Cafes, Food, Restaurants, Wifi and Internet Cafes, Work

Steak and Ice Cream - A simple village meal

When we featured Steak Station, the steak place along President’s Avenue that serves steak for only 99 bucks, a lot of people sent in comments to share their own steak secrets. One of our readers directed us to Steak of the Nation, a then-newly opened place along Onelia Jose in BF Resort Village, which serves not only steak but also “exotic food” like Ulo-ulo and Soup No. 5.

I didn�t know about the Soup No. 5 until I actually went there for dinner the other day, with Maam Wria and Khyrra in tow (we’d gone all the way to Binondo to try out this, er, delicacy, when we researched the Burn article; who knew there was a place that served it much closer to home?).

We�d settled on Steak of the Nation since it was relatively close to where they lived (somewhere in Moonwalk), and since steak, after all, is best shared (the reason why I’d taken so long to try this place out was I was always alone when I was in the area, and it seemed vaguely pathetic to enjoy a steak by myself, as opposed to, say, a dainty salad or bowl of pasta). Turns out our timing was bad, since—gasp—they had no steak that night. So we settled for their local fare instead, missing the chance to sample their T-bone and Tenderloin, a steal at anything from 110 to 150 bucks.

The first obvious substitute for me was Grilled Blue Marlin, which, at almost 200 bucks for 250 grams, I passed on since I was feeling cheap that night. We ended up ordering food to share: Liempo (P110), Tinoktok (a dish similar to laing, which also wasn’t available that night; P35), Bicol Express (P60), and Adobong Bicol (little dried chunks of meat with a clear, non-toyo based oily sauce; P60). We each had huge servings of rice (literally a plateful for only 10 bucks) and piping hot soup from their Sinigang na Ulo Ulo (when you order it with the ulo ulo, it goes from P110 to P150, but small cups of just the soup are free).

The soup was nice and kalamansi-sour, not at all malangsa, a far cry from the usual watered down bulalo or nilaga broth they usually give for free at canteens and turo-turos all over the country (we call it katas ng medyas when we’re feeling particularly nasty).

We had a generous slice of Liempo, bits of which, strangely but not unpleasantly, tasted like chicken. I focused my energies on the Adobong Bicol and the Bicol Express (a likely pair); the Bicol Express wasn’t too spicy, but then that was because I prudently stayed away from the sili.

This place would be a perfect cheap inuman hangout, except for the limited menu and the lingering smell of cooked food, the kind that has gone from being fresh and appetizing to old and stale. The food, like all Pinoy dishes, is best shared, and washed down with ice cold Coke, to get rid of the greasy (but inevitable) aftertaste.

After our meal, we worked up a craving for some ice cream (I guess the greasy aftertaste is a big factor in our taste for the typical sweet Pinoy dessert), so we dropped by the small internet café next to the Moonwalk Church. Apparently, this place, techinically known as the MJP.com Internet and Café Bar, is still a pretty well kept secret, since both Maam Wria and Khyrra, who lived a few blocks away, had no idea they served Big Scoop Ice Cream (though they do have a banner outside, which is what put me on to them).

The tiny shop, which has a computer desk, a single table and two couches, serves ice cream concoctions, pizza, barbecue, chicken, pasta, sandwiches, and absurdly cheap coffee (P10 for black coffee, and though we bet it’s the instant kind, we don’t really care). They’ve got Fruity Sundaes (P85) and a concoction called Ice Cream on Ice (P40), which consists of a scoop of ice cream on top of a layer of crushed ice (pretty accurate name), sprinkled with sweet corn, macapuno, rice crispies, and soda crackers. This is the sort of thing I’d have had a lot when I was a kid, especially during those hot summer afternoons, after playing a few vigorous rounds of shato or patintero (oh, and naturally they have the classics, like halo halo and mais con yelo).

Much older and more restrained now, we each just had single servings of ice cream: a scoop of Orange for me, Chocolate for Khyrra, and a cup of Rocky Road for Maam Wria. Altogether our dessert set us back 59 bucks, which just so happened to be the change from our meal at Steak of the Nation. The unusual orange flavor was sweet and creamy, reminiscent of childhood; a scoop of this with some chocolate ice cream would make a perfect combination.

Going out for dinner like this, in a small village setting and in simple and very basic places that have that certain unsophisticated charm, is a pleasant change from meals at a slick franchise in an airconditioned mall. This mix of the mom and pop store and the familiar big name brands is what makes the South truly vibrant and homey.

Steak of the Nation
20 Onelia Jose St.,
BF Resort Village, Las Pi�as City
(0917) 815-8907

MJP.com Internet and Café Bar
Apollo II St.,
Moonwalk Village, Las Pi�as City
(beside Moonwalk Church)

Tags: bf resort, filipino food, las pinas, restaurants, steak, steak of the nation

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