More burgers, and chicken (pinakaging)

NEVER underestimate the power of Facebook. It can drive people yearning for something, most especially food.

It was just one of those posts by friends, asking for what’s the best burger in town. Of course there were a lot of different answers, among which was one still unknown and unvisited – Frango Loco.

I can’t remember who asked nor could I remember who wrote Frango Loco, but I got a vague memory of where it was… along Bacaca Road (aka Francisco Dizon Road). I also remember thinking, could that have been a typographical error when that person wrote “Frango Loco”? Franco Loco sounds more in rhyme, that’s why.

But while Facebook can indeed drive you to yearn for something, the source of yearning can be very flitting. What with a million posts almost every day, you can rarely find that one post that triggered something.

That was why I was left with just a vague idea that somewhere along Bacaca Road are burgers sold in a restaurant named Frango Loco, that might just even be misspelled.

There was ever reliable Imee with her vehicle to drive us through the long winding stretch of Bacaca Road. We drove on, and on, and on, past Mamu’s past Rolling Hills, past Francisco Dizon elementary school, past just about every part of the stretch that can host a restaurant and well into the residential El Rio Vista Subdivision, which I know will soon mean the end of the Bacaca Road as it will soon intersect Diversion Road.

“Balik na lang tayo,” I said, and just a few seconds after, there it was, in a concrete commercial structure with a lighted plastic sign announcing, “Frango Loco”. All we can remember is that it’s past that row of multi-colored townhouses whose main feature are one big round window in the pediment of each of the façade… wait, errrr… pediment… search… or that triangular part of the wall that’s made so because of the roof.

Anyway, by now I know you know which row of houses I mean.

Since I know it serves burgers, I went for the burgers. Under chili burgers described as “Made from 1/3 pound of pure beef… grilled then topped with cheese and our very own Frango chili con carne” was one that has three chili marks and a nuclear sign labeled “Extreme” (P120), which had an extra warning, “Not for the faint-hearted.”

They have many other burgers – Cheese, Bacon, Mushroom, Chili Cheese, and Chili Cheese with Bacon.

We also go half a crispy chicken, tokwa’t baboy, and shrimps with aligue.

Everything was good, except for the tokwa’t baboy, which had a base of plain soy sauce, and you’re just supposed to squeeze kalamansi onto it for the sour taste. But baboy with that taba in the porker’s cheeks that are just steamed and with nary the vinegary zing tastes, ugh.

Everything else is a go, and reasonably priced too.

The Extreme, however, is not really that scary. It’s yummy, but does not deserve all the warning signs. It’s burger topped with chili con carne that’s not chili except for a hint of pepper. What makes it hot are the pickled Jalapeno slices on top. Now, if you are like us who buy pickled Jalapeno to nibble with cheese and wine, you don’t need to be scared at all.

The chicken? It was fried to a crisp, “pinakaging” as one Cebuano friend would describe it. It’s the way I’d fry chicken to a crisp at home. (I like them that way because one thing that freaks me out are pink meat and traces of blood in chicken, ugh!) The chicken came with mojo potatoes.
Yum.
The shrimp was on the sweetish side, but it was still good. Except that I’m on a no-rice diet for months now and the sauce would have been super-wonderful mixed with rice and dribbled with a little salt. Haaaayyy.

They have a lot more to offer, a lot more “ulam”, but there were just three of us, and we already ordered more than enough to drive us to sleepytown-bye-bye.

Will I return? Yes. But I will need a friend who has a vehicle to hitch a ride with.