I had dinner at the Kandle Cafe along Mo. Ignacia St. in QC. I ordered the Monggo Puree Soup with Pork Croutons, and the Chicken BBQ rice meal.
I love the monggo puree soup! You get a big bowl of soup that would be good enough for a light lunch. It had good texture from the smoothness of the puree, the pork belly, the pork croutons, and the chips. My minor issue is the balance of flavors. The level of sodium or pork flavoring might be overpowering that familiar mung bean flavor we expect from the traditional Pinoy munggo guisado. Other than that, I can safely recommend this dish to my foodie friends.
The chicken BBQ meal was beautifully plated, definitely not something one would expect from a coffee shop. You get five pieces of perfectly-cooked boneless chicken on a bed of roasted corn, greens, pickled vegetables, and a poached egg. The dish was served with a mild tasting yogurt, which I thought was unnecessary. More pickled vegetables would have done a better job at adding acidity. The corn could use maybe a few more minutes in the pan or on the grill to change the overall profile of the dish, which leaned toward sweet-savory. And most of the BBQ sauce bled onto the bottom of the plate, and didn't stay on the chicken. Overall, a good dish. With a few minor adjustments, it can be top-notch.
#TheFoodCrawlers
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Updated 04.22.2016
Had early dinner at Kandle Cafe again today. This time, I had the Arroz Caldo soup (with tripe and chorizo) and the Pork Tonkatsu meal.
Me soup-er happy with Kandle Cafe's soup! Deconstructing and reengineering classic Filipino dishes into different formats seem to be a strength for the people behind the Kandle Cafe menu. If you order this dish (which, by the way, you should), do not expect to be served rice congee. The soup has tripe, thin slivers of chorizo, and (what looked like) fried spaghetti noodles. The absence of the familiar flavor of ginger, kalamansi, and patis might throw people off, but I can say that I enjoyed this dish as it is.
The pork tonkatsu is a rather hefty portion of deep fried pork loin stuffed with cheese on a bed of shredded cabbage and miso sauce. Pork loin tends to be lean, so it will be highly reliant on the melty cheese stuffing and the sauce for moisture and flavor. It takes a while to get to that gooey cheesy core, but that is when you will enjoy this dish the most. read more