Solid choice for turo-turo food in Long Beach, Edna's Filipino Cuisine serves up a large variety of…read moreFilipino dishes, 7 days a week during lunch hours (10:00 - 15:00). My wife, her mom, and I stopped in for lunch and we really enjoyed it.
My wife and I had stopped into Edna's a long time ago when we first moved to Long Beach, so it was time for a refresher. My wife and her mom shop at the nearby Tambuli for Asian groceries, so knew the parking wouldn't be too difficult in this part of town. The steam tables were jam packed with food, freshly prepared that morning, and there were some things I had not tried before. Thus, was nice to come with other folks. It took me a while to decide. The first steam table had 9 entrees:
- Mom wanted Pinakbet which she later stated was good.
- large strips of Lechon were chopped for you when ordered, and was a good addition to share.
- other dishes included Kambing (available everyday), Pinapaitan, and Kaldereta (made with goat so we skipped it).
The second steam table had 10 entrees:
- Adobong Pusit - baby squid with adobo and squid ink sauce. I've come to realize that most Filipino restaurants don't have the time to remove the innards (guts and cartilage, which I've found to be inedible) while keeping the ink sacs, as they cook it. So I did it manually while eating, making this a finger food dish (very messy). Went great with the white rice, though. Mom made a good point that some folks consider it edible, similar to the shell of shrimps.
- also chose the sinigang with pompano, since bangus was only available deep fried. Every entree with come with a cup of the soup, but if ordered as a choice, will come with a choice of fish piece (head, middle, or tail). The soup was good, very sour (which is how I like it) and not oily.
-- final choice was Chicharon Bulaklak, deep fried pork intestines using the fatty mesentery tissues, to produce a flowery looking finger food. It came in a paper bag. It was the first time I tried it, and I liked it, though too greasy to have more than one piece.
-- other choices were deep fried bangus, deep fried smelt, boiled peanuts, and a decent selection of sweet rice flour desserts.
The ladies manning the steam tables were very friendly, and were receptive when I asked for a sample of the fried smelt dish. Servings were generous, and often came in separate soup containers to make eating easier. There is a large dining room with simple seating, and self bussing. It's a tried-and-true set-up that works well at other point-point places (so many in the area).
Ended up getting two 2-combo plates ($14 each), served with white rice. Added 1/3 pound of Lechon Kawali for $6.48, which we all shared. In general the food was good, in large quantities, and presented with pride. Canned refrigerated sodas are only $1, so got cans of Sprite, Sunkist, and Squirt (maybe my favorite mass produced soda of all time).
