Where I come from, beaches are beautiful, sceneries are picturesque, life is good and simple and food is divine! I'm sure people who hail from other provinces would say the same thing about their hometown but hey, I love my own! Haha! Anyway, I'm speaking about Quezon, that coastal province at the southern tip of Luzon quite close to Marinduque and Bicol Region although separated by sea. Whenever I go there for much-needed respite from work and city life, it's the food and everyday walk on the seashore that I cherish the most, aside of course, from being with my folks. And if there's one thing that reminds me of my summers spent as a child in Quezon, it's the crispy tapa which my father would painstakingly make - from slicing the beef so thinly, climbing up the roof to dry the slices on a bilao under the sun for several days and then striking them flat with a hammer, before my mom could finally fry it for breakfast.
Many years later when my dad couldn't do all those work anymore because of old age, my mom would just buy the crispy tapa two towns away in Catanauan. Only, it is so expensive! Today, it costs about P1,400 per kilo. Why so expensive, you might ask. Because when fresh beef is dried, it drops in weight, such that two-three kilos might end up as just one kilo of tapa. Though that is just my estimate, at least you get the idea. And because of the price and the distance my mom has to travel to buy it, we don't get to eat crispy tapa very often these days. So I was just so delighted to find out that there's one restaurant that serves crispy tapa - Cafe Quezon on Maginhawa St. - that strip in Quezon City that's famous for the great number of foodie places that you can find next to each other. Last Saturday, my daughter and I hurried off there and found out that aside from the Crispy Tapa, there are other Quezon specialty dishes that could be found here like Pilipit and Pancit Habhab (also known as Pancit Lucban). I felt so at home! My daughter and I had these for lunch one Saturday this November:
Many years later when my dad couldn't do all those work anymore because of old age, my mom would just buy the crispy tapa two towns away in Catanauan. Only, it is so expensive! Today, it costs about P1,400 per kilo. Why so expensive, you might ask. Because when fresh beef is dried, it drops in weight, such that two-three kilos might end up as just one kilo of tapa. Though that is just my estimate, at least you get the idea. And because of the price and the distance my mom has to travel to buy it, we don't get to eat crispy tapa very often these days. So I was just so delighted to find out that there's one restaurant that serves crispy tapa - Cafe Quezon on Maginhawa St. - that strip in Quezon City that's famous for the great number of foodie places that you can find next to each other. Last Saturday, my daughter and I hurried off there and found out that aside from the Crispy Tapa, there are other Quezon specialty dishes that could be found here like Pilipit and Pancit Habhab (also known as Pancit Lucban). I felt so at home! My daughter and I had these for lunch one Saturday this November:
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| Quezon Crispy Tapa meal with iced tea or coffee (coffee is till 12 noon only), P150. |
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| Longganisang Lucban meal with iced tea, P130. |
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| Pilipit, P80. This is kakanin made from malagkit (sticky) rice, drizzled with caramel and chocolate sauce. Yummy! |
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| Our drinks - brewed coffee and iced tea |
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I would definitely want to go back to Cafe Quezon for their great food that reminds me so much of my beloved hometown. They offer other Filipino dishes too aside from Quezon province specialties, like nilagang baka and pork sinigang. If you want to give Cafe Quezon a try, (and I suggest you do), it's at 179 Maginhawa St. in Quezon City.
