The other day, I attended the Media Launch for Hukad sa Golden Cowrie at the Trinoma Mall in Quezon City. This is the first Hukad branch in Metro Manila, and is located at the first floor, Garden Area of Trinoma.
HUKAD SA GOLDEN COWRIE
Hukad is already an established restaurant chain with 23 branches in the Viz-Min regions, and it serves mostly regional Cebuano fare. I was told that the word Hukad means limitless serving of food or to limitlessly serve food on one's plate. One of the staff goes around with a bucket of rice and asks diners, "Hukad?" because they have an option for unlimited rice (P49).
THE FOOD
Of the dishes I was able to try, the ones I liked were the Pomelo Salad (P229) from sister company Salinas, the Sinigang with Baby Prawns (P250), the Baked Bantayan Scallops (P195) the Cebu Lechon Belly, the Adobong Talong (P139), and the Crispy Pata.
I wasn't able to take pictures of many of the dishes because my tablemates attacked the food already, haha
The Pomelo Salad had juicy, juicy pomelos (suha), red onions, and a sweet and sour dressing. Yum! The Sinigang was deliciously tart but balanced.
But for me, the reasons to go back to Hukad are the Cebu Lechon Belly (P259 for 1/4 kilo) and the Crispy Pata (P595 for the extra large one pictured).
Hukad's Crispy Pata won a People's Choice Award for Best Crispy Pata in a Sunstar Cebu newspaper survey. It's not served with any sauce, but is flavorful by itself, especially when partnered with the accompanying achara. But they will serve you a soy-based sauce if you request for it.
They also have a Balut Sisig (P175), which tastes like Sisig, but more decadent with the Balut.
For dessert, the Ube Halaya Crisp ala Mode (P130) is the one to get! It's a big scoop of mango ice cream atop a thin pouch made of fried rice paper hiding some real Ube Halaya inside. I was told that the Ube Halaya did not have any food coloring or some such added to it. The color is just from the ube itself.
The restaurant interiors were kind of like beach & island chic. Relaxing and laid back with touches of the islands, like the use of shells, coconuts and puso-shaped lamps inspired by the puso (rice wrapped and boiled in a casing of woven coconut leaves) that has become one of the icons of Cebu. read more