Native Restaurants, Manila

- in Metro Manila pose no problem either. Makati, Malate, Quezon City and Manila are the up-market dining area and are priced accordingly. Expect to pay 300-500 pesos for main course. Like big cities, Manila offers the full spectrum of international cuisines. At the bottom end of the scale, small food houses (carinderias) abound, particularly along roads. A meal can cost as little as 20 pesos, but remember that the food is designed to please local palates.

It is a compound made mostly of wood, made probably to look like a set of nipa huts. All rooms have air conditioning, though. There is even a small artificial pond with a raft, where you can also eat if you like. It is quite well protected from air pollution, you hardly notice that you are in the middle of a giant city.

Favorite Dish: Macapuno for dessert. (Coconut shreds, with added sugar and something to make it sticky)

Bacolod Chicken Inasal - Robinsons Place - Manila

Open for lunch and dinner and offers delivery.

PRODUCTS & SERVICES:
1. Delicious Charcoal Chicken on a Stick
2. Delicious Grilled Chicken on a Stick
3. Petso (Breast)
4. Pak-pak (Wings)
5. Isol (Tail)
6. Atay (Liver)
7. La Paz Batchoy
8. Pancit Molo
9. Pancit Efuvel
10. Puto Manapla
11. Insal - Paa (Thigh)
12. Dinuguan
13. Puto Pao
14. Bangus Lumpia
15. Crispy Crablets

Favorite Dish: (last date took my lunch - March 15, 2004)

1. chicken legs - PhP 73.50
2. talangka rice - PhP 53.50
3. bottomless ice tea - PhP 53.50

no service tax

The photo shows the fruite & vegetables being sold at the Market...

The Filipino cuisine is more moderate in its use of spices than some other Asian foods. Rice is the staple and is served with almost every meal. Fish features strongly and is served grilled, boiled, fried or steamed. Crabs, lobsters, prawns, oysters, tuna, freshwater fish and a regional speciality called 'sweet maliputo' are all commonly found on local menus. Pork or chicken dishes are popular and include adobo, arroz caldo and crispy pata (fried pig skin). Vegetarians will have no trouble in Manila. Try gulay, (a vegetable dish simmered in coconut milk), mongos (chick peas) and pinangat (vegetables with very hot peppers).

Here's a Kitchen recipe for you;-)

CHICKEN and PORK ADOBO (Meat in Tangy Sauce)

Ingredients:



1 cup native vinegar


1 head garlic, crushed

1 tsp. ground black peppercorns


1/4 cup soy sauce

1/2 kilo pork cut into 1' x 2' pieces

1 chicken cut up


1 1/2 cup water


1 tbsp oyster sauce


cooking oil for frying



Procedure:


Put chicken and pork in a saucepan. Combine vinegar, garlic, pepper, soy sauce, water and pour over the meats. Let soak for 30 minutes. Simmer uncovered until tender. Strain the sauce. In a frying pan, brown garlic, chicken and pork in cooking oil. Pour sauce over, cover and simmer until sauce thickens.

There's a gazillion of choices to satisfy your every craving...from genuine Filipino restaurants ranging from the tony to the turo-turo, Chinese lauriat and dimsum places, Japanese sushi bars and misono grills, Indian, American, Italian...you name it.
Best Filipino restaurant: Kamayan is still the leader of the pack. You have a choice of eating the traditional way (with your fingers) or with kubiertos (flatware...less fun).
Best Chinese food: At President in Chinatown.
Kamayan and President are always packed with locals (Filipinos and Filipino-Chinese, respectively), which is always a good sign. They're huge, well maintained establishments as well.

Favorite Dish: No Filipino culinary experience is complete without experiencing adobo (pork and/or chicken stewed in soy sauce, vinegar, pepper corns, and garlic). Seafood dishes such as Kamayan's Yaman Dagat in chili sauce are also sure fire hits. Kare-kare (oxtail in peanut sauce) with bagoong (fish paste) shouldn't be missed.
At President's be sure to try their eel and 'two-toned fried rice.' Sheer heaven.

There are too many to mention! I loved the tradtional Filipino restaurants where you can enjoy freshly prepared fish (milkfish, yum!) and plates such as 'Pork Adobo'(with plenty of garlic), 'Roasted Lechon' (pork) and 'Pangsit' (fried noodles, mostly eaten as merienda, a snack).
In some traditional restaurants you may eat with your hands! I loved that, since I am from Indonesian descent and on occasion my family an I do the same at home.

Dampa
Dampa is a cluster of small restaurants lined-up adjacent to a fish market. THe restaurants offer whatever is available fresh from the market. Most locals opt to shop in the fish market themselves and have the sea produce cooked in any of the restaurants, by any conventional cooking method one would like whether grilled, deep-fried, etc. just name it and thé restaurant staff will cook it.

Favorite Dish: Seafoods galore- shrimps, fish, squid, etc. cooked grilled, deep fried, raw/cooked in vinegar(kilawin) or as Filipino soup-base (sinigang)

4 more images

One of the popular and moderately priced restos cum bars in the Manila Bay Area near the US Embassy