The best kare-kare in town is at Iago’s

By the best, I mean to my absolute liking and utmost preference, especially since of late, kare-kare has been seeing many variations, including one with seafood and another that’s a vegetarian’s delight.

My desiderata with regards kare-kare demand tenderized oxtail as well as beef chunks together with the usual tripe but not much of that, the way my mom used to make it. And that’s usually how we canonize a dish, by recalling the memory of our moms’ hearty cooking.

Her kare-kare also included intestine, with its gooey insides melting in the mouth with the quality of pure sin. I used to make my kare-kare the same way, with some cut-up intestines, until I stopped frequenting wet markets in favor of supermarket fare.

That also meant conducting the orchestration of kare-kare without toasted ground rice for thickening. But in an age when we’ve learned to compromise with peanut butter and instant packets (McCormick or Mama Sita’s) for the sauce, we’ll still take quicker gratification while only half-lamenting the departure from traditional cooking.

And when precious time prohibits even the quick-and-easy modifications, then one just tries the kare-kare in restaurants. Over the past few years until it disappeared, Bistro Mateo in Tiendesitas had my favorite kare-kare, often shared with publisher Louie Cruz before he left ahead. I’ve also liked Kuya J.’s and Max’s versions, though both could do with more beef chunks.

But for my money, nothing beats the kare-kare offered at Iago’s Grill on BF Homes’ Aguirre Avenue. Not ever wishing to have anything to do with Sucat traffic, I was lucky to get familiar with that kare-kare owing to friendship with its proprietor, Jojo Salomon, who was a fellow board member at MTRCB.

We also shared the same birthday, so that our February treat for the board members and staff always had his kare-kare as a prime feature. And when we’d seasonally have tapings of the TV program MTRCB Uncut, the catered lunch courtesy of Atty. Salomon and his servers assured me of a weekly burp over the dish I could never pass up, bagoong and all.

So many things can go wrong with this complex dish. The sauce can get watery and bland, without the full peanut taste. The annatto color and piquancy can turn out weak. All that tripe and offal could betray awful cost-cutting — in lieu of tender meat and oxtail goodness, inclusive of its skin. There might not be any banana heart, or too much of it, and the eggplant, string beans, and pechay could be overdone, perhaps from too much reheating. Or the bagoong alamang could be too salty, without the proper counter-sweetness, spiciness, and flavor allowed by sautéing pork bits in the salted shrimp paste.

But once in a while, this fiesta fare turns out just right, so that unli rice becomes its fitting partner, diets and cautionary health habits go hang. In fact, the classic tandem — for either a pause to or redundancy of its rich taste — is hearty adobo. 

In any case, Iago’s Grill’s kare-kare, even without the adobo, takes me back to the succulence of boyhood days, thanks to my mom’s Kapampangan-style cooking.

Now, the good news is that Jojo Salomon has opened Iago’s Restaurant for the benefit of non-northerners, on 56 Scout Rallos St. near corner Tomas Morato, Quezon City.

A soft opening a few weeks ago allowed friends to indulge once again in the specialty of the house — kare-kare — along with our other favorites also brought over from Iago’s Grill at Sucat: the Crispy Chicken Skin, Gambas Al Ajillo, Chicharong Bulaklak, and Crispy Hito with Buro, among many other Filipino comfort food dishes.

Lawyer Jojo Salomon got into the restaurant business in the late 1990s when he had to step in and take charge of his father’s venture, Café Jannina on Roces Avenue, QC. In 2006, he considered partnering with Gladys Guevarra, then a mainstay of GMA 7’s Eat Bulaga, and setting up a comedy bar. But they wound up taking over Lugawan Island ng Pilo on Timog Avenue, an offshoot of the more popular Pilo Garden Restaurant along Katipunan Extension. Together with a third party, they formed JTG Foods Corporation and renamed the restaurant “JTG’s Lugawan Republic.”

Eventually, Jojo became the sole owner. In 2007, a first branch was opened in Metrowalk, Pasig City, and in 2010, another on Aguirre Avenue, BF Homes. This second branch became a two-in-one restaurant when Salomon set up Iago’s Grill beside it to take advantage of the site, and getting to share a single kitchen, management, accounting system and business permit.

In 2013, Iago’s Food Services, Inc. ventured into the catering business, initially to accommodate family and friends who found Parañaque too distant. But the catering business has since become a major endeavor of Iago’s.

Meanwhile, JTG’s Lugawan Republic on Timog Avenue also became as popular as the highly successful two-in-one venture in Sucat. It was only a matter of time before Jojo found an elegant old home on Scout Rallos to set up a new Iago’s Restaurant, as differentiated from Iago’s Grill, and repeat the side-by-side complementary restos feature. 

He gave the old, two-story house, which resembles the art deco buildings that used to be taken over by the Red Cross, a sophisticated look with its interiors. As he says, he had long realized that Iago’s in Parañaque had evolved from a simple neighborhood restaurant serving mainly grilled items into a family restaurant offering a lot more than grilled dishes.

Soon, JTG’s Lugawan Republic will transfer from Timog Avenue to an adjacent site on Scout Rallos. It will, of course, continue to offer what became a surprise hit in its menu — “Gotohell,” an extremely spicy variety of lugaw, which comes with callos-like goto strips as a topping. It had started as a response to a joke by Francis M., who mentioned the very spicy lugaw in an Eat Bulaga episode. Customers of JTG’s Lugawan Republic began ordering “Gotohell” so that the resto had to come up with what has since proven to be its bestseller. Another favorite specialty of the house is “Aleta” — crispy chicken skin that’s to die for.

For its part, Iago’s Restaurant’s menu offers mostly traditional family recipes, many of these from Jojo’s grandmother passed on to his mother.

“However,” Jojo says, “in a restaurant setting, where food has to be served within minutes from ordering, traditional cooking cannot always be done, but we try to be as authentic as possible with home-cooked meals to ensure that our customers’ dining experience will have the feel of their lola’s or their mother’s cooking. Iago’s, for me, is Sunday lunch at lola’s house where every dish is meticulously prepared with love.”

Well, as far as I’m concerned, on the frequent occasions that I’ve savored Iago’s kare-kare, that’s exactly how it’s tasted: as a virtual throwback to my own mom’s memorable cooking.

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Iago’s Restaurant is at 56 Scout Rallos St. near the corner of Tomas Morato, Quezon City.