1.
Boracay Island, Philippines
When we got married, my husband was still working in the Philippines on a two-year overseas stint. After the honeymoon, we both went our separate ways – I returned to KL, and he went back to Manila. Being newly married, a two week separation meant long, extended daily phonecalls of Imissyous and wet pillowcases. But then, the sun came out again and everything was well as I was greeted by the old familiar smile at the chaotic Manila airport. All my travels never prepared me for the diversity of flavours and sights and sounds that was his adopted home. From the crystal clear waters of Boracay to the slums in Manila, I absorbed everything, and despite having very few photographs (in the days before digital cameras), I still remember the mother and her children sleeping on the pavement outside the walls of the closely guarded gated communities, the dazzling blinking Rudolph and Santa Claus and baby Jesus on lawns and rooftops of spanish-influenced abodes, the man selling odds and ends at the traffic light, the playing of the national anthem before the screening of a movie, the counterflow of traffic (both legal and illegal) on busy roads, the smiling beautiful people of the Philippines.
2.
It’s a pity that there aren’t more Filipino restaurants in KL. Cagayan is a tiny cafe with tables, benches and stools, hardly the place to take your ailing grandmother to. The menu at Cagayan is a strange combination of Filipino and Japanese, but they seem to be segregated into separate sections, so thankfully, there is not much chance of anything fusion happening here.
I remember being excited about sisig in the Philippines. What started out as a vinaigrette fruit salad for expectant mothers eventually evolved into a dish of pig’s ears and tail in vinegar, and then its popularity extended to the hairier sex who ate it as a snack while ingesting their favourite intoxicating potions. Nowadays, sisig can be any kind of meat served on a sizzling plate. When I first tried it in Manila, the husband, in his usual precise but crude fashion described it as smashed pork head. Depending on one’s upbringing and dietary consumption, that can sound either exciting or disgusting. The sisig in Cagayan is not the entire head but just the ears cooked on a sizzling hot plate and served with a raw egg which gets cooked when one stirs it in. The pork ears had a nice gelatinous bite to it with little burnt bits which worked well with the creamier texture of the spicy egg-y sauce. It tasted very much like the sisig I had in Manila, and judging from the satisfied look of the others at the table, it was a winner.
The pork ribs were excellent, well grilled and had tender pieces of meat that were easily ripped off the bones. Several choices of sauces were available, and upon the advice of the waiter, we chose the classic sauce. There are also spicier sauces for those with a more adventurous palate. The crispy kangkung was quite plain. It was prepared tempura style in a flour batter that lacked much taste, but eaten with the accompanying dipping sauce it was a little better. I did like the crunchy texture, though, which was its redeeming factor. The enoki mushrooms wrapped in bacon was, at its best, just a little above average, but I must say that the bacon was cooked to a nice crisp, just the way I like it. Desserts? Despite the tempting description of bananas on ice with gula melaka (palm sugar) and evaporated milk, the combo didn’t work. Perhaps it was due to the unusual texture of the bananas, or the taste of the other ingredients, but we weren’t able to finish it.
Overall, the experience was good, and it will be a restaurant which I shall visit when that feeling of nostalgia hits me again.
Cagayan
Ground floor, Centrepoint,
Bandar Utama.
Open daily, 11.30am to 10.00pm.
Pork sisig
Pork ribs
Deep fried kangkung
Enoki mushrooms wrapped in bacon
Bananas on ice with gula melaka and evaporated milk
wet pillowcases? eughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Yumz..i like the picture of the bananas on ice. Initially it looked like jackfruit to me, and i think it would taste even better.
Honey, you can come here should nostalgia hits you in a big way. Kangkung is such a fave with them. I’m pretty partial to pork binagoongang myself. The heavenly stink it leaves my kitchen reminds me of home..
BTW, I’m sure your pav looks awesome… 😀
fatboybakes: from crying lar. aiyoyo thangechi…..
Precious Pea: Oh,sorry, there was jackfruit as well! I think it’s the less than fresh ingredients that made it unpalatable.
GPOAD: Aiyoh, sorryyyyyy….forgot to upload pikchers for you…will do it soon!! Hehe. As for my nostalgia, it wasn’t and will never be for the kangkung lar, girl. 😛
Beautiful pictures! I love that pic of the pork.
Good find. CentrePoint is very near Annie’s mum’s place in BU.
pork sisig = pork ear?
quick, exactly what was the dessert?? was the banana cooked? i agree with pp, jackfruit would be just as good or better. em, so its just fruit, gula melaka n thick santan?anything else?
A pity that the filipino rests here are halal though. They have so many wonderful baboy dishes.
No lah, didn’t mean kangkung was your cause of nostalgia. Although in kinkier moments it could be.. Just that it is such a staple that I was totally surprised to find it in supermarkets here. Now if only they have the brown sotong. Can you make sotong kangkung with fresh cuttlefish? Which BTW looks terribly gross – a big mass of grey striped blob.
Nursing a headache, with a cuppa of coffee. I opened TheStar….thought i’ll read the papers…and PAP! Lyrical Lemongrass is featured on TheStars!!!
Congrats..
OMG, the pix are exceptionally beautiful!
Welcome backlah 😉 now I know what sisig is – lovely post as usual – especially good writing in your intro – so evocative.
Those Filipinos know how to do Pork! Oh, my.
I love the picture of the pork ribs. My first time here & I’ll be following you on Google Reader. Beautiful pics!
haha i think i want to go back and eat this tonight..
note that im just very prone to pork overdose..
is your husband from KL or PI?
Anyways i don’t like that kind of sisig,there
are other kinds that are out of this world, the
banana and jackfruit is called halo-halo and there
are also better versions of this.
First fish heads – and now pig’s ears… whatever next?!
And LL – I tried jackfruit and durian for the first time ever last night. I don’t get jackfruit, but oh what a contradiction durian is. Thank God we eat through our mouths, and not through our nasal cavities…
OMG. My stomach just ripped its way out through my spine and caught a cab for the airport. I wish we had such great Filipino food over here.
The dessert looks absolutely yummy….so tantalizing.Wish i cud take a drive there now n taste it!!Btw…very nice pix!
Pork sisig? Looks yummylicious. Slurp. Btw, saw Nicole write about you in her column Blogged Out in The Star, Saturday Metro. Congrats.
The picture was taken on the first Christmas day of the new millennium. on the first year of your marriage somemore. woah, so significant. 😀
actually, the chinese has been eating pig’s ears for the longest time as well. we can get pig ears (braised and all) at wet markets, me thinks.
something interesting to look forward to, amist all the other overhyped makaneries. 😀
oh, been a long while since i went back..missed it’s yummy ribs and very delish pork adobo..
harlo! wow.. so near my office.. must visit:D feels like i have missed too much this past week!
Nate: One more reason to visit Malaysia soon, eh? 🙂
mimid3vils: Well, this sisig was made of pork ears. But not all sisig = pork ears. Could be other parts as well.
terri: See comment by mareza. It’s called halo-halo. I think that’s it. It really didn’t make much of an impression on me. And the banana didn’t taste cooked.
GPOAD: Halal filipino food. Hmmmm…..I’ve always associated filipino food with pork. Of course, that’s an incorrect statement! Nevertheless, they sure know how to make some mean pork dishes!
MH: I hope it was a cure for your headache! 😛
Yin: Thank you!
msiagirl: Thanks! Good to be back. And I’m glad you like the intro. I had a feeling you would.
Graeme: Yes they do! Now I need to get a cookbook on filipino cuisine!
Hélène: Welcome! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the pictures. 🙂 Drop me a line if you need any clarification.
lotsofcravings: Why am i not surprised? 😛
mareza: hubby’s Malaysian, but he sometimes thinks he’s Filipino when he suddenly rambles in that language. 😛 I think I need to revisit Manila to enjoy all the local goodies!
steveky: I’m so glad you got to try jackfruit and durians! I like using jackfruit in my salads as it has a sorta heady sweetness that contrasts well with the other flavours. Durians…yeah, I get what you mean. Try transporting durians in your car….the smell lingers for days!! And it isn’t pleasant!
Chubbypanda: But…but…but…you have burgers. 😛 Kidding! You have great food there too, but here, we pay just a fraction of what you would pay in the US. You HAFTA plan a trip to SEAsia!
annie: Well…you could, actually! If you live in the Klang Valley, it isn’t that far. 😉
Simon Seow: Yeah, it’s yummylicious! And yeah, so nice of Nicole to write about me. 🙂
HairyBerry: Cool, you noticed the date on the pic! 🙂 Yeah, I was also suffering from foodpoisoning that day coz I drank some juice from one of the roadside stalls. But overall, good memories. 🙂
sc: Time for a revisit? 🙂
Mei: Welcome back. 🙂 I had the same feeling when I was away for 10 days in Oz…came back last week, and wow, so many things collapsing.
That was such a heart-warming tale about you and your hubby and I know exactly how it felt:)
Distance makes the heart grow fonder, didn’t it?
Cagayan is a place which had won the hearts (or posts) of many bloggers, I wonder how it’s really like as I’ve not tried it.
I do know Filipinos love meat and their carbs a lot…and they have a lot of interesting food too! Wonder whether you tried their balud? *shivers*
Came back from Deutschland last night. Overdosed on MIL’s porky dishes and calf liver balls. And now pig’s ear?! 😉
Only veggies and fish this week. A few corpuscles left behind on Autobahn.
Similar to you, when first got married, other half was in S’pore and I was in KL, but no wet pillow lah…
Sounds like a visit to Manila soon for you! I have only tried Filipino food once and was surprised by the distinct flavours-think it must be the vinegar! =)
Popped by to congratulate you on the Star feature. And happy belated birthday.
um, the sisig does look pathologically exciting…
We would like to invite you to visit http://foodpromotions.blogspot.com/
Cheers
FP
Hmmm….Been here twice but my experience was just “okay”. Maybe I ordered the wrong stuff! Should give it a third try.
smashed pig’s head? *_*
btw, r u supposed to eat those with rice? or the dishes only. kinda funny scooping smashed pig’s ears with creamy egg yolk into the mouth. LOL.
but the dessert looks so promising! maybe just too full from the spread?
Pork sisig = piggie ears ? 😛
I wonder if I could survive a two-year stint away from my honey buns. If that ever happens, you must teach me how, sifu. *hugs*
great pictures as usual! unfortunately, there aren’t any Philippines restaurant here in Orlando FL!
Thanks for a great trip!! I so want to be there too! Hopefully soon. I always feel so connected to your photographs.
Will we get to see ya in December? We can’t wait!
what are the price ranges at this restaurant?
I wanted to … lick my monitor! Gorgeous piccies 😉
ps – Now, where can I get a cupcake in Pelabuhan Kelang!
is it still open? i’m a fan of Philippines too 🙂
Edmund: yes it is still open.
Most Malysians i hv met think Filipino Cuisine is bland. But if u visit Manila and r adventurous, u can have great food at their many regional n Spanish restaurants which serves yummy Paella. I must admit i have a fondness for Pampanga Cuisine and their iconic Adobo (pork or chicken in vinegar n soya sauce ) is a great intro. I recommend ABE in particular at Fort Bonifacio or The Mall of Asia for great Pampanga Cuisine. Try their fried talapia, lamb adobo, bamboo rice. You will also be amazed to find the number of food mags in English. And if u like Tablescapes on the Asian Food Channel, Chef Bruce’s restaurant is at least 2 month’s booked-ahead! i think we think we have the best cuisine here – but the Spanish colonial influence there – as our Portuguese variants in Melaka – cannot be dismissed. Their culinary schools n colleges r winning all the major prizes in Asia cos they take their cuisine seriously. Mabuhay! Ma Sarap Malaysia!