A TASTE OF ARISTOCRACY

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Originally uploaded by margauxlicious.

LA Cocina de Tita Moning is truly an experience. I first heard of La Cocina from my Tita Ching, who works in Malacanang, just a stone's throw away from La Cocina. I sampled a pudding a few mornings to Christmas when I dropped off some gifts at their home. This was back in 2004. I encounted Tita Moning products again at a bazaar that same Christmas, this time sampling their quezo de bola spread, a gorgeous gift of cheese in a bottle that is not overly creamy nor salty. The following year I found their stall at The Salcedo Market and was delighted that they'd begun to expand. Having to trek all the way to Malacanang is not an easy trip for me, and I live in Makati - what more for those who live in QC or in Alabang or even farther.

A few nights ago, trying to complete a list of my favorite Filipino restaurants, I had dinner at La Cocina. I had attempted this trip a year prior for lunch but was sadly turned down because they accept no walk-ins. A reservation is a must. If you don't call, they won't cook your food. That's just how it works for this house. No unannounced guests. So I made a call to Suzette Montinola the day before and she was kind enough to accommodate the dinner.

If you are not familiar with Manila, the first thing you must do is to get VERY GOOD DIRECTIONS from someone who is familiar with the place. Otherwise you will go crazy with the one-way streets in that city. Fortunately, my date that evening was good ol' mom, who went to high school at St. Paul's Manila and whose security agency is located in Escolta, so I had a very good guide.

You will have to leave your license with the guard. After all, it is the compound where the President is housed. The guard should give you sufficient directions to the house.

A guard will be at the gate of La Cocina, expecting you. That is the beginning of the royal treatment you get that endures throughout the evening. Alighting from your car, you will be led to a little patio, which takes the place of a garden for this home, where you may sit awhile and enjoy the nightly breeze, if you happen to be there on an evening when even the weather cooperates.

Here, a charming and very amiable girl Edel, who will double as your tour guide later on, will serve you some hors d'oeuvres. That evening we had quezo de bola toast and ginger tea. I enjoyed the quezo de bola toast because I'd always been a fan of the quezo de bola spread of Cocina. Here the toast comes in bite-sized slices, just enough to pass the time til dinner.

When you're ready you will be given a tour of the house. Before you think this family is full of themselves, you have to remember that the Legardas were one of the first settlers in that area of Manila. So the family history is rich enough to merit pride and display. And when you see how they've maintained the collections of Don Alejandro Legarda (the family patriarch), you will be even more impressed. He was a doctor, and Suzette displays even the skeletons that he did research with (eww for me, I passed on that one but others find it interesting). Even more impressive, he was a photographer with cameras from the 1920s. You know those huge ones that are as tall as people and the photographer stands behind it, leans in and covers his head with the little curtain attached to the camera before he takes the photo? He's got one of those and it's on display. As well as a few Leicas and other techie stuff I really didn't understand but maybe you would. Very interesting.

It doesn't end there. The man collected RADIOs too. As in over-and-out radios. When ships were the way to travel.

But what impressed me the most was his whiskey collection. It wasn't much but there were a couple of really dusty single malts in the library then in the radio room, a lamp stood made of whiskey labels. When I asked the guide, I learned that that very lamp was a paper mache made by Tita Moning herself!

The tour takes around twenty minutes so it might be wise to schedule your dinner half an hour before the time you really want to eat. Otherwise you might find your stomach growling and overeat by the time you get to the table. Or you can request to just go straight to the dining hall, if you've already had the tour before or are simply not interested.

The dining area is, the guide says, where Dona Ramona Legarda would throw her lavish parties back in the day. It has on the walls a china collection has real gold and cutlery on the table that are actually family heirlooms. The best family heirloom in the house, though, actually breathes and her name is Nanay Tining. Now apparently Suzette's right hand, she joined the family in the 70s as househelp. The Legardas now house her and her family in the compound and she personally takes reservations and attends to the guests during dinner. She has a whole ton of stories and has an uncanny wit that was most impressive. I joked to her about ghosts in the house and when she offered to take a picture of me and my mom, she asked aloud why there were three people in the picture. She cracked me up, you can't help but love her.

Dinner started with the Sopa de Molo, a signature dish of Tita Monings. This soup didn't impress me much, and I found myself wondering what they found in Tita Moning's soup when she used to cook it herself that evoked oohs and aahs from her guests. I wondered if they just reconstructed the recipe from how they remembered it to taste or if they actually got a recipe from Tita Moning herself. But nevermind the soup, the salad that followed did evoke oohs and aahs - a simple bowl of fresh kangkong with a magic touch. I think the magic was in the homemade walnut vinaigrette. I must remember to purchase a bottle at the Salcedo Market on Saturday. They also topped the salad with caramelized walnuts which was just delightful. The sweetness of this blended well with the slightly bitter greens.

As recommended by Suzette, we had the Kare kare. At Tita Moning's, every menu is good enough for two, and clearly meant to be shared. This particular menu that we chose, the Filipino menu, also had a fish dish with it, so no problem for the non-carnivore. Anyway, the kare kare was an experience. It was different from the kare kare that I am used to, which has a thicker sauce and is much richer and bolder in taste. (I'm from Bulacan and in our province we lean towards bolder flavors.) This kare kare was more subtle. They serve it in a bowl so the sauce is almost like soup. In fact, the texture is such that you can take it like soup. Then, as instructed by Nanay Tining, you can get spoonsful of rice and dip this in the bowl. I had never had my kare kare enjoyed this way before. I would have preferred it the old way, which you could do, of course, but I'm a fan of new experiences so I went along.

Overall, it was good. Different but good. The flavor does not disappear despite the difference in texture. It helped that Tining said, "Damihan niyo yung bagoong" ("Be generous with your shrimp paste.") But even without her advice, everything you love about good ol kare kare remained intact.

For dessert, the menu offers Caramelized Saba Banana with Vermouth. Again, a sophisticated touch to an otherwise peasant dish. I have turron all the time. I'm a big turron fan. Banana with anything sweet and I'm good to go. But here they add vermouth! And even my mom, who is even more discriminating than me in taste, agreed that it was a truly lovely touch.

The highlight of my night, though, was the last dish, which was Tita Moning's Bread Pudding, of which I have been a fan since I first tasted it four years ago. Too full from dinner, I had two bites then asked if I could bring the rest home. Sick foodie that I sometimes am, I had it for breakfast the next two mornings, hehe.

I am a pudding afionado and so far my two favorites are Tita Moning's and Monique Papa's at Myrons. Chef Ed Quimson must have also heard because he sent me a to-die-for Princess Diana pudding the other day that I would wake up for at midnight three nights in a row lol. (But that deserves another post.)

Anyway, Suzette was kind enough to agreee to share Tita Moning's Pudding recipe, saying, "All recipes are for sharing." So here it is.

La Cocina de Tita Moning's Bread and Butter Pudding
(This recipe uses a 10.5x 3.5x 2.75 loaf pan)

Ingredients:
1 Loaf American Bread (approximately 16 slices)
450 grams ( 2 cups ) salted butter
10 eggs
1 ½ cups granulated white sugar
3 1/2 cups milk
Orange Marmalade

For pili:
¼ kilo pili nuts ( boiled and peeled)
1 cup sugar

Caramel: In a saucepan, boil 1 ½ cups sugar just barely covered with water to make caramel. Do not Stir. When the caramel has reached the right golden color, coat the loaf pan with the caramel mixture and allow the caramel to harden.

Pudding: Trim the crusts off from 1 loaf American Bread. Do not use the ends. Butter both sides of the bread and lay them out flat on baking trays with at least two inch high sides. Separate the whites and the yolks from 10 pcs eggs. Put all the yolks in one bowl. Beat the yolks with a whisk and add 1 ½ cup sugar. Whisk well together.Bring 3 1/2 cups milk to a boil. Add the hot milk to the egg mixture and beat properly until fluffy. Strain the egg and milk mixture into the baking pan with buttered loaves of bread. Allow the bread to soak in the egg and milk mixture . Flip loaves so that all the entire piece is sufficiently coated. Butter the caramelized loaf pan, and layer the soaked bread slices in the loaf pan. Add a bit of orange marmalade in between the layers of toast. Bake in the oven, in a water bath at 160C for approximately 2 hours, until pudding has set. Do not overcook. When you press lightly the top of the pudding with your finger, it should spring back. Allow the pudding to rest five minutes before inverting unto your serving dish. The caramel and butter will have melted creating a sauce so make sure your serving dish is deep enough to hold the sauce.

Pili nuts. 1) Prepare your boiled and peeled pili nuts by piercing a toothpick to each one. 2)Caramel: In a saucepan, boil 1 cup sugar just barely covered with water to make caramel. Do not Stir. When the caramel has reached the right golden color, remove from the flame for about a minute and when the caramel begins to harden, dip each pili nut into the caramel, coating it completely. Lay each nut on a stainless baking tray. When the caramel hardens and cools, it will be easy to scrape each nut off the tray without damaging it. Decorate the top of the pudding with the candied pili nuts and serve.

La Cocina de Tita Moning
315 San Rafael Street, San Miguel, Manila, Philippines
734 2141
www.lacocinadetitamoning.com