Kanin Club : one more good reason to go South

For someone like me who works in Manila, heading South is always an exciting moment. The South is a booming region with various technoparks, excellent housing developments, tourist spots, historical churches and cultural landmarks. Of course, it would be be a sin to omit the cuisine. Some of the best culinary fare in the Philippines can be found here, by reason of the fact that a number of Manila’s top chefs have chosen to relocate or establish their restaurants in the quiet suburbs.

A great example of this is Kanin Club. Foodies have been talking of this uniquely Filipino restaurant for a year now. Curiously enough, this growing chain of restos can be found in the South only: the maiden branch is in Paseo de Sta. Rosa in Laguna, which is conveniently along the road to Tagaytay; while the second one just opened recently at the Westgate Commercial Center in Alabang. Both establishments are packed with people during mealtimes, especially weekends; this, in itself, is a testament to Kanin Club’s success among rice-eating Filipinos.

At Kanin Club, rice in its various incarnations is,admittedly, the star of the show. We had this glorious-looking Sinigang na Sinangag which was accented by crunchy vegetable tempura that I was happy enough to munch on. The sinangag or fried rice just had the right sourness of sinigang without a trace of the broth. Being a sinigang lover, I was amused at the seemingly magical concoction. There were tomato slices, sliced green pepper and generous chunks of pork belly or liempo on the big heap of rice, but no soup. It was good enough to appease our sinigang craving just the same.

The different rice variations give one a reason to come back to the Club. A bestseller is their Loaded Fried Rice, deliciously heavy with Chinese sausage, ham, crab meat, green peas, pork, and slices of scrambled eggs on top. Other must-tries are the Chorizo Rice, Tinapa (’Smoked Fish’) Rice, Daing (’Dried Fish’) Fried Rice, Bagoong (’Shrimp Paste’) Rice and Aligue (’Crab Fat’) Rice.

A dish that has made Kanin Club talked about is their Crispy Dinuguan. The dish is traditionally made with pork blood, pork or some innards and flavored with vinegar, garlic and green pepper. The Club’s dinuguan is another magic concoction since it certainly looked like dinuguan on the outside but tasted like lechon kawali on the inside. It’s easy to say that they deep-fried the pork belly first before covering it in the rich stew of pork blood. The result is a dish that even non-dinuguan eaters like me will learn to appreciate.

Aside from the Crispy Dinuguan, there were other ‘crispy’ items on the menu, actually. We tried an appetizer of Crispy Liempo. Then there’s Crispy Pata, Crispy Pork Binagoongan, Crispy Tenga (pork’s ears) and Crispy Tadyang.

The restaurant’s menu is quite long. Some are traditional favorites, while the others are unique twists to Filipino dishes, like the examples just cited.

Here’s what the resto recommends for first timers, aside from the usual ‘crispies’ and rice dishes:

Crispy Liempo and Thai Green Mango Salad for starters; Sinigang na Tadyang ng Baka or Salmon Belly in Miso for soup; Sigarilyas Express and Patola in Olive Oil for the veggies; and their signature dessert, Turon KC.

Turon is saba banana wrapped in spring roll and fried in caramelized sugar. At Kanin Club, it is even made more delicious with the addition of ube haleya, macapuno, sweetened red mongo beans and other ingredients usually reserved for another dessert, the Halo-Halo. The turon can be ordered with ice cream (a la mode) or without, but we preferred it in its pure form. It was a fitting end to our memorable meal at Kanin Club!

For reservations and inquiries, call Kanin Club:

In Laguna - (049) 544-0332

In Alabang - 771-1400

---

About the Author To change this standard text, you have to enter some information about your self in the Dashboard -> Users -> Your Profile box. Read more from this author

---