Hello again! After a long hiatus, I’m back to the food-blogging sphere. To start things off, I’ll work with something recent. I’ll dig into my overdue posts as I go along ;)

Since I didn’t have classes last Friday and Saturday, I went home to the province for a much-needed mini-break (much-needed, since the work of this semester has left me crying every night, though it’s mainly because I suck at stress management when every part of my life seems to work against me).

My parents took me back to Manila on Sunday, but before that, we stopped by Paseo de Sta. Rosa in Laguna on the way for a late lunch. We were supposed to try this Chinese-Filipino fusion restaurant, but since they close up at 3 and re-open at 5, my dad opted for us to go here instead.

I was excited, since dad has been raving about this restaurant and, as anyone who has seen me eat would know, I’m a rice monstuhh :3

Kanin Club has a very “colonial Filipino household” look and feel to it, given the fixtures and interiors. It suits the cuisine that the restaurant offers.

My order of Green Iced Tea and dad’s Lemon Iced Tea (around P55 regular/around P80/bottomless). The glasses are really big, so you get a lot of iced tea for the price. I prefer the Green Iced Tea over the other, since it tastes lighter and not as sweet.

Dad’s order of Crispy Beef Salad. This was a surprise, since my dad usually doesn’t order appetizers. It’s basically a platter of flaked twice-cooked beef with tomatoes, onion rings, and other ingredients typical of an ensalada.

I’m not a fan of twice-cooked beef, but this was really good. The beef was drenched in cane vinegar, but surprisingly enough, in chewing the beef, it was as though the vinegar spurts out of the beef, all while still being nicely crunchy.

What’s more interesting about the dish is the surprise sweetness in the vegetables on top. I think they put a glaze over the vegetables aside from the vinegar they used with the beef. It gave a lovely, sweet-sour taste to the whole thing. One of the best appetizers I’ve tried.

This was our main dish (ulam): Crispy Dinuguan. I didn’t know if I should hate my dad for ordering this, since I don’t eat blood (out of principle really, since I don’t really get disgusted with food unless if it’s unsanitary), let alone dinuguan (blood stew). But hey, there’s a first time for anything, right?

After the first bite, I wanted to thank my dad for ordering this. I think it’s different from the usual dinuguan, since it uses crispy pork parts (lechon kawali and chicharon bulaklak, to name a few) smothered with the blood sauce, instead of being stewed as with the traditional cooking method. I’m amazed by how the whole thing retained its crispiness despite being soaked in blood, and how the taste of blood did not taste disgusting at all. I thought they were bluffing when they wrote on their menu that “even non-dinuguan eaters have been converted by this dish”. Once I got a spoonful off the serving platter, I just kept getting more. It was that good.

As with many other dishes, eating this is a sinful indulgence. This dish isn’t for those with heart/cholesterol problems, so give that some thought before ordering. :))

What’s Kanin Club without the rice (P26)? An order is good for 2-3 people, which is really cheap, considering that one cup of rice in many establishments would cost P15-P35. Plus points for the quality control: it’s moist, warm and not sticky, indications that it’s well-cooked. I wish we had gotten the specialty rice, but it’s okay. Next time :D

I ordered the Camaron Rebosado (P276) since I love shrimp and, well, I didn’t know if I could take the dinuguan. It’s cooked like Japanese ebi tempura, served with sweet chili sauce. While it’s simple and it doesn’t look like much, I deeply appreciate the fact that the shrimp is fresh, judging by the taste, color and, well, everything. The sweet chili sauce actually tasted spicy enough to give the shrimp a kick, but you don’t need much of the sauce to enjoy each piece, really ;)

A note on how they serve their dishes: it’s pretty straightforward, which I like, since I don’t like seeing garnish that I most likely wouldn’t eat with the meal, anyway.

Mom ordered the Turon KC (P90) for dessert. It’s a hybrid of turon (banana slices wrapped in lumpia wrapper then deep-fried) and halo-halo (traditionally, beans and jellies served over ice with milk as topping). I commend Kanin Club for coming up with an interesting concept of merging two Filipino desserts, especially since it’s my first time to see (and taste) such an innovation.

It tastes really sweet, since the bananas, macapuno and ube (purple yam) are already sweet in themselves, and there’s also the caramel glaze over the wrapper. I think mom should have ordered this with ice cream, just to give some contrast to the heat of the rolls.

A restaurant that can make you eat something you really don’t like deserves credit, at least for me. Dining at Kanin Club was a very enjoyable experience, the kind that will definitely be worth the extra time you might spend at the gym to burn off all the calories (if you’re body-conscious). Highly recommended :)

(Kanin Club has branches at Paseo de Sta. Rosa in Laguna, Westgate in Alabang, and UP-Ayala Technohub in Quezon City.)