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By Margaux Salcedo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 17:32:00 06/05/2010
THERE’S a new generation with no idea who Carlos P. Romulo was. As far as they’re concerned, he’s an auditorium in RCBC Plaza in Makati where cool musicals like Avenue Q are shown –way Epifanio delos Santos is an avenue and not the esteemed historian, or how Roxas is a boulevard and not a former Philippine president.
You can’t blame the kids, though, because history is not that extensively taught in the classroom so there’s really no motive, given all the other information available nowadays, to focus on the personalities who shaped this country.
Fortunately for Carlos P. Romulo, his heirs have found a good way to keep his memory alive: a hip restaurant frequented by hip people with a photo exhibit of Carlos P. Romulo on its walls. It’s a very elegant and subtle way of keeping fresh the memory of a man who served his country well. While sipping cucumber juice, you will learn that Romulo stood tall alongside General Douglas MacArthur and President Sergio Osmeña (okay kids, just wiki MacArthur and Osmeña, there’s not enough space here).
I don’t know if that was the point behind this restaurant but it was a sweet idea. The way La Cocina de Tita Moning honors a grandmother, why not honor a grandfather? (A granddaughter is an owner of the restaurant.)
The menu, as expected, has items that were cooked “the Romulo way” – such as the adobo. The menu describes it as “Chicken Pork Adobo Romulo Style.” It is very unique. To begin with, the chicken and pork are not served in a bowl of adobo sauce; instead these are served dry, with the adobo sauce presented in a little sauce bowl on the side. I have never seen adobo done this way before. It was like having three different dishes all in one plate: chicken inasal, fried pork and if you choose – adobo.
In fact that seems to be the general theme here: modern Filipino. The Ensaladang Pinoy has all the vegetables neatly stacked separately; it is up to you to mix it all up for a tasty side dish or salad. The Pinoy nachos is a very elegant and far healthier twist to the more common nachos and cheese, using taro and kamote (sweet potato) chips and kesong puti (buffalo mozzarella).
But while the plating is lovely, the ingredients appear to be too measured. For the penne carbonara with Vigan longganisa, you can hardly taste the longganisa. The beef caldereta with queso de bola is delicious, with wonderfully tender beef, but you are prone to miss the creative addition of the cheese. Even for the Pinoy nachos, half of the chips will be eaten without the kesong puti, much to the cheese lover’s dismay. And you can’t ask for extras either. I tried and was turned down, in spite of being willing to pay.
Other dishes are difficult to understand. The Chicken with Tamarind, for one, is intriguing but my lunch date joked that it tasted like Max Fried Chicken, incidentally located around the corner. (This made me wonder if maybe the secret ingredient of Max’s fried chicken is tamarind sauce!) At the same time, while the tamarind sauce was great on its own, it was too liquid for its flavor to stick to the chicken. The dessert called Cheese Overload has a delicious cheese ice cream and filling cheese sticks that don’t quite mesh.
Others are excellent in flavor but difficult to eat. The Seafood Kare-Kare is delish but it has these gorgeous crabs that you can’t exactly open with your hands because they were drowned in the kare kare sauce. It was a painful experience to have the most beautiful crab before you and not be able to fully appreciate its meat.
Nevertheless, other items on the menu shine: aside from the Ensaladang Pinoy and Pinoy Nachos mentioned earlier, the Sinigang na Salmon sa Miso is classically prepared and very satisfying, and the Sisig Rice is very tasty.
Every single instance that I went (three times), though, the place was packed. And usually, there was a celebrity sighting: from politicians (Congresswoman Darlene Antonino-Custodio and presumptive Mrs. Noynoy Aquino Shalani Soledad) to showbiz personalities (Vice Ganda). Eavesdropping is also a fun experience. I wanted to drop in my two cents in agreement when I overheard an obviously cultured man say, “We have a great soprano, Rachelle Gerodias.”
It’s a simple restaurant, really, which is also probably why they decided to call it Romulo Cafe instead of resto. The vibe is very relaxed, as is the food; they could have opted to call it Romulo Bistro. I think overall with this project the granddaughter has made her grandfather proud. •
Romulo Cafe. 32 Sct. Dr. Lazcano cor. Sct. Tuason (off Tomas Morato), Quezon City. Tel. 3327275, Mobile 09156623121. Major credit cards accepted. Reservations recommended. Wheelchair accessible. Average P350-P500 per head.
PS. I swear, doesn't Romulo look like Jun Lozada? Hahaha!
There is no sincerer love than the love of food. - George Bernard Shaw
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