I must admit my experience with Filipino food is extremely limited. My first adult trip to Asia back in December 2005 included a initial stop to visit an ex-girlfriend in Manila. This was a trip of firsts - my first adult Asia trip, my first experience on Air Asia (including a 4 hour delay for the KL to Manila leg), my first overseas trip with an ex-girlfriend (which is probably not something the majority of people do...)
I hadn't quite embraced the food revolution at this point in my life and so there isn't much I remember about Manila and Puerto Princesa. What I do remember is sinigang, an incredibly strong flavoured fatty pork adobo at a street stall, the underground river canoe, and a whole lot of humidity. I also DJed at a club somewhere and nearly forgot to bring back my Sennheiser HD25 headphones. Fun times.
Kusina was a restaurant on my list for several months. The bonus of being in the entertainment book make it more enticing. The place seems to be family-style and the menu is filled with good sounding options. Sago't gulaman (brown sugar syrup, gelatin, tapioca pearls) and calamansi juice (sweetened cumquat) were a sweet and sour drink to balance between.
- Ukoy (prawn fritters, sweet potato, tofu, bean sprouts) $9.50
- Crispy Pata (deep fried pork hock) $22 - delicious smelling and tasting meat. I thought the meat was a little dry, but nothing to complain about;
- Grilled fish of the day (with tomato, potato, bacon) - nicely cooked fish although not seemingly in the spirit of Filipino food;
- Pritong Talong (fried eggplant, tomato, red onion, salted duck egg, garlic sauce) $9
- Sinangag (garlic rice) $4pp;
- Turon (banana spring roll, caramel sauce, vanilla ice cream) $9.50 - something sweet to finish with. It was ok but nothing special.
I'll definitely be coming back. There's too many other things I want to try and would probably go for a whole new menu next time. Crispy chicken wings, fried soft shell crab, beef rib curry, braised beef cheek, thrice cooked pork, pork belly... not to mention the classic adobo and sinigang. I'm hungry thinking about it.
07-2015
I turned up to Kusina on a Monday night hoping for a quiet place and the try all those dishes listed above. On arriving I discovered they have a weekly Monday night limited menu. This essentially gives you $19 all-you-can-eat white rice, an excellent mildly vinegared thick-cut green papaya salad, and a choice of either the deepfried chicken and pork belly or grilled chicken and pork belly.
Luckily I managed to try both.
The deepfried chicken had a good crunchy coating which went particularly well with the vinegar sauce. Deepfried pork belly was even more crisp and the benefit of the fat layer being fried (and partially disintegrated) meaning the whole piece was easy to eat with less guilt. I actually probably preferred the flavour of the grilled meats, which had excellent sauce coating them and complemented well with the adobo-style soy-vinegar dipping sauce. The chicken particularly was moist, tender and perfectly cooked. That was probably my favourite and also the healthiest of all the meats.
The layer cake was a gelatinous mix of jackfruit (although couldn't taste it to be honest), coconut and a purple yam layer. A nice sticky mess to finish off the meal.
12-2015
Enroute to Thredbo to hike Mount Koscuiszko, I made a final trip to Kusina. It's (sort of) on the way and a cuisine I haven't found an equivalent for in Melbourne at this point.
- Adobong combination (chicken & pork marinated in a traditional sauce of vinegar, soy & garlic) $19.5 - the national dish had excellent succulent meats with a sauce heavy in soy. I tend to prefer (and make mine) more vinegar based but it's good to remind myself how salty the traditional is supposed to be;
- Inihaw na pusit (grilled squid stuffed with tomato, onion, salted duck egg) $22 - I'm used to the Vietnamese version and this was fine but not overwhelming;
- Ensaladang talong (grilled eggplant salad) $8.5.
I'll miss Kusina. It's a shame about the location as otherwise it would be easy to recommend to Canberra visitors who don't have a car.