Friday dinner in Laguna
The drive from Makati to Calamba via C5 then SLEX took an hour—less than the ride from Quezon City to Makati on a weekday. The bottleneck started at the tollbooths, then when you hit Calamba proper the roads narrow. Ya know, if you’re going to build highways so we can get to our outlying towns and cities faster, why don’t you go ahead and widen the roads of the towns and cities along the highways? Anticipate progress. Don’t build a dinky road and then allow people to construct their houses smack alongside it. Think of the future, people, it’s big.
From Calamba it was a half-hour drive to San Pablo, to a restaurant called Sulyap. (In English, “Glance”.) Richard explained that the site used to be a school building. The restaurant owners were the distributors of Spanish wine hence the casks at the entrance. There’s a small dining area
and a large dining area.
Sulyap serves traditional Laguna recipes. This is their Pancit.
When Jose Rizal was living abroad he would write his brother Paciano to send him pancit noodles. We all agreed that without Paciano there would be no Jose Rizal—the support of his older brother allowed him to live and study in Europe. The Mercado-Rizal family was going through hard times; often Paciano had to scrape together the money for Jose’s upkeep but he always came through. They were the Theo and Vincent Van Gogh of Philippine history (except that Pepe didn’t go bonkers or slice his ear off).
There was Tilapia, fried fish poised for flight.
In Manila you can get this at Larry’s Way, Bistro Remedios, Cafe Juanita or Mesa.
There was a rich Kare-Kareng Sugpo (prawns), thick and gooey,
and Igado, which according to Jingjing is dinuguan without the blood.
It’s good! but I like my haemoglobin. The highlight of dinner was a local dish of coconut, banana hearts and pork called Kulawon.
I am genetically predisposed to love coconut as my ancestors are from Bicol. Everything my mother cooked had coconut and chili peppers in it, including Adobo. Kulawon would taste even better with chilis.
Afterwards I wandered around the small house. Pretty, pretty picture windows.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
June 12th, 2011 at 07:56
As a Laguna girl (I refuse to call myself a “Lagunense”) and a Los Banos resident, I would like to say THANK YOU for visiting our fair province and enjoying your trip… even if you had to go through that hidden circle of hell known as the Calamba bottleneck, which is basically the only route to SM. Hate hate hate HATE.
My Dad grew up in San Pablo, and Sulyap is one of his favorite restaurants. We actually had bangus and sinigang during our first visit, but we’ll make sure to get the Pansit and Kare-Kareng Sugpo next time. Plus my Dad is in love with their mango crepes – not exactly a “Laguna” thing, but it’s the only pastry-esque dessert that he will order deliberately.
And you’re right – Kulawo does taste better with a chili or two. And I say this as one who,until recently, has had an aversion to any main dish with coconut milk in it. (My Mom’s from Albay and is an expert in laing, and my Dad’s family – supposedly – makes good homemade kulawo, though I’m sure that Sulyap has ruined that for me.)
As always, you’re always welcome to visit us in Elbi… even if it means lining up for buko pie ;)
June 13th, 2011 at 10:06
I am from Calamba, but not from the town proper, but sometimes I have to commute to town. The biggest thing I hate about going home is the unnecessary heavy traffic on the 2 only roads from Manila going to town. Seriously, calling your town the “silicon valley of the Philippines” (yes, saw this on an official poster) and having really small, crappy roads? Ugh, easier to go to Alabang, Batangas, or Tagaytay, actually. But I bear it all just to go to Los Banos – I love the mountain view once you get past Calamba.
I have to go to that restaurant. That tilapia and sugpo are making me hungry (tilapia from Laguna is always good), and I have to try the kulawo! I’m planning to pass by when I go home on the weekend for a road trip and the Rizal 150th.
June 13th, 2011 at 16:00
Hay Laguna, I have fond memories of you… I would frequent that place almost as often as I would go to Pampanga (dad’s hometown).
My favorite would be when my high school buds needed to do a report about Rizal and we had to do actual research at their old house in Calamba. We had to re-enact the time when Rizal operated on his mother’s eyes. Where the heck are those photos kaya? My dad drove us to Laguna and took us to Magnetic hill at UPLB… He switched off the engine but the car still moved ehehe… Coolness!
Also, in one of the resorts there, I celebrated my 15 birthday. It was quite unforgettable. My cousins from the US came home and one of them had sore eyes. She jumped in the pool with the rest of us and we ended up (15 kids, 8 adults) with sore eyes. the next day. Epidemic lang! My relatives didn’t talk to me for a week haha! It wasn’t my fault!
Anyway, I had a lot of crazy episodes in Laguna hehe, let’s just put it at that. Good times!