Whoa! We’re doing all sorts of things that weren’t in the
blog description. Remember the PSA post? Totally out of character, right? Well
here’s more, a foodie post!
Last night, my girlfriend and I tried KKK. No, that’s not
the white supremacist group, but the restaurant at the basement of SM Megamall
B. KKK offers Filipino cuisine, taking both typical home cooking fare and fiesta (that’s feast day for you
Spanish-challenged folks out there) favorites
and giving them a crazy twist. How crazy? We didn’t order it, but their menu
boasts sinigang na lechon. Now, when
you say sinigang, it’s typically
stewed pork, cooked in broth and a sour tamarind base, with vegetables added in
for texture and variety. Lechon, put
simply, is a whole pig roasted over coals while constantly being moistened with
an herb sauce.
Now put both of them together. You now have herb-roasted pig
cut into chunks and cooked in sour, tamarind-flavored pork broth, vegetables,
and green peppers, served piping hot. Get your utensils and cups of rice, ladies
and gentlemen; we’re in for a long fight.
Again, this mythical masterpiece was not what we ordered
last night. We took our time looking at the menu and reading the Tagalog
descriptions of each item, snacking on free kropek
and herbed vinegar all the while. We had two ideas at the time – go for an
exotic dish and simple rice, or go for exotic rice and a familiar-sounding
viand. We chose the latter for this visit – next time, and I can guarantee
there’ll be a next time, we’ll go the other way!
We ordered KKK’s special rice, which is rice cooked with liempo bits and scallions (a platter of
which is good for 2-3 people depending on their appetites), bottomless tanglad (lemongrass) iced tea, and KKK’s
bistek (a corruption of the words
“beef steak”) flakes. We were totally
not prepared for it. The rice was good enough to eat on its own, the tanglad drink had me wondering why not
every restaurant that served iced tea wasn’t offering it, and the flakes – oh
wow, the beef flakes. It would be better I think to call them crispy beef
strings, because that’s what they were.
 |
| Front row: bottomless tanglad iced tea. Back row: KKK's special rice (bowl), bistek flakes (plate). Not shown: free kropek and vinegar. |
If I’m any judge, they prepared bistek the traditional way, marinating it with soy sauce and
pepper, frying it to a crisp, and then shredding it. Once shredding was done,
they drizzled some sweet sauce (quite possibly the same mix the beef was
marinated in) onto a plate, arranged some chopped onions and tomatoes on it,
and placed a heaping pile of beef awesomeness over the garnish. Genius!
 |
| It's eat or be eaten! Strike now! A close-up of the bistek flakes tower. |
It’s hard not to like KKK. The decorations are amazing, from
the colored bottle light pieces hanging over our heads, the dried straw / leaf
lattice on the walls evoking the feel of a bahay
kubo (nipa grass hut), the paired papier-mâché dolls on the tables, to the counter that looks like someone
cleaved a jeepney in half and took the left side to use as decoration. The
staff was attentive, and two of the waiters looked like a comedy act waiting to
happen, even as they seriously went about their duties. Perhaps it’s their
faces – one of them looks like he’s just barely keeping a grin from breaking
out, while with the other guy’s face makes you wonder why he’s waiting tables
in a mid-range mall restaurant, instead of living off his looks.
KKK was a
surprisingly pleasant experience. The place was charming, the staff was great,
and the food was how I like my red (Magic:
The Gathering) creatures – cheap and awesome. In six weeks time, or
whenever my buddies decide to have a meet-up, I’ll take them to KKK and split
the sinigang na lechon three ways – I
can’t wait to see their expressions and hear their opinions.
