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Saturday, August 05, 2006
Please all rice
By J.A. Bacalso
Rice is not the enemy. Oh dear, no. Some diet experts may paint it as the devil of weight loss, but I cannot, for the love of my college Fioruccis, give up my cuppa. Moderation is the key. And with the world of rice suddenly opened up by my new discovery, so is variation. And how!
Take, for example, the ingenious tocilette, Chowabungga’s take on the Pinoy staple of tocino, egg, and, of course, garlic rice. Here, it comes neatly packaged, the egg wrapped around this complete meal like a, well, dainty omelette.
On to the Oriental side of things, Joanne Ong leads me to the wonton noodle soup…”We make our very own fresh noodles,” she beams. My vision of Hong Kong-style noodle-making, with the cooks pulling at the fresh dough to make a batch, were tempered when she added: “…on the pasta maker.” But were they ever as delicious!
A Chinese staple, the pancit tostado was also a treat, crunchy and very flavorful. I tried the drunken chicken, too…which came on top of a bowl of rice, naturally. Chowabungga was envisioned as a showcase of the “Rice of Nations”, according to their food consultant Kenneth Lim. Chicken biryani of Indian origin to Japanese-style rice-based dishes like their very popular Beef Bowl, their version of the gyudon. And, wonder of wonders, Carla Go’s favorite (I never would have guessed from her slight frame)…a huge burrito.
I confessed that I was not a big fan of this Mexican rice concoction…rice, beans, meat, and vegetables wrapped in a dough, much like a shawarma with rice. Its sheer size intimidated me. But Carla dug in like a happy camper declaring: “Finally, a decent burrito in Cebu.” Burp!
It was a wonderful gastronomic travelogue, punctuated by a bowl of halo-halo (was that rice krispies on it?).After dinner, John and Jennifer Tan, two of the several partners of this enterprise, check if I was full. If there was any more coming, I would have asked them to just feed me intravenously.
I had my fill of rice that night. In more ways than I could have imagined. The pundits will love their interesting names for the dishes, a little intellectual dining for the rice-eating masses. But if you get a hankering, be forewarned: they close at 2-6 p.m., adjusting to the time of the call center environment where they are based. As for the rest of the day, please feel free to rice.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 5, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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