Serendipity in Times of Traffic

For past the few years, my wife and I have eschewed going to big-name or trendy places on Valentine's day and have instead chosen to eat at small, out-of-the-way places where the traffic isnt bad and there's usually no need for reservations. Most of the time we have no idea where we're going; it's as if the car was on autopilot and we just arrive after taking the path of least resistance to the seemingly unavoidable traffic snarls that spawn anywhere near a restaurant on Valentine's day.

Last year we wound up at Cookbook Kitchen, a small little place tucked away in an equally small Mandaluyong side-street, right beside our son's pre-school. While the place deserves an entry, we will leave this for some other time. Someone remind me to get around to it. =)

This year we decided to try out Barcino's Gourmet, a small Spanish deli-restaurant on Julia Vargas avenue in Pasig (it's in the commercial complex right beside Ortigas Home Depot). It had two things going for it. The location's never crowded and it's near the office! We were supposed to try it out last week but got sidetracked into trying Le Boeuf, a sea food / steak restaurant in the same complex.

Barcino Gourment is on the second floor of the complex. When one enters, one is given the impression that he's stepped into a store's warehouse (albeit a nice store warehouse with airconditioning) where the owner has put up a few tables to cater to those customers who decided to eat in instead of taking their purchases home.The use of old wood and furniture gives the place a sort of old-world charm.

You immediately notice the large bank of shelving for the dry goods, mostly Spanish delicacies, the type you see at Terry Selection (I got the impression it was cheaper than Terry's, though). There is a huge storage section for wines, a small bank of refrigerators for drinks and cheese, and then, almost as an afterthought, you notice a nice homey table for maybe 8 pax and two small tables for two tucked away by the side.

In a word, homey. Homey but in a store.

Go figure.

We started off with some sliced Spanish sausages and some mild cheese. I think we disappointed the proprietor when we told him we didn't drink, and I don't mean in a financial sense, either. A friend of mine who visited relatives in Spain told me they drink more wine than water during a mealtimes over there.

The appetizers were served with some very nice warm bread. We were hungry and if we were wine drinkers I'm sure the night would have been complete with just the appetizers. Oh, by the way, this stuff wasn't even on the menu. You just go to the fridge, take it out and ask them to serve it to you. It's that informal.

The menu itself is a very short affair, perhaps no more than half a dozen dishes. We ordered the Fabada, Pes de San Pedro (St. Peter's fish) and the Cocindo de Madrileno.

The Fabada was just wonderful. Soupier than what is served in say, Dulcinea yet flavorful and full of meaty goodness. The fish was quite tasty. It had roast garlic cloves so it was off to a good start. Our only complaint about the fish was that it was strangely cold by the time it got to us.

The Cocido turned out to be a stew of vegetables, garbanzos, chicken, pork, sausage and beef. I've tried dishes like this before and it certainly held its own against the competition. My only comment is I wish it came with more sauce and vegetables (did I actually say vegetables??).

Bottom line is I like this place. It had a nice, friendly staff, an informal atmosphere, and it didn't even have a Valentine's menu. If I wanted to eat what everybody else was eating I could have gone to a cafeteria, right?

The price was right, too. We ordered maybe half the menu and even stuff not on it and our bill was less than P1,000 for the two of us. Hooray for serendipity! By the way, they were promoting some of their wines - buy-one-take-one. Their cheapest promo was for 190 for two bottles of a spanish red.

Dessert, you say? Well, the nice biscuits they gave us at Barcino Gourment were all well and good but we'd already decided to go downstairs and have the really excellent Halo-halo at Razon's of Guagua. Razon's has single-handedly re-affirmed my enthusiasm for our national dessert, to the great detriment of my diet.

The latter's version of Halo-halo sounds downright spartan compared to what most of us are used to. The first-timer to Razon's may well caught wondering -

"Is this it? Where's all the stuff inside??"

Instead of the colorful kaong, beans and whatnot topped by what is usually ube ice-cream, what you get is a faily monochromatic blend of sun-dried bananas, macapuno and very finely shaved ice (Ice Monster comes to mind). This is topped with unsweetened milk and some really creamy leche flan. What you get is a smooth, creamy blend. Not too sweet but very flavorful and you don't miss any of that other stuff anyway. I think the ice played a major role here, allowing for a smooth, flowing mixture instead of what often becomes a mish-mash when the ice gets lumpy.

Highly recommended. We haven't tried the other viands there like the sisig, hopefully this will merit another entry. P.S. go for the extra leche flan.

Oh, and for those of you who were wondering what we thought of Le Beouf, let me begin by recalling the fact that when the late, great food writer Ms. Doreen Fernandez didn't like a restaurant, she would simply refrain from writing about it. That's why I call her a food writer and not a food critic.

In the interest of the dining public, however, I will give these comments - The rib-eye steak was P180 bucks but you could hardly taste a thing. The best thing you could say about it was that at least it wasnt tough. The "Caesar" salad tasted suspiciously like thousand-island dressing with roast garlic bits. The sisig was ok though and my wife liked her tapa. Decent ambiance. Nothing to see here folks, move along now.