Rainier David says, they designed the place so that a table normally used for six people at other restaurants is made to seat four here.  Which turned out to be very good, as when the food arrived the restaurant's name was proven to be no lie! 

Yes, Big Plate really serves BIG plates.  With servings to match -- big connotes a feast , hence the name  Big Plate, David explains.  The typical order here is good for two, easily three if you're light eaters.  We got to sample some of their best sellers: For starters we had the Creamy Pumpkin Soup, Bangus Sisig Balls, Lumpiang Dagupan, and Big Plate's House Salad with beef tapa.  For our main course David had us try the Crispy Binagoongan,  Grilled Prawns with Bagoong Rice, and the Slow-Cooked Beef Ribs with Sweet Potato.  And for dessert, it was their two most popular meal-toppers, the killer Coco Mango Panna Cotta and Carrot Cake.  Visually, these dishes were a breeze to shoot - they all looked good, and they smelled so good it was easy to get inspired!  Amount-wise, we were totally overwhelmed.  Immobilized afterward was more like it.

For starters, we had the Creamy Pumpkin Soup.  Squash soup is one of my favourite soups, something I always ask Cat to make at home.  Although we have it every now and then, I have never tasted it with eggplant so Big Plate’s version comes as a refreshing change, the smokey flavour of the roasted eggplant adding lushness to the pureed soup.

We've had the Bangus Sisig Balls twice already, and we'll probably have it every time we visit Big Plate.  These are fried croquettes filled with tinapang bangus flakes, served with aioli and sweet and sour sauce on the side; I prefer it with the aioli.  The Lumpiang Dagupan, as you might expect, are also filled with bangus, very light and crispy. 

Cat and I also loved the Big Plate House Salad, a green salad jazzed up in a uniquely Filipino way by the inclusion of homemade beef tapa bits and mango cubes.  The sour-salty-meaty taste of the tapa made a great counterpoint to the sweetness of the mango and really set off the greens well, and for this diehard carnivore, it's a great way to make me eat and enjoy my veggies.

Next up were the Grilled Prawns; fresh, fleshy, and full of flavor, and as David explained to us, there was no need for a sauce because the sauce was already inside.  To a true Filipino there's no pleasure like sucking out the juicy insides of a prawn head, and the heads of these prawns were especially flavorful. Unfortunately this Pinoy is asthmatic and allergic to crustaceans, so I only had the courage to try one head.  It was so good!

Another sinfully delicious treat was the Crispy Binagoongan, crisp-fried slices of pork liempo on a bed of bagoong sauce and eggplant.  Unlike many a binagoongan dish we have eaten, this had a light hand with salt -- in fact, this can be said for all the dishes we tried -- so I didn’t mind chewing and crunching the meat even though it was unfortunately fried a little too long.  Still, Cat said she liked this version a lot and thinks it’s a better alternative to the salt-drenched, sweat-inducing binagoongan dishes we usually encounter.

The entree I got to enjoy the most was the Slow-Cooked Beef Ribs with Sweet Potato; a very rich take on kaldereta, with a thick sauce made even richer by the scoops of buttery mashed sweet potato floating in it.  This dish was a must-have in my mind as soon as I saw it on the menu, as I like the full flavour and tenderness of slow-cooked meat; Big Plate did not disappoint, as I got the beef falling off the bone and so tasty I would've gnawed the ribs afterward if my wife hadn't stopped me!  It was no surprise to learn that this is one of their bestsellers.

For dessert, we tried the Coco Mango Panna Cotta and Carrot Cake.  The panna cotta -- another bestseller -- is again one of Big Plate's very successful Filipinizations of an international dish, as they substitute coconut milk for dairy cream in it.  The fragrant nuttiness of the coconut milk perfectly complemented the sweetness of the mango topping.  This is one dessert that manages to be rich and refreshing at the same time, a difficult combination to achieve. 

Finally, after almost having our fill of all of the above, we ended with the Carrot Cake.  Finished it.  ‘Nuf said.

There's also something for the kids, David points out:  Spaglug, which as the name suggests, is a mix of spaghetti and pancit luglug.  Hmmm, Filipino fusion, indeed.  Then there's the Big Plate Burger; Big Plate's Tasty Fried Chicken, and the Creamy Adobo Pasta.

Big Plate enjoys a strategic location along President's Avenue at the corner of Elizalde, by the old Caltex station.  It's one of the most conspicuous dining places you'll see on your way in if you're coming from Sucat Road, and thanks to its being right beside the station, it has ample parking.  Big Plate is seriously targeting the events market, so it’s made its facilities to match.  The second floor can comfortably seat one hundred plus another forty on the verandah, and there’s a small function room that can seat thirty with a seminar-type layout.

Best of all, I may be able to eat at Big Plate even in Makati or the Ortigas area soon, as this restaurant is branching out in 2011.  CEO David says he and his partners plan to grow this concept into a chain by next year, with the BF Homes branch serving as headquarters and training ground for future staff.  Currently they have a preferential hiring policy, giving back to the community by giving priority to hiring BF residents.  In other words, eating at Big Plate helps give your fellow BF Homers jobs! 

Watch out for their grand opening on November 27!