Food, Outside the South, Restaurants, Sana Nasa South

North Tripping – C’ Italian Dining in Pampanga

Blogs and bloggers have changed the way we live our lives: from the way we shop (and decide what to buy), to the way we eat our meals and plan our vacations. A lot of new experiences are born from blog posts (Southbound being a regular source, I hope): people discover new restaurants, figure out their orders based on noted prices and rave reviews, make reservations from the listed contact information, visit the place and document their own experiences, then head home to blog about it themselves and pass on the word.

A few weeks ago we took part in this great cycle: it all started when Lods forwarded an email of a post from The Island Explorer detailing a wonderful and much-anticipated dining experience at C’ Italian Dining in Clark (well, just outside Clark, anyway). This place is not just a favorite with foodie bloggers: it’s been awarded best restaurant status by the Philippine Tattler, and its thick adobe walls showcase a number of celebrity-signed plates, all raving about the food and ambiance. Did we find a trip to Pampanga just to eat at a restaurant a bit excessive? Heck no. Affirmative replies poured in, Lods made the reservations, and we excitedly made carpool arrangements for that weekend.

The trip to Clark was fast and easy—the only trouble we had with traffic was when I got stuck along the West Service Road of SLEX on my way to our rendezvous point in Quezon City (sigh. The trip there from my house took longer than the entire drive along the North Diversion Road). We arrived just in time for our lunch reservation (though they probably wouldn’t have given our table away, since there were lots of vacant ones that day) and immediately got down to the business of ordering. (We did spend a few minutes adjusting our bottoms so they fit properly on the unusually tapered seats. The other ladies were wearing skirts so they had a tough time. I just straddled the seat like the hungry cowboy I was right then.)

Again we were guided by the post: we definitely had to try the panizza, the risotto, and the roast chicken, though we allowed some variations for individual taste. We settled on the Peppone Panizza (P580): spicy salami, anchovies, capers, artichokes, and sun-dried tomatoes. This was served, as all their pizzas are, with arugula and alfalfa sprouts. As I am a huge fan of virtually all of these ingredients, I would’ve happily eaten everything if they’d served them unprepared on separate plates. This was even better: the pizza, a large flat slab sliced into strips, had a delicate but tasty layer of toppings over a crust that was browned and crispy along the edges and soft, doughy, and moist in the middle.

The idea was to take the arugula and sprouts, lay them in the middle of your strip, bite off the crunchy bits (this step wasn’t strictly part of our server’s instructions to us, but the strip rolled better if you only used the soft parts), and roll it up into an interesting lumpia-like bit of pizza. This was a novel way to eat pizza that suited my tendency to play with my food. Thinking about it now makes me want to go back. Expensive, sure. Worth it, definitely. And that was just the pizza.

Not content with the artichoke on our pizza, we ordered the Artichoke a la Milanese (P450), artichoke hearts baked in parmesan and egg batter, served with pomodoro sauce and lemon lime dip. I don’t recall tasting anything vaguely lemon-y or lime-y, but I was surprised to find that the greens topping the dish were—again!—arugula, not basil as expected. Fresh, nutty, and without a hint of bitterness, the arugula was good anyway (we came to the conclusion that they probably had a huge garden of arugula outside somewhere, since they were liberally sticking it onto everything in sight). Again: very very good. Think Italianni’s artichokes on steroids and lots of sauce.

We decided to skip the pasta and just have some risotto and chicken (the quintessential Pinoy kanin at ulam) instead. There wasn’t any Seafood and Mushroom Risotto (which was what RJ of The Island Explorer had, and his pictures showed a mouthwatering dish topped with asparagus spears) on the menu, so we had the closest thing: the Risotto con Fruiti di Mare (P730). Ours came sans asparagus (aw!) and a bit saucier than I expected (at least compared to the blog pictures). It reminded me of paella, actually: it was very good, but with the price and size of the serving, for me it was already pushing the whole value for money thing. Good thing we were sharing.

The “ulam” in question was their Wood Fire Roasted whole Tuscan style Chicken (P750). I remember it being terribly good at the time, but the memory seems to have faded after a few weeks, so I can’t wax poetic about it right now. (The one chicken that has me salivating just at the mere thought of it is Casa Armas’ roasted garlic chicken—now that is a memorable chicken!) But it was good for roast chicken, and it certainly filled us up well.

Dessert was a small glass of Apple Panna Cotta and some Crème Brullee (sorry, dessert items weren’t on the menu, so I forgot how much—or perhaps we never asked, trusting that we’d still have some dough left over after paying for the rest of the meal). The crème brullee was good, as far as crème brullee goes, but the panna cotta was weird; the tart taste of the apple sauce didn’t exactly go well with the cream. Oh well. We were stuffed full anyway (I suppose that’s what you call sour-appling).

After the meal we wandered around outside: normally this is where they serve dinner, but that day it was raining and the tables were lying about haphazardly. The courtyard was very charming, though: a cross between somewhere in Intramuros and the old Don Bosco campus in Mandaluyong. We took a couple of shots in their dark tunnel-like foyer and name-spotted some celebs on the plates. Finally, still digesting our food, we went off in search of that other much-blogged about establishment in Clark, Cold Spoon frozen yogurt. More on that next.

(Directions for getting there: Head for Clark by taking the North Luzon Expressway and exiting at Dau (sorry, forgot the toll rates!). Turn left at MacArthur Highway; when you reach the makeshift rotunda in front of Clark, pass that and move to the right side of the road. Turn right at Field Avenue (it’s a one way narrow road that widens after a while, don’t be surprised). This is the road that runs parallel to the perimeter of Clark Air Base (and yes, it’s where the girlie bars are, though you’ll really notice them on the way back, along the section that’s one way in the other direction); think of it as Clark gilid (it turns into Don Juico Avenue after a while). Keep going for around 2 kilometers or so, past the big new white hotel, and keep an eye out for a dilapidated church façade on the left side. You’ll see the C’ sign right before the church.)

Selected images courtesy of Melody Yapson.

C’ Italian Dining
1210 Don Juico Avenue, Malabanas, Clarkview, Balibago, Angeles, Pampanga
(045) 892-4059, (045) 892-6993
Restaurant hours: 5PM – 11PM, Monday; 11AM – 11PM, Tuesday – Sunday
www.c-italian-dining.com

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