Before we left for vacation, Rey lent us a great book about Spanish culinary.  It’s called Culinaria Spain — excellent book with lots of pictures of traditional Spanish food.  Our list of Spanish food to try were mostly made up of what we read.  Go on, click on the Amazon link on the left and take a look at the “First Pages” of this book.  He he he … you will see three of the things we blogged about … La Boqueria and Pa Amb Tomaquet.

That book is actually part of an excellent series of books.  If money grew on trees, I would go buy every book in the series. And I had to return that book to Rey.

We decided to meet at Pinpin because we wanted Rey to tell us more about Filipino Cuisine, especially when we had just returned fresh from the vacation in Spain.  You see, Filipino Cuisine had a strong Spanish influence having been a Spanish colony for 400 years.

Pinpin is located on 6113 Fraser Street.  Rey told us that Pinpin is the name of the street in Manila’s Chinatown.  There is another Filipino restaurant in Richmond called Little Ongpin which is also named after a street in Manila’s Chinatown.  Both Pinpin and Little Ongpin are Chinese-Filipino restaurant.  Whew … that means that Rey will not be showing us Balut or Pork Blood Stew.

It appears that Pinpin had just recently expanded and went through a make over.  Rey told us that they used to be on one just shop lot.  The older section of the restaurant still have the cafe look but this newer section looks great.

We did not even look at the menu and left it to the expert to order for us.  Having eaten with Rey before we sort of knew he would order a feast … and he did!  *clap* *clap* *clap*.

Crispy Pata — deep fried pig knuckle.  Meat lovers will surely love this.  I have to admit too … the Chinese Roast Pig (Siew Yook) is nowhere compared to the Filipino Crispy Pata.

What makes it great is the two steps in cooking … it is first boiled and then deep fried.  So what you get is a really soft tender moist meat with an unbelievably crispy skin.

We asked for a small portion for 3 people but still they gave us quite a serving.  This is $9.95.  If we come again, we will surely order this.

The dipping sauce that goes with the Crispy Pata is a mix of soya sauce, chili and garlic.   The next dish is absolutely amazing …
More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Pinpin Restaurant on Fraser, Vancouver (520 words)

© ben for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | 6 comments
Post tags: Filipino, Restaurant Review, Vancouver

Last month, Rey introduced to us the Chinese Filipino food by bringing us to Little Ongpin in Richmond. In the second leg of the adventure, Rey next introduced us to Spanish Filipino food.

The Dulcinea Chocolate Cafe is located on Denman in Vancouver Westside. We were met by Mari and David, who opened this delightful outlet with their daughter since October 2008. So this place is just 6 months new. Mari and David are both of Spanish descent from the Philippines. Mari told us she is a chocolate lover … and the place was started out of her love of chocolates! She’s so friendly and approachable that I can see that she connects to her customers very well.

I was told by Rey that pure Spanish Filipino makes up only 2% of the population in the Phillipines. Despite the low number, the Spanish has a lasting influence in the Filipino culture having colonized the country for 333 years. That is why most of the Filipino names are Spanish names.

When Rey suggested Dulcinea and raved about their Hot Chocolate, we initially thought “what’s the big deal”? We soon changed our perception of hot chocolates after this experience.

The name Dulcinea came from the name of Don Quixote’s true love in the novel of the same name. We had always thought that Dulcinea was pronounced as Doo-See-Nea. A big sign on the wall says “Doo-see-nay-ah”. You learn something new everyday. The name Dulcinea means overly elegant sweetness — a perfect name for a chocolate cafe.

Dulcinea started off as a Spanish Chocolate Bar in the Vancouver Westside neighborhood. Mari told us that the place evolved quickly since they started six month ago … from starting to serve tapas, then soup, sandwiches … and Dulcinea took life on its own when customers requested for certain food and Dulcinea responded.

We went to Dulcinea at 4PM. It’s an odd hour, I know but Rey wanted us to treat this like a Merienda. I had always heard that the Spanish culture has a really odd day … like taking a nap after lunch, having dinner at 9:30PM and Meriendas in between meal times.

We half expected the place to be empty at 4PM and thought that Rey suggested that time because Mari and David would be the least busiest. We were amazed that even at 4PM, Dulcinea was packed … with people … having … Merienda! The crowd actually taper off at about 5′ish.

This is it … the above is what Dulcinea is famous for. Their signature Hot Chocolate which is called the 1528. It is a shot of thick chocolate. It is like the espresso of chocolates … but much more thicker. Any thicker it would not be drinkable! Even the spoon provided is designed to scrap off the thick chocolates from the sides of the cup.

The 1528 costs $2 per shot. If you have never tried it before, go to the counter and ask for a small sample. They pass out samples and once you take a sip, you’ll probably want one for your own.

Now … if you want a solo cup of the 1528 … listen here … FOR FREE … just go and tell Mari, David or whoever at the counter that “Chowtimes Loves Xocolatl” and you will receive a solo cup of the 1528. Serious! I suggested to Mari and David that they put in a little fun promotion to benefit readers of chowtimes and was surprised to hear a yes from them. I suggest you know what a Xocolatl is (see below) and how it is pronounced (pronounced as choco-latl).

Consider this is like Suanne and I buying you a cup of hot chocolate. :-)

Update 05-Apr-2009: The offer for the free 1528 had now expired. Mari and David expressed their thanks to everyone who had taken time to visit their store and tried the 1528. However, Dulcinea will continue to offer samples of the 1528 (just not a solo cup of it). There could be more offers coming. Just stay tuned. I hope those who had the 1528 enjoyed it!

Oh … 1528 … that is the year that the Spanish took cocoa from Mexico and shipped it back to Spain. That year was the start of Europe’s love of chocolates. Nice name, I thought.

If you’re not into thick hot chocolates, there is the Classico … a more watered down version but still really rich and creamy.

I had the Hot Chocolate with Chai. These are not very large cups like I am used to (i.e. we drink Milo at home and we make really big cups and gulp them down real fast). Here I find that I took my time to savour every sip.

The Xocolatl (how do one pronounce that again?) is quite exciting. I’ve never seen a dried chili served with hot beverage before. This one is a hot chocolate with chili nutmeg and cinnamon. The chili wasn’t that hot. Be brave and go try that one. You’ll probably love the contrasting flavours here.

What’s chocolate without fondue? It’s something about fondue that makes it the favourite of just about everyone. I think it’s because it’s a fun food to have with friends. We noticed that the grapes were frozen … not sure why only the grapes were frozen while the banana and strawberry wasn’t.

Besides the delightful hot chocolates, Dulcinea has absolutely the best cakes and pastries one could find in Vancouver. This is coming from our resident cakes fan, Suanne. Our fav has got to be the Lava Blanco above which is chocolate mousse with white choc inside of it.

Instead of ordering each item by itself, we actually ordered the sampler which gives us a little of everything we wanted.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Dulcinea Chocolate Cafe on Denman, Vancouver (355 words)

© ben for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | 25 comments
Post tags: Cake, Cheesecake, Chocolate, Filipino, Pastry, Restaurant Review, Spanish, Vancouver

Suanne and I jumped onto Rey’s invite especially when we know so little about Filipino Cuisine and Cultures.

Rey wanted to introduce to us Filipino Cuisine gradually, starting from the normal Filipino cuisine before graduating to what he calls the Fear-Factor food. His plan is to start off introducing Chinese Filipino food, followed by Spanish Filipino food and end up with Filipino-Filipino food.

For the Chinese Filipino food, Rey brought us to the only one Filipino restaurant in Richmond, Little Ongpin. Little Ongpin is located at the strip mall of the intersection of Cambie and No 5 Road. It seems like it is out of the way for many people but I somehow think that it’s strategically placed next to a major Catholic church.

Little Ongpin is named after the Chinatown district in Manila. It has a very neighborhood cafe restaurant feel to it — you know, the kind of places where one brings the whole family for a time out. It was busy and packed when we were there. I wished we could take the insides of the restaurant but we only managed to take a quick shot (above) when the tables were vacated.

Little Ongpin has a very friendly feel to it. I was quite amazed when two tables (one in front and one behind us) actually passed us their dishes to have a closer look when they overheard that Rey was telling us about Filipino cultures and cuisines. I was quite taken by surprised actually and really felt the homeliness of this place.

Filipino Chinese makes up about only 2% of the population of the Philippines. However, the Chinese in the Philippines had over the centuries inter-married and if this is taken into account, Chinese Filipinos makes up a sizable 30% of the population.

Many people does not realize this but the Filipino community is the third largest visible minority group (after Chinese and East Indians) in the Metro Vancouver with 120,000 people in all. However, you will notice that there is no “Filipino-town” here or for that matter anywhere else in the world. This is because Filipinos tries to assimilate to the local population.

The food served in Little Ongpin is a mix of indigenious Filipino, Spanish and Chinese cuisine.

We started off with a drink called Gulaman Sago. The main ingredient is Palm Sugar which is very similar to the popular Gula Melaka of Malaysia. This sweet concoction is served in shaved ice and is perfect especially in hot weather. The sweetness here is lighter than the common sugar and has a caramel taste to it.

Rey knew that Arkensen and Nanzaro loves fried rice. He ordered a common Filipino version of the fried rice — the Bagoong (pronounced as Bah-go-ong) Fried Rice for the boys to try. The main flavour is imparted by Bagoong which is shrimp paste and is common to the Malay Belacan. The smell of shrimp paste, as you might imagine, is pungent and some people might find it overwhelming. Not to us at all. The Bagoong is what give the rice the pinkish color.

The serving is huge … three times bigger than the normal fried rice we get in Chinese restaurant. This is because Filipinos food are normally share family-style. Generally single serving food is not common. I like that.

The Bagoong Fried Rice is served with toppings of eggs, chicken, green onions and mango. It was the first time I had rice with mango and it really blends well, just like pineapple would. I later learned that Mango is the national fruit of the Philippines.

So what was the verdict from the boys? Nanzaro, the family fried rice expert, said that “Hmmm … good. Better than Salted Fish and Chicken Fried Rice”!

Fried Lumpia is the Filipino version of the fried spring rolls. It was awesome. The best part of this is the sweetish and sourish dipping sauce. We asked Rose (the owner) about this sauce and was told that this had been with the family recipe for 50-60 years. And … shhh … it’s a secret! LOL!

Since I asked about Lumpia which I had heard about so much, Rey also ordered the fresh version of Lumpia. The skin of this is made of egg crepe. I prefer the crunchy fried version.

Lumpia is a Chinese Filipino food.

Here are the ingredients of the Fresh Lumpia. Sorry, I can’t quite make out what they are but I think they are primarily turnip. I can’t help by contrasting this to the Malaysian Popiah … the main difference is the crepe skin and the sauce it is served in.

Oh, one thing I noticed is the absence of chili. I would have thought that hot chili will figure a lot in Filipino cuisine since it is a chili growing region. Rey told us that Filipinos does not stand hot food.

Then came the main course — the Little Ongpin Assorted Chargrilled. This is a huge platter of seafood and meat which very much delighted all of us on the table. I never knew that the Filipinos were so big on BBQ but they sure know how to BBQ!

In the Philippines, BBQ are usually done over an open charcoal pit.
More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Little Ongpin on No 5 and Cambie in Richmond (453 words)

© ben for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | 12 comments
Post tags: Filipino, Restaurant Review, Richmond