Restaurant review: Limbaga 77 and Full Belly Craft Kitchen: Bagnet, kare-kare and other comfort food on a hot day

Some days, there's nothing like having heart attack-inducing food on a hot summer day. I suspect there might be a connection there somewhere between the sun's harsh rays and fatty food (e.g. grilled liempo on the beach), but for now, let me focus on the food and how, on one particularly hot day earlier this month, I craved for bagnet and found it in a small cafe few people know about (so far).

The place is called Full Belly Craft Kitchen, a stone's throw away from my workplace, and while initially I went in to just see what's on the menu, they had me at three words: “Bagnet Sisig Rice.”

It was among the list of dishes offered as part of their executive lunch menu, and Robert, one of the smiling people serving, assured me it's good.

Now what I like about bagnet is that it can be an ulam in itself. Taken with plain rice or garlic rice, this Ilocano pork dish is better than chicharon in my opinion. It's meatier, with each crunchy bite giving you value for money.

So when Robert served me the Bagnet Sisig Rice, I couldn't help saying, “Wow.” Now that was a great-looking 2-in-1 ulam, and great-tasting too, which I concluded after a minute.

Chef Allen Qua owns Full Belly together with another chef, Kenneth Flavier, and a few other friends, and he told me the concept is really to put everything belly-good in the menu. That means the familiar pork belly, salmon belly, tuna belly, bangus belly served in interesting ways.

Take Yamasu Pork Belly Yakitori, the Beef Belly Binagoongan, and the Baked Cheesecake—the dishes are familiar but they tweaked them a little by using belly. Yes, the cheesecake has something “belly” in it—bacon jam.

Chef Allen said popular dishes in the three-month-old cafe are Bagnet ni Kenneth which is “crispy outside, but not dry inside,” he said, Wing Bean in Coconut Cream, Baked Mussels (with cheese and truffle oil), 12-Hour Beef Roast, Homemade Spanish Sardines, and Binagoongang Bagnet ni Kenneth.

Pasta and sandwiches will be added to the menu soon, he said, to please merienda-seeking customers.

Your lola’s kare-kare and more

Meanwhile, just off Tomas Morato, a few minutes away from Full Belly, it's kare-kare that is the star of the menu, served piping hot even on such a warm day we went.

Owner PJ Lanot said their Limbaga 77 Kare-Kare is the traditional one, ox tripe and tail stew cooked in homemade peanut butter (ground from peanuts) and served with homemade bagoong.

“We don't want to reinvent the wheel,” he said, adding that the market seems to prefer familiar comfort food just the way their mothers served them. “This is why we want Limbaga 77 to be known as your alternate home,” he said. We noted that this concept was carried over into the interiors as well, since the six-month-old restaurant was originally a home and details and features of the old house were kept, from the spiral staircase to the 1940s-style windows.

One bite indeed of the Limbaga 77 Kare-Kare confirmed that this dish was done without shortcuts. The sauce was thick as it should be too (just the way our lolas would cook it) and went so perfectly with both the Bagoong Rice and the Danggit Rice.

But although they stuck to the traditional way when it came to certain dishes, Limbaga 77 played around with a few ones. We had the Stuffed Bulaklak ng Kalabasa, which I think is a clever way to make kids eat squash blossoms. These are stuffed with ground pork, kesong puti, and cheddar cheese, and can be introduced to wary children as some kind of vegetable tempura, Filipino style.

For me, any dish that bears the restaurant's name should be ordered as it must be so good they put their name on it. We had the Limbaga 77 Salad which has lettuce, ripe mango, shrimp, caramelized banana, turnip, kesong puti, and cashew nuts with homemade bagoong dressing—and we did not regret it at all.

The Grass Citrus Iced Tea made of pandan, brewed lemongrass, and calamansi was a very refreshing accompaniment to the meal.

Since we had a short lunch break, we then moved on to dessert, and picked out Limbaga 77 Brazo Tablea Cake, which was made of cacao tablea and Batangas barako coffee. Paired with the L77 Coffee (another house specialty), it was just divine. The coffee, by the way, is a strong blend of organic coffee beans from Mt. Atok in Benguet and Mt. Kitanglad in Bukidnon.

PJ said his favorite is the Baked Lechon, which unfortunately was not available on the day we went. Now although that's not bagnet, it sounds interesting enough to check out for ourselves soon. — BM, GMA News

Full Belly Craft Kitchen is at 5 Sgt. Esguerra St. Bgy. South Triangle, Quezon City. Limbaga 77, meanwhile, is at 77 Scout Limbaga St. near the corner of Tomas Morato, Bgy. Laging Handa, Quezon City.