When you are far away from home, what do you do to ease your homesickness?
For me, apart from of course getting in touch with my family back home, I try to connect myself through one of my passions- food!
Authentic Batangueño Dishes
Batangas is a province in Luzon, just south of Manila. It prides itself of the beautiful Taal Volcano, the fiery Balisong knives, beautiful beaches, our thick Ala-Eh accent and a lot more.
Of course I have to mention food.
The Quest
Not long ago, when we moved to our new office location, we started looking out for great food havens around our area. You may have read my recent blog about the biryani spot we found. But before that, we already found this small eatery which serves authentic Batangeño food.
The place is not too big, it sits not more than 15 people if I estimated correctly. There are a few seats outdoors which of course cannot be used during the summer time. However, as we spoke to the staff, we found out that they mostly deal with take aways and home deliveries so seating is not really a big concern in their operations.
The chef and owner is from Lemery, Batangas, a town just next to mine. It was nice speaking to him and exchange light conversations about their place and some people we may mutually know.
And look! They even have the map of the province painted on their wall. It is so useful when talking to my colleagues and explaining where I live relative to Manila which is known to everyone.
The Menu
They serve ala-carte meals, all Fipilino dishes. They have different -silog varieties or fried rice (si) with egg (log) and other viands like tapa or bangus. We also earlier tried their pancit bihon which were also great and served in big portions to share.
However, I am more interested about their specialties- Batangas Lomi, Goto, Bulalo and Calderetang Kambing.
How authentic can they really be?
When we went there yesterday, we wanted to eat the calderetang kambing (goat meat stew) but it was not available, so we ordered the lomi instead.
Batangas Lomi
Lomi is egg noodles in thick sauce. The Batangas variety does not contain vegetables, only heaps of meat toppings like kikiam, fish/squid balls, chicharon, eggs and a lot more. Some restaurants' lomi even have tofu and lumpiang shanghai (spring rolls).
We ordered the double serving which is honestly good for more than two people (especially women trying to reduce weight) but 
The lomi is even nicer when you eat it with soy sauce plus chili and calamansi. Whoah! They have calamansi! Restaurants here normally serve condiments with lime or lemon so the calamansi gave the lomi a more authentic taste.
It was very filling, no doubt! Especially that we even ordered chicken siomai on the side. 😆
The Best Part ...
As if the great food is not enough, this restaurant offers free Batangas Brewed Coffee.
Put Batangas brewed coffee next to your favorite high end coffee shop's cafe Americano but I will still choose our own Barako. It's "no-match" in my humble opinion.
That's how great our native coffee is. I will bet on that.
We will definitely be back.
This restaurant definitely gives me a taste of home away from home.
We have been to this restaurant 4 times so far in the past 1.5 months and we will definitely be back. The food is good and affordable, not to mention the staff who not only are courteous but always have big smiles drawn on their faces too.
There's also still lots of other food on their menu we have to try. Hopefully the calderetang kambing will be available on our next visit.
Yay! I can't wait! 😉
How about you? What food are you missing from your home?
❤Arlyn
All photos are mine, taken via Samsung Galaxy note3.
