Pork Knuckle Fiesta at Filipino Restaurant
Posted on October 27, 2007 - Filed Under Restaurant Reviews
A girlfriend of mine introduced me to an interesting Filipino restaurant today at City Hall. Apart from a couple of dinners over at her place (she’s a fun loving Filipino gal who loves cooking), I have never really tried authentic Filipino food anywhere else. I wasn’t in the mood for a Filipino meal as they are usually heavy on the stomach and I was only feeling peckish, but I was bored enough with all the usual dining places to try something new.
I was skeptical at first, until I saw the restaurant - 7107 flavours. It had a homey swankiness around it, with a island-style centre bar and a rather cramped stage area for the band at the front. It was too early for the live band to be playing, and the corner tele and piped music were on instead. We were shown to a table beside wide windows looking out over the Suntec Convention entrance, and I was instantly able to wind down and relax. Ambience is the most important factor for me next to the quality and taste of the food served, and the layout and mood of the restaurant is important in creating an enjoyable dining experience. There were a fair number of caucasians in the restaurant who must have spent some time in the Philippines.
The staff were friendly and attentive, and my friend immediately rattled off her orders in Tagalog to the waiter as if she were back in Manila, and coyly insisted that some of dishes served at the restaurant did not taste as good as the ones she cooked at home. Of course, the taste factor in Filipino dishes is quite subjective as each city has their own version of each Filipino dish that varied in taste, and certain ingredients.
Filipinos love pork, I was told, and my friend proceeded to order all three dishes containing pork knuckes - Pinakbet with pork knuckles, Vegetable salad with Pork Knuckles, and Pork Knuckles itself as the main entree. I prepped myself mentally for a greasy meal, and ordered the recommended green mango drink to wash down the grease with. Surprisingly, the pork knuckles in all three dishes were non-greasy at all with a really dry crispy skin for that extra crunch (no oozing, squirting grease in your mouth with each bite) and the meat was fresh, flavourful and tender.
Another favourite of Filipinos is the shrimp paste - and they come in all sorts of varieties for different dishes. Sour, tangy shrimp paste for salads, and pungent, belachan styled shrimp paste for vegetable / meat stews. My personal favourite was the Pinakbet, a rich vegetable stew consisting of pumpkin, string beans, eggplant and lady’s fingers topped with your choice of meat, and liberally cooked with aromatic shrimp paste. Delicious, yet healthy.
Overall, it was a good dining experience. Lots of light and buzz from the activity in the streets below, relaxing ambience that feels more like you’re dining at a friend’s place instead of a restaurant, and authentic Filipino cuisine that tasted very much like a good, home cooked meal.
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