Rosy's Pancit Malabon - The Gold Standard

Pancit Malabon is one of the few things that I could eat everyday and one of the things I have a regular craving for. I grew up in Malabon when it was still called Malabon, Rizal and my eating habits and food preferences are rooted in that place.

Malabon City as it is known today is a far cry from what it was in the 60's and 70's but food wise, it has remained quite unchanged.

So, I can still get sapin sapin from Dolor's, que kiam and broas from Betsy's, Rufina patis, tinapang bangus ... most of the things I enjoyed while growing up.

But my utmost favorite is pancit Malabon and when it comes to this dish, there is only one place that brings back that sense of place and that is Rosy's Pancit Malabon.

Owned and still run by the Pacheco sisters, Rosy's in the 60s was already a Malabon landmark. It started as a small simple eatery in Cuatro Cantos and famous people flocked to it for take-out bilaos of pancit. Rosy's fans included then First Lady Imelda Marcos, Susan Roces and FPJ, writer Julie Yap Daza and other celebrity name-droppeables.

We would go to Rosy's for a mid afternoon snack and find a queue of "out-of-towners". We knew they were not from Malabon because they came in cars and not on foot or by "stainless" jeep.

What made Rosy's so special and so different from the rest, when you could find pancit malabon in practically every corner? I specially liked Rosy's because the sauce to noodle ratio was just right -- each noodle strand coated with the sauce but never cloying or soggy. It was perfectly seasoned, didn't need any patis or calamansi.

As early as then, Rosy's knew the importance of food styling. Each bowl of pancit malabon would come perfectly arranged and topped with the plumpest, pinkest shrimp, bright green crunchy pechay baguio, fat oysters, flecks of roasted garlic, tender julienned pork. It looked just as good as it tasted.

In the 80s, Rosy's decided to import the pancit malabon to the big city and they opened a branch at Philtrade along Roxas Boulevard.

Philtrade then was spanking new, with lots of restaurants, exhibit and trade halls. More than twenty years later, it has gone to seed. The restaurants and exhibit and training centers are gone and in their place is a flea market of dubious "antiques" -- wooden retablos, santos, china cabinets, odds and ends.

Rosy's still exists though -- at the end of Philtrade there is a rather rundown un-airconditioned hall where the best pancit malabon this side of the world is still cooked and sold every day.

Lunchtime finds Rosy's busy with regulars who obviously love the food. I've had pancit malabon sitting next to senators, mayors, generals, politicians ...

Like its main store in Malabon, it's a very simple and humble place -- the Pacheco sisters still rule over the kitchen. Now, they have some of their next generation relatives helping out.

Aside from just pancit malabon, they have "escaparates" of home cooked viands -- ginataang labong, dinuguan, bopis, sinigang, paksiw and tochong bangus, misua with bola bola, okoy -- all the things you used to eat at home but are now too busy to cook yourself. But all these of course pale in comparison to the real star ... that bowl of yellow golden yumminess called pancit malabon.

I make the trek to Rosy's as often as I can -- when the craving for a taste of Malabon and childhood is just too much to bear. Who says you can't go home again?

If it's Wednesday, it must be Wee Nam Kee. Chicken Rice, SHIOK! Part 2

I'm a creature of habit so when I'm in Singapore, I always have chicken rice from the usual suspects ... Sin Swee Kee in Seah Street or Yet Con along Purvis (take the MRT to City Hall to get there). On my last visit, friends of mine took me to WEE NAM KEE. It's a very popular chicken rice place along Thomson Road. We arrived just in time for lunch and had to sit al fresco, right on the sidewalk.

The chicken was tender and tasty although I found it a bit soggy since it was served on top of a soy based sauce. The ginger and the chili sauce didn't really distinguish themselves but the rice was fragrant and flavorful so that went in the blink of an eye!

Aside from the chicken rice, we ordered kangkong or swamp cabbage with sambal sauce.

Wee Nam Kee's menu is quite extensive, they offer cantonese roasts, the ever present Hainanese pork chop and even that other famous Singapore dish, chili crab.

Like any popular place, no dawdling during lunchtime -- the long line of regular patrons will relentlessly stare at you until you stand up and pay your bill.

How to get to WEE NAM KEE : take the subway to Novena and walk along Thomson Road. The restaurant is right across the St. Alphonsus Catholic Church. Run by the Redemptorist priests, there are novenas every Wednesday.

Sin Swee Kee ... That Chicken Rice was SHIOK, lah! Part 1

Hainanese chicken rice is Singapore's national dish and I just love it! I have 3 favorite chicken rice places in the Lion City and all are just SHIOK (I think that means effing good in Singapore slang). While people can be lulled into thinking that this dish is healthy because it's made with boiled chicken -- you all got another think coming. The chicken may be boiled but the rice is cooked in the chicken broth with all that chicken fat! Which is why, the rice is so delicious. With the accompanying ginger sauce and chili paste, it's just one mighty fine SHIOK meal!

Next time you're in Singapore, check out YET CON on Purvis St. where the chicken is extra tender and juicy. Yet Con also serves thinly sliced and very good roast pork. My other favorite is SIN SWEE KEE along Seah St. (just next door to Purvis). Their bright green ginger sauce gives a different flavor to the dish. I also like their chili sauce, freshly made everyday, in full view of customers. Their fried fritters (ngoh hiang) are also worth ordering.

What drink goes with chicken rice? Nothing beats Yeo's canned cold barley drink! SHIOK!

Poutine -- the best junk food ever!

What is the national dish of Canada?

Calvin Trillin in his article "Funny Food" published in the New Yorker, Nov., 2009 said that "poutine" while originally from Quebec, was fast becoming the Canadian national dish.

When I read that I thought well, if it is then I want to migrate to Canada. I would love to live in a place where the iconic dish is a bowl of junk food.

Because that's just what poutine is -- a bowl of cholesterol, a bowl of obesity, a bowl of cardiac arrest .... in reality, it's french fries, hand cut, freshly made, deep fried in lard and topped with cheddar cheese curds and thick brown gooey gravy! One bad thing piled up on top of another!

I finally got a chance to try poutine the last time I was in Hong Kong. As I was meandering along Ocean Terminal looking for a place to eat lunch, I saw a brightly lit stall called "New York Fries" serving of all things -- POUTINE! I ordered a small bowl, with a hotdog and a coke.

How did it taste? Well, how does anything bad for you taste? It tasted good of course! The fries were hand cut with some skin on them, just cooked, well salted and the texture of crisp fries with hot gravy and yummy soft cheese curds made for a sinfully good combination.

But I'm holding off on those immigration papers. If I had poutine everyday I wouldn't live to get my citizenship!

Minoya Restaurant in Tokyo ... A Horse by Any other Name

"Nonna san, do you eat horse meat?"

My Japanese friend, my purveyor of out-of-the-ordinary food experiences in Tokyo, and I were on the subway on the way to dinner. What could I say? I never back down from a new eating experience.

Giddyup!

We got off the subway at Morishita and two blocks later arrived at MINOYA, a restaurant established in 1899 and specializing in fresh horse meat dishes.

The nihongo word for horse is "uma" but a pretty euphemism for it is "sakura" which is also the nihongo word for cherry blossom and which refers to the bright cherry red color of fresh, raw horse meat.

We ordered "sakura nabe". The waitress brought out the copper kettle, placed it on top of the tabletop hot plate. Then came the platter of fresh horse meat, along with leeks, tofu, celery, noodles and large white globs which she told us were cubes of horse fat. The horse fat would be rendered in the hot kettle with broth and some miso paste -- we would then cook the slices of horse meat in this simmering stew of fat and broth and miso -- but not too long as apparently, horse meat becomes tough when overcooked.

I took my first bite expecting "uma" to be gamy and a little chewy but it was delicious! Very tender, very rich in flavor and rather sweetish -- it was even better than beef! It was so good that the dipping sauce of miso paste and soy sauce was quite unnecessary.

And it was so good we had to order an extra platter of horse meat and another large bottle of beer.

If you ever find yourself in Tokyo, you must try "uma" -- it's a different treat you cannot miss.

N.B. MINOYA, Morishita 2-19-9 Kouto-Ku Phone number 3631-8298 Subway lines stopping at Morishita include the Oedo, Shinjuku, Asakusa and Mita lines

A Sliver of Moby Dick or One of the many strange things I have eaten in Tokyo

Greenpeace, come and get me. I had a piece of Moby Dick.

As the debate and the controversy about Japanese whaling continue to rage, I found myself confronted with the prospect of eating whale meat in a sashimi restaurant in the Tsukiji outer market in Tokyo.

My Japanese friend and I were at lunch, grazing at the counter, watching the sushi chefs doing their thing -- pointing to this and that -- toro, ika, saba, uni, unagi, ebi and other sorts of fish and shellfish. Then the chef took out a slab of something dark and very red.

My friend looked at me ... "Want to try that?"

Well why not but what is it?

"Kujira. Whale meat."

Visions of Japanese whaling ships fighting it out with Greenpeace flashed before my eyes, along with large gentle whales being slaughtered -- just for the sake of their meat. Not very appetizing. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

Once again, my baser foodie self got the better of me. I had to try it just once, after all, there it was, in front of me, waiting to be sliced and sushi-ed and given up for my palate.

So I had one piece of whale meat sushi. The meat was very dark red and quite rough in texture. It was served with some finely grated ginger as garnish and garlic greens to mask the odor my friend said although I did not detect any.

I had thought that it would have a very strong and remarkable taste but I was suprised -- whale meat was quite ordinary and not tasty at all.

I would understand the fascination with whale meat if it was something extraordinarily good. But I was unimpressed. And just very sorry that whales continue to be slaughtered for food.

I Fugu'd and Lived to Blog

Fugu is pufferfish, the deadly poisonous pufferfish that is also a delicacy in Japan. When prepared improperly, fugu causes paralysis and death and has no known antidote -- which for the adventurous makes it even more appetizing.

But I exaggerate -- fugu is very seldom prepared improperly because to cook, serve and sell it, you need a special license -- a license not to kill your customer. Fugu specialty restaurants in Tokyo hang their licenses for all customers to see.

I had the full course fugu meal one autumn evening in Tokyo. I had absolutely no qualms about it, was more curious than nervous and had high expectations given that I was taken by my Japanese host to a very well known fugu restaurant near  Tsukiji market.

The meal started with a small dish with three tiny slivers of white fugu meat, marinated in a light ponzu sauce. It reminded me of a blander and milder kinilaw. This was it? This was fugu?

Next up was fugu sashimi, very thinly sliced to the point of being translucent. Given its deadly reputation, fugu is actually very mild, the flavor quite nondescript.
 The sashimi was quickly followed by a small salad of raw fugu slices seasoned with vinaigrette and topped with micro greens and sweet corn.

After the salad course, the waitress came in bearing containers of hot sake -- oh goody, they were going to get me drunk so I wouldn't notice when paralysis sets in!

With my hot sake, I was given a tiny dish of pieces of dried fugu skin.
 My host instructed me to put these in my empty glass, pour the hot sake over it and quickly light a match over the glass. So, I thought -- if I don't die from fugu poisoning, I can always blow myself up to kingdom come.

I was told that lighting the match and quickly extinguishing the flame would lessen the sake's alcohol content allowing for the fugu taste to rise above the sake fumes. What did it taste like? How about "Daing Daiquiri", does that give you an idea?

The next dish served was deep fried breaded fugu -- fugu and chips! Anything deep fried will always taste good, even bland fugu.

All those little courses were just precursors to the main event -- the fugu nabe. Fugu being an autumn delicacy, lends itself well to nabe, the one dish hot pot meal that Japanese eat during autumn and winter.
The nabe, cooked shabu shabu style came with large platters of sliced fugu, mixed vegetables,
tofu, noodles, celery stalks, all laid out for swishing and cooking in the communal pot.

The last course of the fugu dinner had the waitress bringing in a large bowl of cooked rice, which
she put in the remaining nabe soup. Breaking some eggs into the pot, she made a quick and very delicious porridge -- with all the flavor and goodness of the fugu and the many ingredients that had gone into the nabe.

Fugu congee, I happily thought as I slurped away! Such good comfort food on a chilly night in Tokyo -- specially comforting since I had eaten the deadly fugu and lived!

N.B. I had fugu at TENTAKE , in the Tsukiji area in Tokyo. The full course fugu menu will set you back around Y13,000 per person.