"Corazon (Cora) runs a little café in Ashton, not far from Ikea. Visiting first on a Sunday we found it fairly busy, but serving only full English breakfasts (at £3.50 these were great value, but not what we were hoping for). Talking to the chatty owner revealed that she does indeed served Filipino food, but only in the evenings. Paul, Simon and I immediately made a reservation to return the following Thursday.
Filipino cuisine is a mixture of Asian staples, Spanish tastes, and local produce. As such it is a curious half-way-house between mainland Asian (Chinese etc) and Latin American food. According to Wikipedia the culinary heart of the Philippines is Pampanga in Luzon (or so the Kapampangans claim). To our great benefit Cora herself hails from there, and the food dished up is Pampangueñan.
Inside Cora’s is like a cosy little tea-shop – though with a soundtrack of salsa and 50s rock-n-roll crooners. We were the only people there on the Thursday evening – I got the impression Cora had opened up especially for us. Already we had become friends, and it was clear that our interest in Filipino grub had made our host want to treat us to the best. We sat down with a glass of cool San Miguel lager each – who knew that it came from the Philippines? I had always assumed it was Spanish…
First course was soups. Yet again, mine failed to disappoint. I had ordered sinigang (£3.00). This soup was hot and sour. The heat came from a couple of green finger chillis; the sourness came from tamarind. The body of it was chunks of fish and sliced cabbage leaves. It smelled very fishy and had a very distinctive – but by no means unpleasant – astringency on the tastebuds. Simon meanwhile was tucking in to Sopas na Mais (£2.30), a sweetcorn soup with added prawns, and Paul was playing it safe with Sopas na Manok (£2.00), a cream of chicken soup packed with veg.
For a second course we had been encouraged to have spare ribs, a house speciality. These were much more delicately flavoured than the usual sticky barbecue or Chinese-style ribs, with a fragrant garlicky taste to them. They were so slow-cooked the meat was practically falling off the bone. We could see why these Philipino-style ribs were so popular here. They cost £3.80 a portion.
For main courses we had decided to share three between us: one pork, one beef, one chicken. We were brought plates with rice (more rice was later brought out for us without asking), and three serving bowls of meat in sauce.
The pork dish was what must be the Philippines’ national dish: pork adobo. This was strips of tenderly succulent belly pork, cooked in a sauce of vinegar, soy sauce, garlic and red wine. The meat was practically liquescent, and the light sauce was refreshingly tangy without being overpowering. Out of the three main dishes, this was my favourite. At £7.50 it was also the cheapest.
Simon’s favourite was the Calderata. Cora recommended this as our beef dish. It was a (mildly) spicy meal; the heat could not be felt on the tongue, but just as a warming sensation on the back of the throat. For £8.50 we got pieces of beef cooked in a tomato sauce with carrots and (oddly enough) peas. I really had not expected garden peas to be used; I’m not sure whether this would be a traditional Filipino recipe for Calderata, or just a dish adapted to English tastes by using whatever was freely available.
Our third dish was certainly an example of an adapted recipe and not exactly a famous staple of Filipino cooking. Chicken a-la Philippines (£8.50) was clearly an attempt to create a tropical atmosphere by cooking up chicken with typical Filipino produce: in this case pineapple and mango. Considering that I don’t particularly like fruit in main meals this was actually pretty good. There wasn’t a sweet-and-sour fight for dominance, and the sweetness was actually far milder than I expected. It would have been helpful if Paul had said that this was his favourite, but he could not make up his mind.
After packing all this away (and leaving spotlessly empty plates and dishes) Cora popped out for a chat. It turned out that she had prepared a pudding for us, something authentically Filipino. This turned out to be crème caramel. I was used to a jelly-like custard dessert prepared from a packet, but this was a denser possibly baked slice of flan topped with caramel. It was lovely that she had anticipated our needs in this way.
The final bill for the three of us, including drinks, came to £50.50. We actually left £60 we were so happy with the warmth and hospitality we had received from Cora. We also left with intentions to revisit some other time: Paul for the Sunday English breakfast, and me to bring my Filipino auntie. I felt that we had been treated to an authentic meal from the Philippines, and with an authentically generous Philippines welcome. It was unexpected to find this place out in Ashton, but for the spare ribs and pork adobo in particular I feel that it deserves to become much better known among Manchester’s foodies."
http://www.igougo.com/dining-reviews...e_Cuisine.html
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Originally Posted by lastlid
