Ilustrado is now at the Fort

Sundays are always family days for everyone, without exception, here in the Philippines.  It is the culmination of a busy week, a day when everyone is home and can sleep until the sun is almost directly above you.  That signals the lunch hour, and that is what most Sundays are about, for our family at least. 

Meal times are bonding times for us, especially now that everyone has his or her own directions to pursue, appointments to keep, goals to meet. Most Sundays, we choose to stay home and enjoy a home-cooked meal that is usually reserved for Sunday’s best. That is when the kitchen smells nicely of slow-roasted pork with crackling skin, or a nice bubbling pot of sinigang na baka.  On some Sundays though, we rouse everyone up to have a great lunch outside for a change.

Most of the time, we have a specific destination.  Other times, we surf the net or wander about town looking for an interesting new place.  Last Sunday, we had a common mind set: Spanish food. Everyone was set on gorging on the best of Spanish food – paella, callos, lengua and whatever else may catch our eye on the menu. And when it’s that famous trio that we’re thinking, Ilustrado comes to mind. Its main store is in Intramuros which we frequented in the past when the kids were much, much younger.  That’s how long Ilustrado has been around, but now they have satellite restaurants in Makati` and at the Fort.

The Volkswagen showroom along 28th street in BGC is their newest venture, a plush, swanky location where they put up V by Ilustrado Café and Lounge, and that was where we were headed.  The Fort on Sundays is more pleasant, not as chaotic, so it was a nice destination for Sunday lunch. The coffee shop is small and inviting with a few white tables and a cozy seating arrangement of two sofas flanking box-type tables.  This was where we parked ourselves comfortably in anticipation of a good weekend lunch.

Unfortunately, they serve paella only on Tuesdays, a big disappointment for us, but they had everything else on the menu.  For our family of six that includes Bella (our four-year grandaughter who everybody’s crazy about) we had three orders of Callos Madrilena and two orders of their famed Lengua con Setas. My son Wee had to have Adobong Bagnet with Taba ng Talangka, which he had tasted when we attended a recent launch of a Volkswagen model at this very same showroom which, of course, was catered by Ilustrado, so we had two orders of that as well.  Daughter Tin (DJ Suzy to her fans) had to have the Chorizo Fritos which are always a hit at home.  Since this dish was listed among the Tapas in the menu, we knew it was going to be in small servings, so we had three of those. Bella had a big plate of the three-Mushroom Pasta, a hefty serving which the little girl couldn’t finish, so it ended up being shared by everyone else. 

When the food started streaming in, a parade of white serving plates all served steaming hot, I didn’t realize we had ordered so much.  It turned out Wee even had a “pahabol” of Kalderetang Kambing. The servers could hardly fit all the serving plates on the two small square tables, but they deftly managed.

 In order of arrival:  the Chorizos Fritos were mildly spicy and garlicky, the orange-tinted oil so familiar to all of us as the Spanish chorizo has always been an all-time favorite. I don’t know if they make their own or import it from Spain, but the chorizos were good. Next was Callos:  the sauce was thick as I like it and flavored by chorizo de bilbao; the tripe was very tender and not chewy like in other restaurants that do not have the patience to simmer gently.

Next came the two plates of the Lengua con Setas which also featured slow-cooked slices of ox tongue (so tender you could slice them easily with a fork) in brown sauce.  These last two dishes were what I had in mind when I woke up that Sunday, and I feasted on them. They certainly did not disappoint.  They would have paired off well with paella, but that would have to wait for Tuesday.

Next came the Adobong Bagnet with Taba ng Talangka which I also had a little of.  The bagnet was no longer crackling crisp, blending well with the taba ng talangka in the yellow sauce, and Wee and wife Kaycee loved it.  The Kalderetang Kambing came in a bit later, but we really had no more space for this hearty dish that is supposed to be cholesterol-free, so we ended up having it wrapped.  In fact, we had other leftovers as well that ended up in brown bags, not for wanting in fabulous flavors but simply from having too much food on our table.  And lastly came little Bella’s pasta order, the Three Mushroom Pasta.  Ever the pasta lover, wife Baby, indulged herself on the dish and loved it. Would you believe that with so much food on the table, everyone just had to dig into Bella’s order?

And would you believe that after all that, we were shameless enough to order dessert to top it all?  We had Sans Rival, my all-time favorite (they did not have Tira Misu, my first choice) with our freshly brewed coffee to cap our nice Sunday lunch and went home sated and happy.

Mabuhay!!!  Be proud to be a Filipino.

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