Affiliates
Contact Us
Century International Hotels
TravelSmart.NET

PHILIPPINES
HONG KONG
CANADA
EUROPE
USA
INDONESIA
SINGAPORE
THAILAND


THE WEBSITE
Philippines

Fresh takes on classic Pinoy cuisine
Source: Inquirer
Author: Rowena C. Burgos
Date: 2001-03-15
 
MAMA Rosa, a 200-sqm Filipino deli and restaurant at the corner of the trendy Timog-Morato neighborhood, is one of the city’s best buys. Where else can you have a delicious, can’t-finish-it-all three-course meal with brewed coffee or iced tea for P410? And the food is first-rate; each course is composed with delightful precision.



On the P410 menu, one might begin with a Pako and Suha Salad, made up of fiddlehead fern shoots, singkamas, ubod and pomelo, with honey-fish sauce dressing; move on to Crispy Tadyang, deep-fried Batangas beef served with pickled kangkong and balsamic vinegar fish sauce dip; then top it off with Frozen Dayap Mousse.



Owned by siblings Tiks Laurel, Gok Asence, who is in charge of product marketing and merchandising, and Rod Dula, Mama Rosa is a good thing for stressing the originality of the food rather the novelty of the concept. It entertains palates tired of the confusing fusion cuisine.



Managed by Tiks and her daughter Golda, the restaurant’s dishes were the same remarkable fare that came out of the kitchen of Rosa Eco Dula, mother of Tiks, Gok and Rod. To her, cooking was a labor of love. Only the choicest ingredients went into meals, which she prepared with care and served generously.



The memory of her cookery, a long-distance event designed to extract the maximum of flavor, lives on in the bottled home-made products offered at Mama Rosa and Goto King, which is also owned by the Dulas. Some of these 37 treats are Anchovy Essence, Pickled Bittermelon, Spicy Tuyo, Taba ng Talangka, Spicy Milkfish, Passion Fruit-Pineapple Marmalade, Tableya Roll, Salad Dressing with soy sauce and wasabi or with honey and fish sauce, Kalabasa Sauce and Liver Sauce.



Mama Rosa’s menu is designed by Tiks, who initially handled a canteen of Meralco in the 1980s. Her chief cook then, who specializes in Chinese food, is her chef at Mama Rosa. Their tandem has taken culinary fundamentals to a new level of inventiveness by adding surprising flavors and textures to conventional Pinoy dishes.



Glorious surprises



It’s a comfort to discover tradition successfully reinvented, modest prices and pleasing service at Mama Rosa. It has modern and colorful interiors with a menu of creative Filipino fare as finely tuned as its surroundings. Such surprises impress even the area’s upper-crust crowd.



Of late, the restaurant launched its Lenten specials and New from the Kitchen that are now part of the regular menu. Such new meals are introduced every quarter.



Lenten Specials include Mongo Soup, sauteed mongo beans with flaked tinapa and shrimps simmered with eggplant, gabi and ampalaya (a meal in itself which is too good to share even a spoonful); Labahita a la Vizcaina, dried and salted surgeon fish flakes sauteed in olive oil, garlic, tomatoes and onions and simmered in tomato sauce with garbanzos, potatoes, olives and pimiento strips and served with fried eggplant; Pritong Bangus Lumpia, fried spring rolls with flaked milkfish, potato and raisin stuffing and served with sweet and sour dip; and Sinaing na Tulingan, big-eyed tuna steamed in lots of salt and pork fat and served with kamias cooked in coconut milk.



On the other hand, New from the Kitchen proffers Beef with Sanke, braised flank cubes and radish in a sauce with a hint of five-star anise; Chicken Binakol, chicken with shredded young coconut and potatoes in coconut water soup flavored with lemon grass; Sinanglay na Tilapia, tilapia wrapped in lettuce leaves simmered in coconut milk with garlic, ginger and green cooking peppers; and Adobong Kangkong, braised swamp cabbage in vinegar and soy sauce topped with lechon kawali.



Aside from these latest offerings, diners can also enjoy its Salads and Appetizers, specifically Tapang Usa which tastes wild but is meltingly tender; Soups of Halaan, Three Mushroom and Mais at Hipon; Vegetables like Kinchay Tokwa at Hipon, Pinangat na Gabi and Crispy Seafood Hab-hab; Grilled Specials of Tuna Belly, Apahap, Dalag and Chicken Inasal; and Meats such as Kari-Kari, Ginataang Manok and Paksiw na Lechon Cebu.



The restaurant pays paean to fresh seafoods through Pan Fried Flounder with Ginger Sauce, Suaje Kebab, Cocidong Isda, Sinabawang Laman Dagat, Sinigang na Ulang and Garlic Crabs. Such dishes are best paired with Steamed Milagrosa Rice, Garlic Fried Rice, Bagoong Rice, Pistahan Rice and Salted Fish Rice.



Or if you have a fancy for pasta, there’s Pasta Rosa, a Pinoy version of the classic puttanesca; Penne Pahiyas with crumbled longanisang Lukban in rich tomato herb sauce; and Pasta Neptuna, fish roe and taba ng talangka sauteed in garlic and cilantro and seasoned with lemon juice. Try also the diner’s sandwiches of Spicy Tuyo, Longanisang Lukban, Carne Norte, Chicken Pork Adobo, Beef Tapa and Hot Crab. And relish its desserts of White Salad, Saba’t Camote, Maja Blanca, Saba a la Mode, Leche Flan and Halo-Halo Supreme.



Indeed, Mama Rosa’s menu is far from stuffy, thanks to Tiks’ fresh takes on Pinoy classicism.

 

Indonesia Thailand USA Europe Canada Hong Kong Philippines