Filipino Restaurant
High school is synonymous with many first-time experiences. White-knuckled freeway driving with a driver’s ed instructor who could simultaneously calm and frighten. Getting hair and make-up done at a salon for a formal dance, then having these two rites of teenage-girl passage immortalized with photos because Lord knows we want to see them 20 years later. And…buying Lumpia in the hallway outside the cafeteria for a fundraiser.
That’s right, Lumpia, the Filipino egg rolls. Because my high school days are long over, I had to order these ones filled with ground pork, celery, carrots, and onions marinated in spices at a sit-down restaurant.
The egg rolls are slender, so you can eat as many as you want without feeling too guilty. Or so I’ve heard.
I liked the restaurant’s sweet dipping sauce.
Garlic Fried Rice. Did you read that? Garlic! Fried! Rice! This version could’ve used a lot more garlic. (Is there such a thing as too much garlic? Dracula says “Yes!” but I say, “No!”) If any readers have a good Garlic Fried Rice recipe, please do share.
A good start…
Made better with additional seasonings, as the rice tasted a bit bland despite the garlic.
This soy sauce with calamansi added saltiness and sourness to the rice.
While this small bottle gave a kick.
Beef Inihaw.
Grilled top sirloin with garlic-pan gravy, served atop shredded iceberg lettuce.
Gravy is good, don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.
Sometimes when you’re at a restaurant and don’t know what to order, it’s a good idea to look to other diners. We copied several patrons by ordering Halo-Halo for dessert.
While we waited for it, we watched a Filipino variety show (?). And overheard:
Conversation One at a table comprising six adults, four children, and four orders of Halo-Halo:
We ordered frog legs at the restaurant.
How did it taste?
Like chicken.
Conversation Two at an adjacent table with two ladies:
She was making five omelets at once…flip, flip, flip, flip, flip!
What you see isn’t necessarily what we got. More on that three photos down. For now, you see taro ice cream and leche flan.
Yeah, because the ice cream was taro-flavored, it should appear purple. But because I know like three functions on my digital camera, it’s Smurf-blue. I’ve always liked Smurfs…
The leche flan is appearing in the appropriate color, so there.
Buried beneath the shaved ice is…stuff. Including coconut gel, sugar palm, jackfruit, banana, and tapioca pearls. Where’s the jackfruit, you wonder? (Or maybe you don’t.)
Here!
I liked most everything in the Halo-Halo, except the rubbery pieces of banana.
One of the best ends to an Asian-restaurant meal, besides dessert and fortune cookies.
Wow, I’ve never had filipino food! It definitely looks yummy, though. Garlic fried rice sounds reeeeally good except for the fact that I ate so much garlicky stuff yesterday I smelled for the entire day. Probably a good idea to skimp on the garlic… for a while, anyway.
Wei-Wei
Lumpia as a fundraiser??? Yum! Would be a close tie for all those Krispy Kreme donuts I used to buy. LOL!
There is such a thing as Taro Ice cream??? I LOOOVE Taro everything (even taro chips) so would love to eat some taro Ice cream!
Wei-Wei: I think I’d return to the restaurant for its Lumpia and Garlic Fried Rice. And heh, I guess there is such a thing as too much garlic! Should I call you Smelly from now on?
Slammie: I think there was also fried rice and/or chow mein sold at the fundraisers. I can’t recall for sure because I was all over the lumpia.
Ah, Krispy Kreme and I go way back, too. I remember when it started popping up all over my city, and people drove for miles and waited for hours to buy the donuts. I wasn’t one of them; I’d just wait for my crazy relatives to give me some.
Sonya: The restaurant’s taro ice cream came from a tub, which it also sold in a freezer case. I will try to get a photo of the tub if I return to the restaurant, or if I see it at a market.
Why is it that you had such AWESOME fundraisers? Our school fundraisers always consisted of chocolate bars and other sugar-laden things I didn’t care for.
Also, I loved the “Dracula says Yes!” Haha
Lumpias look awesome and so yummy. I remember when my mom and I used to make eggrolls (rare occasions, because you know how grease-laden they are.) I would always way wayyyy overstuff them. I did the same thing when making sushi rolls. I’m too greedy, haha.
And the pictures of the Beef dish looked amazing. I was wondering, what is that amazing sauce that makes it glisten and look so magical? And then, GRAVY! Yes, gravy is sooo good. (I know it’s made from animal fat but it’s one of the things I’ll allow myself during say, Thanksgiving or Christmas.)
I was also wondering about that blue taro ice cream, haha. Maybe you can adjust colors in Photoshop. (But then that’d be even more liar-ly, wouldn’t it?)
One last food thought. In-n-out’s grilled cheese with grilled onions. I can eat two of them in one go. (Is it an odd thing to be proud about?) And fries. Normally, I don’t care for In-n-out’s fries because they haven’t got much OOMF to them. They haven’t got enough punched-in-the-gut to them. I think they’re just baked and then super lightly salted.
Lian: My high school had a diverse population, so fundraisers often included ethnic foods.
I’m major fail at rolling egg rolls…and just last week I wanted to go ‘play’ instead of being in the kitchen rolling them (really, I wanted to go play badminton with my kiddie relatives).
Thanks for the In-N-Out recs. I know of the burger chain, although sadly, it’s not in my area.
You and I have so much in common! I also like badminton! (I got an A in beginning Badminton, which I took the last quarter of school just for kicks.) I even bought a little badminton set in Little Tokyo (I think it was like, two bucks or something.) It consists of 2 rackets and a single birdie. (I feel like it’s so lonely. Just ONE SINGLE birdie.)
*raises hand* Filipina here! All the food looks so good! I’m used to more of the cafeteria-style Filipino restaurants, so you obviously went to a nicer place that had better presentation.
I think the program is the ubiquitous (at least in Filipino establishments) “Wowowee” that looks pretty funny but I don’t pay much attention to because, unfortunately, I don’t know very much Tagalog.
However, I do know that ice cream, which is ube (purple yam) ice cream. The most popular brand that I know of is Magnolia ice cream, sold in many Asian supermarkets. Yes, it’s in a tub. I’m sure it’s fine by itself, but I only ever have it in halo-halo (which, BTW, means “mix-mix” and which is why there’s a variety of foodstuffs in one bowl!).
Dee: You are awesomesauce! Thanks for all the Filipino insight. It’s a cuisine and culture that I’m still learning about, so I appreciate hearing from Filipinas.
Yeah, this place is nicer than the more casual, cafeteria-style Filipino restaurants that my city also has. I enjoyed watching the TV program, despite not understanding a word of what they were saying. And I’ve seen ube ice cream sold in Asian markets, but I can’t remember the brand. I want to get a tub whenever my freezer isn’t so bursting with food.