Adarna Food & Culture: Nostalgic Traditional Filipino Food

Yesterday I talked about the co-owner and head chef of Adarna Food & Culture restaurant, Chef Giney Villar. 

But of course, it's only but right that I also share with you pictures of her great traditional Filipino dishes and a sneak peak of Adarna Food & Culture Restaurant. I'm warning you, the pictures will make you hungry! 

I went to this restaurant last Saturday for my Eat, Write, Love food writing workshop. I've been hearing a lot of good things about this place so I was more than excited to go. 

The moment I stepped out of the car, I felt I was transported back to the olden Filipino times. I suddenly imagined I was a character in Jose Rizal's novel, Noli Me Tangere. 

It felt a bit surreal and magical at the same time. No wonder people have been raving about this place. As I was being escorted to our conference room, I felt like I was in one of those old Manila museums. I passed by so many charming Filipino displays. 

There were collections of old Filipino pots, bottles, paintings, plates, irons and newspaper clippings everywhere. 

There was even an old jukebox beside a small sari-sari store filled with old comics and random Filipino party toys. It even has a small wooden bench in front of it! 

Finally, I reached our conference hall which was a combination of two rooms, Room of the Stars and Room of the Carnival Queens. The pictures below show the latter room. Plastered on the wall are a crown, a scepter and old pictures of carnival queens. There was even a glass display of a royal outfit. 

The other half of the room, the Room of the Stars, is adorned with photographs of old Filipino actors and actresses.

They also have an old television set and an old film projector in that room! During the restaurant tour given by no other than Chef Giney herself, she informed us that the film projector is still working. They just don't have the right film for it. Awww. 

The brainchild behind the restaurant's look and feel is her restaurant co-owner, Ms. Beth Angsioco. However, their customers have made the restaurant's interior even more dynamic by contributing old artifacts to the restaurant. They have realized though that their customers tend to resist change so there are certain displays that are permanently part of the restaurant. 

Not only is Adarna Food & Culture Restaurant known for its great interior, they also serve historical, regional and heirloom Filipino recipes that have received much attention from several top restaurant listings. I was then so excited to get a taste of their dishes during lunch time!

The very first dish that they served was the Ensaladang Bukid with Shrimp Dip:

Ensaladang Bukid with Shrimp Dip (Php130)

As written in MunchPunch, this dish is a popular Central Luzon salad that uses talong (eggplant), sitaw (string beans), okra and kamatis (tomatoes). It is brought up to farmers for lunch in the rice fields and is traditionally served with rice and fish. 

I love seafood so I made sure that I generously drizzled my vegetables with shrimp dip. The vegetables were cooked perfectly for that crunchy bite (except for the eggplant of course!) and the light saltiness of the dip gave much flavor to them. 

Adobong Batangas ala Adarna (Php210)

During Chef Giney's talk on Philippine Food, she shared the story behind the restaurant's Adobo. Admittedly, it took sometime before the store released its own Adobo despite the dish's staple status in Filipino homes. She couldn't quite find an Adobo recipe memorable enough to be part of the restaurant's menu. 

It was until an architect-granddaughter from a prominent family from Batangas shared their own family recipe. The restaurant stays true to the recipe by using the original ingredients, hence the dish's name Adobong Batangas. 

My seatmate Genine, a real Adobo lover, kept raving about Adarna's Adobo as she kept asking for more. With one bite, you can instantly tell that it used the traditional slow-cooking method since its flavor was really infused into the meat. It has a particular strong garlic taste brought about by the sprinkled green onion leaves on top. Plus I read in another blog that this recipe surprisingly doesn't use soy sauce. Hmm interesting! 

Bicol Express (Php298)

For spicy lovers out there like me, you are bound to love Adarna's Bicol Express! The finger chilis stuffed with ground pork and shrimps is the main culprit behind this dish's heat which I really appreciated. However after the first surprisingly strong spicy kick, the thick coconut milk mellows it down for a very smooth finish. This was my favorite dish from that day.  I had 4-5 pieces! 

Banana Peanut Roll with Caramelo Sauce (Php75)

Hot Tea (Php60)

We ended our lunch with Banana Peanut Roll with Caramelo Sauce and a cup of steaming hot tea. The menu describes it as "ripe saba banana with roasted peanut cream in a crisp wrapper drizzled with old fashioned caramelo sauce." It tasted a lot like turon but with a more nutty flavor. I think the key to this dish really is the caramelo sauce so I was a little sad that I had so little of it. 

Buttery Ensaymada
(Php50 per piece, Php76 with House Chorizo, Php88 with Ham, Php95 with Quezo de Bola Slices) 

For merienda later that afternoon, we were served with Buttery Ensaymada. This recipe is another family secret recipe from Pampanga. It takes a whole day to prepare a few dozen of these ensaymadas so customers are requested to order it a day in advance with a minimum order of 6pcs. Good thing I was with a group so I was able to taste their very fluffy and lightly sweet ensaymada with a very strong buttery taste. 

Our merienda came with Ginger Pandan Tea that had a very strong Pandan taste. I'm not such a big Pandan fan aside from Pandan rice so I found it just okay. It tastes very herbal. I'm sure Pandan lovers will love it though. :)

Overall, I really has a great nostalgic trip back to memory lane from their traditional Filipino dishes. I already told RJ about the place and we want to be a little more adventurous with our food choices. I want to confront Papaitan again which caused me a weeklong bacterial infection! But since it's Adarna, I'm sure I won't have that problem and I will be able to build good memories around Ilocano's famous Papaitan again. 

We also want to try exotic dishes from Mindanao like Sulu's Piassok and dishes that date back to the Galleon Trade like Pamplina! I'm so excited already from simply reading their menu. I can't wait to go back!

For more information about their head chef, check out yesterday's post on Chef Giney Villar: click me!

For more pictures of their other dishes and of the restaurant, click me, click me and click me. 

Adarna Food & Culture
Address: 119 Kalayaan Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City
Contact: +632 926-8712
Operating Hours: Su, M, T, W, Th, F, Sa: 11:30 am - 10:30 pm

~It's the little sweet notes everyday that matter. :)~